6th Grade

• Reading: Developing reading comprehension and critical thinking skills through the study of various genres of literature including fantasy, realistic fiction, autobiography, short story, and poetry.
• Writing: Using writing strategies to develop coherent paragraphs and essays. Writing will focus on narrative, creative and persuasive styles; sentence structures, parts of speech and punctuation; spelling and vocabulary development.
• Listening and Speaking: Presentations based on student-centered research, literature analysis and current events.

7th Grade

• Reading: Developing critical reading skills through the study of various genres of literature including short stories, poetry, novels, and biographies; evaluation of literature read outside the classroom.
• Writing: Developing skills in writing paragraphs, essays, and poetry of different types; reader response journals; rules and correct usage of grammar; spelling and vocabulary study and development.
• Listening and Speaking: Improvement of skills in formal informative speaking and in informal impromptu speaking; formal student evaluations of peer presentations. 

8th Grade

• Reading: Developing reading comprehension and critical thinking through the study of literature including drama, novels, biographies, essays, short stories, and poetry; evaluation of literature read outside the classroom.
• Writing: Developing competency in writing essays, both personal and about the literature studied; studying and writing formal poetry, including sonnets; sentence structure, including phrases and clauses; advanced punctuation and grammar usage; cumulative vocabulary development through weekly quizzes.
• Listening and Speaking: Practice and improvement of oral presentation through formal persuasive speeches and informal extemporaneous speeches; formal student evaluations of peer presentations.