【English Language Arts】（ELA）

Standards: Common Core State Standards

Assessment: Portfolio of reading and writing

The International curriculum in this course is designed to immerse students in the joys of extended reading and the challenges of proficient writing. The goal is to help the students grow and develop these abilities as well as cultivate critical thinking skills to help them succeed in middle school. The course employs the use of the workshop model from ColumbiaUniversity, which prioritizes students taking notes and filling out notebooks as a benchmark of measuring progress.

In grade 6, awide variety of mini-lessons, mentor texts, multimedia, and teacher guidance are used in order to support the student in this course, with the aim of setting them up to succeed in future middle school and high school English classes.

In grade 7 and 8，studentswill developtheircomprehension and analyses skills that will lastthema lifetime.This coursewill build onstudents'current skills through upbeat writing workshops, novel studies, and creative writing.Itwill continue to growstudents’English language skills through the exploration of words allowing their power to expand and add color totheirimaginations.Studentswill spend time reading a variety of texts as a class, in groups and individually.Theywill discover the joy and creativity that can be a part of the writing, reading, and thinking process.

Themain units in reading include Investigating Characterization: Author Studies and Historical Fiction Book Clubsas well as a drama unit in G7 andA Novel Approach, Dystopian Book Clubs, and Critical Literacyin G8.The main units in writing includeWriting Realistic Fiction,Writing About Reading, and The Art of Argument: Research-Based Essaysin G7 andInvestigative Journalism, The Literary Essay, and Position Papers: Research and Argumentin G8.