Junior High Language Arts
LANGUAGE ARTS 7 & 8
The Language Arts curriculum is comprised of the strands of reading, writing, viewing, speaking, listening, and representing. Students will explore novels, short stories, films, poems and a variety of other texts as readers and thinkers. As writers, speakers and creators, classroom activities involve a number of projects and tasks, with the opportunity to demonstrate critical thinking and creativity related to a number of themes. To support your child’s success, reading at home is an important extension of Language Arts. Students are encouraged to read at home at least thirty minutes a day in addition to participating in independent reading in the classroom. A variety of assessments will be used, with a heavy emphasis on formative work, focused on skill building and feedback. Our intention is to encourage the development of a community of readers and writers who appreciate texts and are also able to produce a variety of products to communicate effectively.
LANGUAGE ARTS 9
The Grade 9 Language Arts Program continues to develop concepts and skills in reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing and representing. Students also explore the concepts of effective descriptive, narrative, expository and persuasive paragraphs, and essays. The main focus of the course will be the study of literature including the appreciation and analysis of the novel, short story, non-fiction, drama, film and poetry. However, literacy is best supported through daily reading beyond the classroom, as students who read daily are able to see examples of writing to help them explore them in their own work, as well as develop vocabulary. Cross-curricular opportunities with Social Studies in our text exploration will also be encouraged to deepen conceptual understanding. A suggested reading list will be provided to students.