ENGLISH 6-12

ENGLISH 6-122023-12-12T09:48:18-05:00

Secondary English Language Arts Mission Statement

The mission of the Secondary (6-12) English Language Arts Department is to provide instructional leadership in English Language Arts that supports district school communities in preparing students for college and career. We collaborate with teachers and other stakeholders to build their capacity to respond to student needs by providing standards-based curriculum documents and assessments and professional development in effective research-based literacy strategies, so that all students graduate with the requisite communication skills to become contributing members of society.

Secondary English Language Arts Vision Statement

We believe that providing every student with a rigorous curriculum designed to advance students through the grades and master the NJ Student Learning Standards for English Language Arts in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language will prepare them for the complexities and increasing demands of the 21st Century. From grade 6 through grade 12, students will increasingly:

  • demonstrate independence
  • understand one’s own thought process
  • build strong content knowledge
  • respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline
  • comprehend as well as critique
  • value evidence
  • use technology and digital media strategically and capably
  • come to understand other perspectives and cultures

You Should Know

To learn more about the Common Core State Standards Initiative, please visit the following website: www.corestandards.org

Here to Assist You

Hutchins Latasha,
Secretary Ext 1670

children_rdng
Once you learn to read,
you will be forever free.

Frederick Douglas

Our primary goal is to develop proficiency in the skills of Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening, and Language to ensure that our students are Career and College Ready, and therefore able to:

• Demonstrate Independence,

• Build Strong Content Knowledge

• Respond to the Varying Demands of Audience, Task, Purpose, and Discipline,

• Comprehend As Well As Critique,

• Value Evidence,

• Use Technology and Digital Media Strategically and Capably

• Come to Understand Other Perspectives and Cultures

The following are Key Features of the English Language Arts Standards for Kindergarten through Grade 12:

Reading (Literature and Informational Texts & Foundational Skills for Kindergarten through Grade 5): Text Complexity and the growth of comprehension

  • Writing: Text types, responding to reading, and research
  • Speaking and Listening: Flexible communication and collaboration
  • Language: Conventions, effective use, and vocabulary
  • Literacy in History/Social Studies Grades 6-12
  • Literacy in Science and Technical Subjects 6-12

The reading program uses a balanced literacy approach that includes the following components: read alouds, shared reading, guided reading, literature study, and independent reading. The program integrates history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Also, it provides a wide range of informational and narrative genres in a readers’ workshop environment which includes class, small group, and individualized instruction and learning.

The writing program is implemented in a writer’s workshop environment where students learn components of good writing, use computers to research and write, and produce writing on a given topic during the writing process.

Speaking & Listening and Language are integrated in the reading and writing programs in grades K- 12.

Online Resources: Free Sites for online book reading. Other sites will be added as they become available by review of the ELA Supervisor K-5.

www.textproject.org

Text Project provides a world of open-access resources for teachers, parents, tutors and students.

www.bookadventure.com

Book Adventure is a fun, free way to motivate children to read! Kids in grades K-8 can search for books, read them offline, and come back to quiz on what they’ve read.

www.readingbear.org

Reading Bear is a fun way to learn to read. Over 1,200 vocabulary items are taught and sounded out. The 50 presentations cover all the main phonics rules.

http://www.mnh.si.edu/panoramas/

The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History offers comprehensive virtual tours allowing visitors using a desktop computer (Windows, Mac, Linux) or a mobile device (iPhone, iPad, Android) to take a virtual, self-guided, room-by-room walking tour of the whole museum. You can even browse a list of past exhibits, which is included on the ground floor map (see upper right map buttons).  The visitor can navigate from room to room by clicking map locations or by following blue arrow links on the floor that connect the rooms. The desktop version includes camera icons to indicate hotspots where the visitor can get a close-up view of a particular object or exhibit panel.

http://pbskids.org/read/

Play, explore and read with PBS kids.

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