LANGUAGE FOCUS AREA (LFA) CLASSES

After a student has mastered decoding, the English Language Arts programs in the Middle School focus on teaching each student fluency, learning to read for meaning, and expressing himself or herself in writing.

Language Focus Areas (LFA)
Each student in the Middle School has three periods of language a day: two periods in his/her primary English Language Arts class, and one period in his/her Language Focus Area (LFA) class. Based on teacher and tutor recommendations, end of the year assessments and more, students are assigned to the appropriate LFA class. The course titles vary depending on the needs of the students. For example, some courses have been combined, such as Fluency & Comprehension, in order to meet the individual needs of our students. In addition to the courses listed below, students may be assigned to a 1-1 Orton-Gillingham tutorial.

Current Course Offerings: (2010-2011)

• Fluency
  This class focuses on improving a student's oral reading fluency (accuracy, rate and expression). During class, various activities aim at improving reading fluency. Decoding skills are reinforced and common non-phonetic words are drilled to achieve automatic word-recognition. Text may be varied and include monologues, short stories, poems, novel and plays. Read Naturally software may be used, allowing students to monitor for accuracy and rate as they progress through increasingly difficult levels of factual articles.
• Comprehension & Vocabulary
  This LFA course places a primary focus on basic comprehension tasks such as following directions and identifying important information in text. Specific strategies for monitoring reading for meaning and comprehension are modeled and directly taught. Project Read methods, introduced in history classes, may also reinforced. Vocabulary development is emphasized through direct instruction of word part meaning (prefix, suffix, root), multiple meaning words, idioms, signal words (related to text structure), and content area words.
• Reinforcing Revision Skills (RRS)
  This LFA class is designed to directly teach writing revision strategies, provide concrete examples, and offer frequent opportunities for application to the students' own previously completed work. Activities will focus on basic skills (mechanics of writing) as well as on increasing flexibility and variety relative to word choice and sentence structure. Guidance and support will be provided for the integration of grammar learned in primary language classes.
• Organization & Study Skills
  This LFA class is designed to provide students with explicit instruction of study skills. Techniques and strategies for organization, time management, following directions, checking comprehension, text book use, memory, test preparation, metacognition, and note-taking are emphasized based on student need. When necessary for success, this course also provides support and strategies for students who struggle significantly with homework issues. Opportunity is available for guided application and practice of study skills in a quiet structured environment as students work toward improved planning, self-monitoring, and independent homework compliance.
• Writing Structure
  This class is designed to reinforce the writing process that is explicitly taught & practiced in the students' primary language class. Students will practice planning for and writing various kinds of paragraphs. Proceeding through the initial stages of the writing process, planning, organizing and drafting, students will use tools and strategies to compose structured paragraphs with a topic and concluding sentence and supporting details. Strategies for maintaining focus, for varying sentence structure and for writing summaries will also be practiced. Technology is used to support writing skills.
• Writing Composition (Grade 8)
  This course is designed for students who have completed two years of Reinforcing Revision Skills (RRS) or are identified as appropriate. The purpose is to reinforce the application of writing and revision skills by providing students with various opportunities to write in diverse forms for varied audiences. Forms include expository writing (factual essays) as well as creative writing assignments and projects. Students proceed through the five stages of the writing process to produce well-crafted written assignments. Topics may reflect curriculum from content-area courses, and when appropriate, the course may support written assignments from other classes.
• Plus 2/Integration of Speech & Language
  The Plus 2 classes are developed to address the needs of students with communication concerns that impact learning & effective expression. The skills emphasized might include interpersonal communication, self-advocacy, comprehension, auditory processing, social pragmatics and/or word retrieval. Students are grouped based on a similarity of profile/needs, a primary focus is determined, and two classes per week are planned and co-taught by the language teacher and speech & language pathologist.

Current Combination Offerings:

In addition, any combination of two classes listed above can be combined into one class offering. Some examples of these combinations are:

• Fluency with Comprehension & Vocabulary
• Fluency with Organization Strategies & Study Skills
• Comprehension & Vocabulary with RRS
• RRS with Organization Strategies & Study Skills
• Writing Structure with Fluency

How are students placed into courses?
A number of considerations, based on student observations and teacher and tutor recommendations, are taken into account when determining the best LFA for each student. The list of course offerings is considered a 'working' list because it may change based on the student’s individual needs.