Language Arts
The fifth through eighth grade Language Arts curriculum builds on the basic skills and concepts developed in earlier grades. Students learn to expand their persuasive writing capabilities, incorporate systematic research into projects, and to develop and support ideas with details, reasons, and examples. Students delve deeply into literary analysis and oral presentation technique, while also maintaining a focus on the essentials of grammar, spelling, and vocabulary. The goal of the Language Arts curriculum is to nurture students’ intrinsic desire to learn by offering content and choices that will challenge and inspire their growing curiosity.
Fifth Grade
In fifth grade, students focus on organization of thoughts and ideas in writing, public speaking, research, poetry and literature. A highlight of the fifth grade curriculum is the final Country Report. The students learn about non-western countries through exposure to literature and research based reading.Ultimately the year culminates with students presenting their research paper content through a final PowerPoint presentation.
Units include:
- Writer’s Notebook
- Public Speaking
- Poetry
“The best way for me to sum up my nine years at the Day School is by quoting somebody I truly admire, William Shakespeare, ‘I shall the effect of this good lesson keep as watchman to my heart.’” – HMJDS Student
Sixth Grade
Sixth grade Language Arts centers on conflict and resolution. Students look at how heroes in literature endure or overcome obstacles. They examine bias and controversy in journalism in preparation for a central unit on Ethics in which they examine multiple points of view and then formulate their own opinions. The year ends with an examination of the build-up to the Holocaust, a reflection on loss and inheritance, and our own duty—and privilege—to remember people who came before us. As students learn to grapple with difficult issues and gray areas, they stretch themselves as writers, readers, thinkers.
Units include:
- Journalism
- Hero’s journey
- Ethical issues
Seventh Grade
Through a series of differentiated literature units, seventh graders make connections between the themes in literature to the social and historical contexts that the texts represent. Students increase their abilities to critically analyze more complex pieces of literature. As students read more complex pieces of literature, they continue to develop academic reading strategies to maintain reading for meaning.
Units include:
- Justice
- Immigration
- Comparative Essays
Eighth Grade
Eighth graders are exposed to a wealth of classic literature including texts by Steinbeck and Shakespeare. Theater helps students bring literature alive. Students build upon skills of note-taking and citation protocols as they embark on the research process. Eighth graders participate in a month long writers workshop where their creative voice takes flight as they refine vocabulary and grammar skills.
Units include:
- Frontiers
- Science and Religion
- Persuasive Writing