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Language Arts

The language arts curriculum at The Mountain Community School will encompass skills development (i.e. reading, writing, grammar, spelling, oral language) and literature review. Recognizing that different children learn to read at different ages, teachers will be given the flexibility to progress each child through the curriculum at his or her own pace. We recognize that verbal and oral communication is an essential building block for higher learning skills.

The Core Knowledge Sequence will be the basis of the Language Arts program at The Mountain Community School. Kindergarten through third grade students will use the Open Court Series for Young Readers to develop reading, grammar, spelling and comprehension skills. This program was chosen because it uses a balanced approach to the teaching of reading, including systematic direct instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics, grade-appropriate decodable text, and a variety of authentic literature texts which incorporate social studies and science themes. The series also includes a strong writing component. Open Court was recently chosen by the American Teachers Federation as one of seven reading programs proven to help raise academic achievement, especially for struggling students.

The fourth through eighth grade curriculum will be based on the Core Knowledge Sequence of literature review which includes short fiction, drama, speeches of historic significance and commonly used phrases. Writing and research, with attention to vocabulary and grammar will be a strong component of the curriculum. Students will be taught four critical reasoning skills: analysis, comparison, inference/interpretation, and evaluation while reading a wide variety of literature.