Over the course of Grade 6, students are challenged to build up their reading and writing skills and abilities in a supportive, collaborative classroom community. Starting with personal narrative writing and progressing to essays, students have the opportunity to develop as reflective, thoughtful writers. The course includes whole class novel units, various genres in the anthology, as well as other literature and nonfiction readings. Exposure to a variety of genres thrusts the class into powerful learning through critical thinking, meaningful dialogue, various student-to-student exchanges, and literary responses. Beginning with the personal and advancing toward more analytical conceptions of reading, students embrace the various aspects of intellectual analysis. Lessons in vocabulary and grammar complete the language arts curriculum.

Over the course of Grade 6, students are challenged to build up their reading and writing skills and abilities in a supportive, collaborative classroom community. Starting with personal narrative writing and progressing to essays, students have the opportunity to develop as reflective, thoughtful writers. The course includes whole class novel units, various genres in the anthology, as well as other literature and nonfiction readings. Exposure to a variety of genres thrusts the class into powerful learning through critical thinking, meaningful dialogue, various student-to-student exchanges and literary responses. Beginning with the personal and advancing toward more analytical conceptions of reading, students embrace the various aspects of intellectual analysis. Lessons in vocabulary and grammar complete the language arts curriculum. The honors level class engages more challenging texts, pushing students to stretch their intellectual limits, and the highest standards and expectations of student writing.

In Grade 7, students continue to develop their skills in reading, writing and thinking as they explore the elements of literature through interactions with various literary styles and genres that include short stories, novels, poetry, drama and nonfiction. Students focus on the steps of the writing process in order to develop more advanced writing skills. Through sustained work with the writing process, students acquire and reinforce writing conventions and grammatical usage. A year-long portfolio tracks their progress in reading and writing. Lessons in vocabulary and grammar round out the language arts curriculum.

In Grade 7, students continue to develop their skills in reading, writing and thinking as they explore the elements of literature through interactions with various literary styles and genres that include short stories, novels, poetry, drama and nonfiction. Students focus on the steps of the writing process in order to develop more advanced writing skills. Through sustained work with the writing process, students acquire and reinforce writing conventions and grammatical usage. A year-long portfolio tracks their progress in reading and writing. Lessons in vocabulary and grammar round out the language arts curriculum. The honors level class engages more challenging texts, pushing students to stretch their intellectual limits, and maintains even higher standards and expectations of student writing.

The Grade 8 English course integrates themes in literature with real-life experiences and the studentsäó» personal lives. The curriculum continues the development of skills learned in earlier years. Students analyze literature in depth, write five-paragraph essays with emphasis on thesis statements, evidentiary support, introductory and concluding paragraph development, and strengthened editing and revising skills. They also continue responding to literature, writing various types of poetry and creative writing, with a focus on vocabulary development and continuous application of grammar and mechanical skills within their writing. The curriculum is interdisciplinary with the Grade 8 humanities themes, and is designed to introduce many aspects of classic and contemporary literature and relate them to current issues and studentsäó» roles as citizens of the world and as Jews.

The Grade 8 English Honors course integrates themes in literature with real-life experiences and the studentsäó» personal lives. The curriculum continues the development of skills learned in earlier years. Students analyze literature in depth, write five-paragraph essays with emphasis on thesis statements, evidentiary support, introductory and concluding paragraph development, and strengthened editing and revising skills. They also continue responding to literature, writing various types of poetry and creative writing, with a focus on vocabulary development and continuous application of grammar and mechanical skills within their writing. The curriculum is interdisciplinary with the Grade 8 humanities themes, and is designed to introduce many aspects of classic and contemporary literature and relate them to current issues and studentsäó» roles as citizens of the world and as Jews. The honors level class engages more challenging texts, pushing students to stretch their intellectual limits, and maintains even higher standards and expectations of student writing.

Grade 6 students with identified reading and writing areas for improvement take an additional English class that is tailored to their specific literacy needs. Individual instruction is based on data-informed decisions to enhance areas of reading and writing. Reading instruction focuses on comprehension skills with some work on word attack and fluency skills. Writing skills are taught in a writeräó»s workshop style which includes conferencing and developing self-awareness of strengths and areas to improve followed by direct instruction and practice of these areas. This involves looking at work already completed and revising it in order to build writing skills in a meaningful, deliberate manner. Ultimately, the goal of the course is to further develop independence, self-awareness, confidence and abilities in reading and writing.