Classroom. The latter text provides diverse narratives, aligning with the concept of globalism as well as vocabulary building. Students are exposed to extensive high quality reading materials, even at this young age. The reading curriculum encourages conversation with book talks and critical reading with discussions as well as The 40 Book Challenge; it also facilitates independent and small group work. For the writing curriculum, Levine adapts various aspects of Lucy Calkins' Writer’s Workshop. Benchmark testing implements Fountus and Pinnell and MAP testing to determine reading levels (3 times per year) and assess growth. Middle School Strengths Following a scope and sequence, all 5 th thru 8 th Grade Language Arts classes concentrate on reading enrichment by developing a passion for reading via numerous sources, including but not limited to: The 40 Book Challenge; Newsela; New York Times articles; differentiated class mentor text studies; online research from sources such as Yad Vashem and the various Holocaust museums, and mandated lists for summer reading (with one required text and one optional). Oral reading practice, along with mini- lessons and reflective teacher evaluation of assignments from one pagers to essays and creative writing of short stories, poetry, dramatic scenes, Socratic Seminars, and artistic interpretations/projects reflect both formative and summative assessment methods. Literal comprehension, inference, and varying degrees of annotation remain objects of focus as well as the application of the text to current student lives. Classes are routinely introduced to concepts and then provided opportunities for critical thinking. Need-driven student grammar is taught in 5 th thru 8 th Grades as a natural outgrowth of reading mentor texts, with a variety of mini-lessons that students implement in their writing, rather than on worksheets. Structured essay writing, whether expository, narrative, or persuasive is emphasized. Elements of good writing, with adaptations from Calkins, are taught in the following segments: brainstorming; prewriting; conferences; rubrics; metacognition; peer editing; cohesion; word choice; varying sentence structure; application of literary devices; revision, and publication. Students are encouraged to enter contests on state and national levels (Poetry Society of Texas, local Dallas Public Library Express Yourself Contest, and NCTE Promising Young Writers for Eighth Grade) as well as to submit entries for consideration in Visions , our school-wide literary magazine. Students in 5h thru 8 th Grades also have opportunities to expand oral communication skills in activities varying from book talks, to higher-level discussions, to presentations, to Kristallnacht performances, to speech contests, and graduation speeches. Additionally, by participating in a recent Idiom Day, all middle school students were involved in dressing as an idiom. Middle School students are enmeshed literally and figuratively in their language arts. Since the 7 th and 8 th Grade language arts curriculum prepares students for the rigors of high school, these classes have their own additional challenging curriculum. The majority of 7 th Grade material stresses the importance of individuality; whereas, the greater percentage of 8 th Grade content emphasizes the importance of going against
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