Language Arts

In language arts classes, Park students experience reading and writing as both art and craft. Each year, students receive direct instruction in reading strategies designed to enhance reading comprehension.

Students read novels, short stories, essays, plays, and poetry as a whole class. Student-selected reading and library time support students’ development as readers and help them confidently approach a variety of genres and authors for enjoyment and deeper understanding. 

Students explore all stages of the writing process including brainstorming, planning, drafting, revising, and editing for grammar and mechanics. They explore many genres each year, including poetry, memoir, fiction, essays, argument, and writing based on research. In addition to whole-class assignments, students have the chance to try their own independent writing projects. 

Sixth Grade Language Arts

The sixth grade theme is community. Throughout the year, study of the theme is integrated through the reading and writing in the class. Recent class texts have included The Kite Fighters, The Arrival, and How I Discovered Poetry. Students also read short stories, essays, newspaper articles, and poetry while working with reading strategies that help students improve reading comprehension skills. 

Along with reading across genre, students write across genre (poetry, memoir, short story, essay) throughout the year. There is an emphasis on the writing process. Students experiment with many different pre-writing strategies before drafting in order to identify the strategies that work best for them. Grammar instruction is connected to their writing so there is a direct, practical application while drafting, revising, and editing. 

Seventh Grade Language Arts

Seventh grade language arts students explore the theme of identity through the following essential questions:

Students explore this theme by working with a variety of texts, including novels, short stories, plays, poems, essays, and memoirs. Recent whole-class works included Chains, The Diary of Anne Frank, and How I Discovered Poetry. Students also read independent selections and in small groups. These texts allow students to study literary and poetic elements, structure, diction, and characterization. Students respond to texts through dialectical journal entries, discussion, and analytical writing. As students develop their skills for writing literary analysis, they gain a mastery of developing and composing an opinion, supporting their opinion with evidence, and using writing mechanics to strengthen the effectiveness of their writing. Thus, they work to hone the stages and components of effective essay writing. Students continue to write across a variety of genres, including but not limited to narrative, expository, persuasive, and descriptive writing.

Eighth Grade Language Arts

The work in language arts is tied to the eighth grade theme of advocacy, or the power of the individual or groups to effect change. 

Each of the thematic units is centered on an essential question: 

Our class texts have included To Kill a Mockingbird, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Out of My Mind, Flowers for Algernon, The Stranger, and The Alchemist. There is also the continued focus on independent reading to further develop reader identity and enjoyment of reading. All year long, students work with the writing process from a variety of approaches. They write almost daily in language arts, working through different stages of the writing process to create pieces across many genres. In addition to literary analysis, poetry, and memoir, eighth grade students write pieces in their choice of forms and genres. They also study specific topics of syntax and mechanics to clarify how language works and how authors make choices to use language to convey story or ideas.