Language Arts
Because language is the most powerful, most readily available tool we have for communicating God's love to the world, we believe that encouraging and enabling students to learn to use language effectively is one of our most important tasks as a Christian school. In our language arts program we teach children to effectively express the language through speaking and writing as well as to effectively receive it by listening and reading.
Primary - In kindergarten, a strong foundation is laid for learning to read through phonemic awareness and beginning phonetic analysis. First and second graders continue building their word recognition skills through phonetic and structural analysis of words. The skills and mechanics of reading and writing in the primary grades are taught within a literature-rich environment where comprehension is the goal for learning to read.
Upper Elementary - Reading to learn and writing to communicate are the two major skills at the heart of the middle grades' language arts program. In grades three, four and five, grammar, mechanics and usage, word and sentence structure, and research and study skills are all part of the language arts program that uses a process approach as its framework. Students are taught to read for comprehension, using a wide variety of literature types from which they summarize, synthesize and evaluate ideas in teacher and peer led groups.
Middle School - Students in grades six, seven and eight are taught to recognize and define the eight parts of speech and to write coherent, well-developed paragraphs, essays, stories and letters giving attention to spelling, mechanics and correct word usage. They are taught to use correct patterns of spoken English and to enjoy the playfulness of the English language and its poetic forms. In their reading, they are taught comprehension skills that enable them to interpret what they read beyond the factual literal levels. They are introduced to numerous literary figures and their literature such as C. S. Lewis, Robert Frost, and John Steinbeck.