ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS OVERVIEW

Difficulties with reading and writing bring intelligent children to Carroll School. Orton-Gillingham, an approach born from informed empirical observation and now confirmed by brain-based research addresses reading and writing instruction for children with language disabilities, such as dyslexia. The Orton-Gillingham approach permeates the entire Carroll School curriculum. In a day with seven periods, each child enjoys three daily Language Classes. This part of The Carroll School program focuses on each student learning to read for meaning and to express himself in writing.

The Carroll School language program works to help the child take control of the language issues that impact their reading and writing. It is understood that oral language perception and expression underlie success with print. Accurate speech perception or phonemic awareness, oral syntax, vocabulary and comprehension form a foundation of skills necessary for both reading and writing; these can be taught. For over forty years, educators at Carroll have understood that effective language instruction needs to focus on many levels.  Orton-Gillingham’s cornerstones in phonology (the sound-symbol relationships of reading), morphology (how words change with prefixes and suffixes) and orthography (the way words are spelled) are extraordinary. To this base we have added strong instruction in syntax (sentence structure, text structure, and grammar), semantics (morphology, vocabulary and comprehension).  All of these language skills affect listening and reading comprehension and written expression.

Written expression is the pinnacle of integrated cognitive processes, language, and transcription skills. The Carroll School approach breaks this amalgam down, teaching on the word, sentence and text level. In each domain, process and skills are directly taught and appropriate tools are built into those processes. Our goal in The Carroll School language program is to equip each individual student with the language and cognitive skills and strategies that will enable that individual to realistically and confidently pursue learning for the rest of their lives. This mission of the Carroll language department is echoed and reinforced through each child’s day in all subject areas.