We invite our students — as readers, writers, speakers, and critics — into a lively and ever-evolving conversation about literature and reading.
Reading Between the Lines
In Middle School, our literature-based curriculum builds the academic and literary skills of our students. As they learn to make connections between texts and across disciplines, students also build their independence and confidence as readers and writers. In shifting their study from writing the perfect paragraph to composing the five-paragraph essay, they practice literary analysis and master techniques for incorporating evidence into essays. In addition, students develop their own voice, incorporating the sensory language and details that bring their words to life on the page. Above all else, students expand their appreciation and love for language and literature, becoming lifelong readers and skilled writers in the process.
Accordion
The English 6 curriculum puts into place a foundation for subsequent work in Middle School English. Students learn to identify and use parts of speech properly and to understand structural parts and types of sentences through diagramming. They write short compositions with an emphasis on paragraph structure, and they learn to edit their work. Students read short novels, poetry, and short stories.
This course continues to help students develop their communication, analytical, and critical thinking skills. Writing instruction focuses on ideas, organization, and voice in both creative and expository modes including literary essays. Sentence fluency and conventions are taught through writing and grammar lessons. Speaking skills are developed through class discussions, both individual and group projects, and presentations.
This course centers on American literature in conjunction with students’ focus on American history in social studies. Students continue to develop their vocabulary and active reading skills and are encouraged to relate the ideas in the literature to their own experiences and historical themes.
This required course gives students the opportunity to develop self-expression through different modes of writing, including letters to authors, personal essays, opinion pieces and editorials, poetry, and short fiction. Students also read as working writers to develop a sense of style and technique.
To prepare students for the transition to Upper School English, the English 8 curriculum emphasizes the development of critical reading, writing, and thinking skills. The writing process is taught explicitly with special attention to the construction of the five-paragraph essay. Grammar and vocabulary drawn from course literary works are also integrated into the curriculum. The literature units focus on works dealing with power dynamics, leadership and social groups, and provide numerous opportunities for interdisciplinary connections with History 8.
Students in this elective course produce the Middle School’s online newspaper, “The Hive.” They study journalistic writing, and they learn how to research, report, photograph, check facts, write leads, edit, lay out and post on-line their publication under the pressure of time. They learn about the value of their press freedoms under the First Amendment, as well as how to work as a team and to carry out their duties under the strictures of sound journalistic ethics. The class also focuses on a continued approach to developing excellent writing skills and the ability to analyze data and information critically and objectively.
Students in this elective course develop their own writing “voice” as they acquire skill with writing modes other than those ordinarily covered in required English classes. As they craft poems, short stories, and plays, they learn about the choices working writers must make. Students maintain a portfolio of their work and are given an opportunity to share it with the larger school community.