Inspire Every One, Every Day

Language Arts

Colorado Academic Standards - Language Arts

At all three grade levels we address both the Common Core Standards and the Colorado Academic Standards for English Language Arts including reading, writing, research & reasoning, and speaking & listening. Our reading instruction incorporates nonfiction texts, literature, and poetry. We embed silent reading time in each of our classes and expect students to read at home 5 days per week as well. Our writing tasks include narrative, informative, and argumentative (persuasive) writing.  For listening & speaking our students engage in collaboration, discourse, and oral presentation. Throughout all of our work, we focus on building critical thinking skills and incorporating 21st century skills. 

6th Grade English:

Units of Study include:

  • Personal Narrative- exploring how people grow and change as a result of challenges, analyzing narrative structure,
  • Fictional Narrative-literary criticism, analyzing characters, discourse, presentations
  • Informational- reading and writing, organizational structure, collaboration
  • Jason’s Gold-interdisciplinary unit using information taught in science and  social studies and applying it for a novel study, argumentation, oral presentations
  • Poetry-oral presentations, figurative language
  • Research/Reasoning-historical figures project researching an influential person from the Americas (project with Geography), oral presentations

7th Grade English:

Units of Study include:

  • All About Me- narrative writing
  • Mythology- literature, narrative
  • Advertising- research & reasoning, collaboration, argumentative writing
  • Civil Rights- literature, non-fiction, discourse, collaboration, research & reasoning, oral presentation, informative writing
  • Poetry- literature, oral presentation
  • Children’s Books- literature, narrative, oral presentation
  • Birthday Research- non-fiction, informative, oral presentation, research & reasoning

8th Grade English:

Units of Study include:

  • The Giver- literature, narrative writing, literary analysis
  • Banned Book Project- research & reasoning, argumentative writing, debate
  • Short Stories- literature, narrative writing
  • Night/Holocaust- literature, research, non-fiction, informative writing
  • Poetry- literature, oral presentation
  • Literature Circles- literature or non-fiction, collaboration, discourse

Achieve 3000

HIGH-INTEREST CONTENT

This differentiated literacy platform delivers high-interest content in an instructional routine proven to steadily increase reading level and comprehension for all students.
Over 40,000 leveled nonfiction and fiction texts, including culturally relevant content with embedded social-emotional instruction

DIFFERENTIATED LESSONS FOR USE ACROSS THE CONTENT AREAS

Based on LevelSet benchmark results, and depending on their grade and site, students are assigned lessons within grade-level-aligned collections for use in ELA, science, and social studies classes.
Customizable scaffolds for struggling and advanced readers and English language learners include text-to-speech in English and Spanish, speech-to-text, vocabulary previews, and annotation tools to help all students achieve standards mastery.
Each lesson follows our proven literacy routine.
With differentiated lessons for grades 2-12 and comprehensive teacher and leader supports, Achieve3000 Literacy seeks to unlock potential and accelerate learning for every student, powering progress toward college and career readiness.

ONGOING EMBEDDED ASSESSMENT AND AUTOMATIC RELEVELING

Data from multiple-choice activities enable Achieve3000 Literacy to automatically adjust the complexity of text that students receive when they demonstrate readiness for higher-level texts.
With this “just-on-time releveling,” students progress steadily toward college and career readiness targets or their grade.

PSD does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, veteran status, age or disability in access or admission to, or treatment or employment in, its programs or activities. A lack of English speaking skills will not be a barrier to admission or participation.