Academics: Language Arts

Sixth and Seventh Grades
Language arts classes help each student to meet his/her writing potential. The writing focus is primarily on three modes of writing: narrative, informative and persuasive. Students' scores reflect those standards of Pennsylvania and of Souderton Area School District which are based in the five domains of focus, content, organization, style and conventions.

Students study literature including novels, short stories, essays, poetry, and plays. They analyze relationships and uses of literary elements and discuss the effectiveness of those elements. Students participate in whole class and small group discussions while involved in the study of literature.

Characteristics and functions of the English language are studied. Students become familiar with the eight parts of speech, rules of capitalization and punctuation and the parts of a sentence.

Instructional Policy for Vocabulary in Grades 6 and 7
The core of our vocabulary program is teaching word structure using prefixes, suffixes, and roots in the context of word families. As an extension of reading workshop, students self-select authentic words in context from fiction and non-fiction reading selections. Student vocabulary acquisition is assessed through quizzes.