LANGUAGE ARTS AT NHS

Over the last two years, New Horizons School has been offering Langage Arts in a way that works to the strengths of our staff and provides students with opportunities to learn from various teachers. Our Language Arts program takes the program of studies and divides the outcomes into four broad areas: 1) reading/lterature 2) writing 3) speaking/poetry/media studies 4) research/presenting/ group processes.

Each teacher is assigned to one of the first three components. In this particular case, I am assigned to do the writing component. I focus on my component throughtout the year and teach writing to the three grades at different times of the year on a rotational basis.

For instance, I have the grade 7 class for the first ten class periods of this year. For the next ten classes, I will greceive the Grade 8 class and the Grade 7 class moves to another teacher for another component. I will get  each grade for two 10 class cycles in a year.

The fourth component, research/presenting/ group processes, is slotted into out time table as Innovations and Investigations (I & I) and occurs one perweek. Reserach skills, personal skills, group skills and presentations skills are taught directly to the three grades in mixed grade groupings by all the Jr. High teachers. Students begin with exploring topics in short investigations and eventually move towards a more focussed in-depth study by the end of the year.