Middle School English Language Arts

In the Middle School, language classes meet twice a day with the same teacher. Remediation of language deficits is conducted within this small group of no more than eight students. Students are directly taught the structure of language to improve their reading, writing, comprehension, and communication skills. New skills are practiced with teacher guidance, and students are expected to master these skills for independent application. Students practice reading and writing daily and learn to comprehend at the word, sentence, paragraph, and whole text levels. Students are directly taught the structure of both fiction and non-fiction text, and ample opportunities are provided to apply and reinforce this knowledge.

The Carroll School Writing Curriculum is a strong component of the language department. Our primary function is to foster expository writing skills in the Middle School using The Writing Process. These skills initially focus upon the formation of one paragraph compositions, which evolve to three and multi-paragraphed prose. With a clear focus and objective, students write essays beginning at the sixth grade level using:

• Description
• Persuasion
• Narration
• Cause and effect
• Comparison/contrast

A research paper in eighth grade exposes students to this format before they leave The Carroll School.