LANGUAGE ARTS CURRICULUM

GRADES 9 – 12

This curriculum is designed to provide students with appropriate reading and writing skill development as well as an introduction to selected literary genres. Emphasis will be placed upon the development of expository writing skills, speaking and listening skills, enhanced vocabulary proficiency, and elements of basic research.

Students read and interpret a variety of literature including Romeo and Juliet, The Chocolate War, The Call of the Wild, various short stories such as The Most Dangerous Game, The Scarlet Ibis, The Interlopers, Through the Tunnel, and A Christmas Memory. Various types of folklore are also read and interpreted, as well as numerous examples of poetry. Throughout the year, students focus on identifying main ideas, supportive details, important themes, patterns of organization, as well as the author’s purpose and style. Vocabulary is drawn from both the works studied and SAT word lists.

Writing activities include opportunities for students to react to literature, to conduct research, and to think about their feelings and the events and people in their lives, in both a social and vocational setting. Additionally, students learn strategies to assist them in writing clearly and in crafting their texts with appropriate conventions of spelling, grammar, and punctuation as they revise, edit, and publish. Timed, in-class writing exercises enable students to think, organize, and write “on-call”. Students are repeatedly encouraged to question and interpret using their “core-knowledge” base, therein, allowing them not only the opportunity to share their views and opinions with their classmates, but to consider classmates’ opinions and views as well. Interpretation of literature is based not only vocationally, but also on the hidden-curriculum, therein allowing students to understand their purpose for engaging in said activities.

Students continue to refine listening and speaking skills and to become more sophisticated in their understanding and application of non-textual information. Activities such as presentations, panel discussions, group projects and theatrical performance reinforce these skills.