Language Arts

Primary School

Grade two: This course prepares students to be lifelong readers and writers. Students learn reading and writing strategies that help them succeed in a literacy-driven world. Students master various forms of writing, including summaries, letters, short stories, and text-based analysis paragraphs. Our grade two students leave this program with a voracious passion for both reading and writing!

Middle School Balanced Literacy Program (Language Arts Grades 4-7)

This course is designed to gradually deepen students’ literacy skills in the areas of reading, writing, speaking/listening, and language development. This is taught using an integrated format appropriate to the students’ grade level. An emphasis on vocabulary and composition skills and the development of critical reading and writing skills is a major emphasis of the course and is an on-going part of the program. Course components include the study of rich and varied literary and informational texts; writing in the genres of argumentative, informative/explanatory, narrative, and summaries of reading materials; and direct instruction in language arts skills and strategies.

Grade 8

The Grade 8 English class is designed as a balanced literacy program. Students work on developing their communication skills while participating in a broad range of literature. Throughout the semester, listening, speaking, critical thinking, reading and writing skills are reinforced, along with spelling, grammar and vocabulary. Students practise all stages of the writing process as they experiment with a wide variety of writing, including: paragraph writing, multi-paragraph compositions, personal response, and creative writing. Regular classroom activities include silent reading, discussion, independent and group study and a variety of exercises.