Language Arts
Our Textbooks
My Perspectives is a language program that is full of interesting stories. You will read things from an author’s perspective as you read literature from across time periods and cultures. As a class we will engage in meaningful activities that inspire thoughtful conversation, discussions, and debates. Reading, writing, speaking, and listening are all integrated in our textbook. Through exploration of many different types of literature you will analyze texts through the eyes of both a reader and a writer.
Our study of the Elements of Language will help you grow in mastering the English language. You will learn how to make your writing correct and polished as you study the nuts and bolts of grammar and word usage. You will study the parts of speech, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, and more. You will also improve in your writing skills as you learn to construct clear and effective sentences and paragraphs.
Our Novel Studies
The first novel we’ll study will be Prince Caspian, the fourth book in C. S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia series. The story features the return of the four Pevensie children to Narnia after their first adventure in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It’s been about year since that story ended, when they were just returning to school after their summer break. Hmmm …. sounds like a great way for us to begin our year!
Later in the year we’ll study Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. It’s an exciting survival novel about a thirteen year old boy named Brian Robeson who finds himself completely alone in the Canadian wilderness after surviving a plane crash. With only a hatchet as his tool he overcomes the incredible challenges and dangers of living alone in the wild. He learns about self-reliance, gratitude, nature, and most of all … himself.
Writing Creative Stories
An exciting and fun element of our Language Arts class is writing creative stories throughout the year. It’s a great way to let our imaginations soar as we implement the skills we’ll be learning.
We will write two research papers this year!
The first will be a persuasive essay as part of a county-wide Law Day essay contest. You will have the opportunity to research and then write an essay on a topic related to democracy in the United States. The cool thing about this essay is that the winners receive cash prizes! One of our 6th graders last year won $150!!
The second research paper will be on a country of your choice. This will be a full research report including note cards, writing a rough draft, a bibliography page, and so on. You will use the skills you learn writing this project throughout your entire academic life.
AR Reading
What is AR Reading?
AR Reading, or Accelerated Reader, is a program Parkway uses to monitor reading practice and progress. It helps teachers guide students to books that are at their individual reading level. Students take short quizzes after reading a book to check if they’ve understood it.
AR is part of students’ Language Arts grade.
Each semester students will have their own individualized AR reading goal. This goal is set by the reading specialists of our school library staff. They include a target number of points, goals for reading comprehension, and difficulty of material. The goals are based on the child’s reading level. At the end of each semester students receive an AR grade which is factored into their classroom Language Arts grade.
Students will be given class time for AR reading. We will have study hall periods each week. The first twenty minutes of these will be devoted to silent reading in their AR books, as well as other times provided during our Language Arts classes.
Students and Parents Can Monitor AR reading progress.
Parents should have received an email from our library staff with instructions for viewing your child’s AR progress. If you did not receive this please contact Mrs. Kaltz at jkaltz@parkwaychristian.org.