Elementary School (Grades K-6)

First grade students continue with the Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study program in reading and writing. A daily mini-lesson introduces a skill to help develop strategies and build good habits.  Students read independently during Reader’s Workshop to improve their stamina and fluency. Ability based reading partnerships also allow peers to work together to explore fiction and non-fiction books. In Writer’s Workshop, students write narratives, fiction and non-fiction stories. Explicit and sequenced instruction helps students progress along a learning continuum. Sentence structure and punctuation are emphasized throughout the process. Students have multiple opportunities to examine words and their features in and out of contexts through our Words Their Way word study program. Students learn to look at and analyze words, as well as gain a deeper understanding of how spelling works to represent sounds and meaning. They build their spelling skills through hands-on activities, organizing words by patterns, sorting, and identifying high frequency sight words.  

Second graders take charge of their reading, honing skills to figure out difficult words, understand author’s craft, and build big ideas from the books they read. Students work on word solving, vocabulary development, and comparing and contrasting information across texts. They strengthen three foundational reading skills— fluency, understanding figurative language, and comprehension. Second graders expand their writing skills as they learn to describe the setting, characters, objects and events in detail. They write brief narratives about their experiences, as well as poetry and reports. They also begin revising drafts to improve sequence, spelling, and grammar. In spelling, students apply and learn new spelling strategies, and incorporate spelling words in various pieces of writing.

 

GRADE 3
In third grade, students come in reading at various levels ranging from emergent readers to fluent readers. The Reader’s Workshop model meets students where they are developmentally, by adding to their repertoire of reading skills, strategies, tools, and habits. Third grade places a large emphasis on writing instruction, given that writing affects a learner’s ability to succeed in every other subject. The Writer’s Workshop model provides explicit instruction and ample opportunity for students to practice opinion/argument, information, and narrative writing. Multicultural literature and an emphasis on inclusivity are cornerstones of the Language Arts curriculum. 

GRADE 4

In Language Arts, sixth graders focus on becoming avid readers and building their skills in reading fluency and expression, oral language, vocabulary, reading comprehension, writing, writing mechanics, and spelling. Reading in sixth grade focuses on introducing and reinforcing the elements and techniques of literature. Students read novels, short stories, poetry, mythology, and informational text, and use a variety of strategies to build their critical thinking skills. As much as possible, Language Arts is integrated with Social Studies and students read both fiction and non-fiction books relating to the ancient civilizations they study. In Writer’s Workshop, students are exposed to a variety of writing genres including personal narrative, literary analysis, and script writing.  They also reflect on Campbell Hall’s values and their experiences in elementary school and share their writing in chapel.