English Language Arts

    Meghan Wolf - Content Specialist

    Our Goal

    The goal of the Pre-K–12 English Language Arts program is to create literate, thoughtful communicators, capable of controlling language effectively as they negotiate an increasingly complex and information-rich world. Students will refine specific skills and strategies in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing and will use these skills and strategies widely as tools for learning and reflection. Exploring a variety of texts, students will understand and appreciate language and literature as catalysts for deep thought and emotion.

    English: 

    Each of the English classes at GMS provide students with opportunities to read and write within the main text types: informational, narrative, and argumentative. The units for each grade are as follows: 

     

    Grade 6

    Grade 7

    Grade 8

    MP1

    Focus Area: Fiction 

    Focus Area: Fiction

    Focus Area: Fiction

    Guiding Question: How can an unexpected event turn into a major challenge? 

    Guiding Question: What happens when differences become conflicts?

    Guiding Question: How do writers keep their readers in suspense?

    MP2

    Focus Area: Poetry

    Focus Area: Poetry

    Focus Area: Poetry

    Guiding Question: How do relationships help us better understand the world around us?

    Guiding Question: What do we learn from life’s highs and lows?

    Guiding Question: What is the power of language?

    MP3

    Focus Area: Informational

    Focus Area: Argumentative

    Focus Area: Informational

    Guiding Question: What motivates us to conquer feelings of uncertainty?

    Guiding Question: What is a change your school should make to improve the student experience?

    Guiding Question: What happens when we take risks?

    MP4

    Focus Area: Argumentative

    Focus Area: Informational

    Focus Area: Argumentative

    Guiding Question: What makes a text valuable and relevant to students? 

    Guiding Question: How can one key event or moment change everything?

    Guiding Question: How do we use words effectively to convince others?

     

    Reading: 

    GMS is proud to offer two comprehensive and evidenced based reading interventions to address the two major areas of reading difficulty: comprehension and decoding. 

    HD Word

    (Decoding)

    Read 180
    (Comprehension)

    HD Word is produced by Really Great Reading and provides a systematic learning sequence to allow students to quickly acquire phonics skills. With practice in phonological awareness, phonics, morphology, and spelling, students progress through phonics concepts to more fluently read texts. 

    Read 180 is an intervention focusing on the comprehension of texts. Students take part in high-interest workshops that require application of vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension strategies to read and respond to texts.