The SBCS Language Arts program focuses on developing a wide range of communication skills. Students are encouraged to become speakers and listeners, as well as readers and writers.

Students learn to communicate content, articulate opinions, and express themselves creatively. As Della Van Amburgh wrote in 1903, “The mind of the child just entering school is bent upon investigation, exploration, and discovery. It is the privilege of the primary teacher to guide this investigation, furnish a proper and fruitful environment for exploration, and teach the child the best written and spoken language in which he may tell of his discoveries.” (First Days in Number: A Primer of Arithmetic, Silver Burdett and Company, 1903.)

In the early grades students acquire foundational skills, learning to decode, encode, and read for meaning. Writing is used across the curriculum and grade levels to help children explore interpersonal, intrapersonal, and academic issues. Students also use writing to reflect upon their own work and come to understand themselves as learners. Students read literature and informational texts. Their writing skills integrate their experiences as readers.

Ultimately, an evidence-based approach is emphasized when evaluating literature, participating in discussions, making presentations, writing essays, and doing research-driven expository writing. Language arts standards may also be addressed as part of interdisciplinary units or through service learning projects. We follow the Common Core State Standards.