LA Progression Classes 1-6
Written by Lotus & Ivy Language Arts Department Head, Sophia Nicholson, with help from all Lotus & Ivy Teachers
By the end of first grade, the children can recognize all the letters of the alphabet, the consonant sounds, and the long and short sounds for the vowels. We introduce three-letter, CVC words, as well as consonant blends and digraphs. We begin to recognize them in our reading adventures. By reading and writing verses we recite each day, we are able to see the relationship between the letters and the sounds they make. The children recall information from stories and create class compositions for our main lesson book work. They are able to transcribe from the teacher's model writing into their own main lesson books with care and attention. Through this practice, they develop confidence in their handwriting, strengthen their spelling skills, and deepen their connection to the written word. We also explore sentence structure, capitalization, and punctuation in a natural and meaningful way. As the year progresses, the children begin to recognize familiar words and phrases, allowing them to read simple texts with growing fluency. Our approach nurtures a love for language, storytelling, and the rhythm of words, laying a strong foundation for literacy in the years to come.
In grade two, the students work on expanding the foundational language arts skills learned in grade one. Using a combination of whole language and phonics instruction, the building blocks for writing, spelling and reading skills are furthered. More complex spelling patterns and phonics rules are explored. Listening and speaking are practiced in speech exercises and learning poetry by heart.
Students work on growing their love and endurance for writing from the stories they have heard, which contrast the instinctive qualities found in animal fables, with the uplifting human attributes found in stories and legends of saints and heroic figures. Inspired by the wonderful qualities of humans around us, the children may express appreciation through writing thank you notes, and writing their "thoughts on paper" through a process of encoding called "Kid Writing". Students learn to use writing conventions such as capitalization, complete thoughts, punctuation, forming letters neatly. Writing summary paragraphs is based on the stories they have heard, poetry and verses they have learned by heart, as well as original topics. Foundations for cursive writing are laid through neat printing and practicing ribbon form drawings. If there is time, cursive writing may be introduced in the spring.
Grade three students strengthen their reading skills. Third grade is a time to review grammar and spelling skills and explore more complex spelling patterns and storylines. In grammar they learn about different types of sentences, complete sentences, punctuation, and parts of speech. They also learn how to edit their work. Some of their writing activities may include recipes, biographies, journal writing, letter writing, poetry, book reports, writing their own essays based on stories and festivals throughout the year and participating in a class play.
In the fourth grade we take all of the hard work of learning to read and write in the previous grades and begin reading and writing to learn. Some of the things we practice in grade 4 include identifying and correctly using the nine parts of speech, expanding sentences with detail, writing summaries from stories they hear in class, and taking notes. The students learn how to write expository paragraphs focused on animal observation and research. They learn about their local geography and write about that. They also focus on creative writing, often in the form of poetry focused on animals in stories from class.
Class 5 asks for an emphasis on creative writing, an introduction to grammar, and some literature exploration. Parts of speech still play a significant role in the grammar curriculum as well as tenses and punctuation, and the first building blocks in understanding the construction of sentences. The emphasis is on usage and the qualities each grammatical form expresses. Some important concepts are active and passive voice and direct and indirect speech.
The literature study provides opportunities for the children to differentiate between their own opinions and the opinions of others. In unison with their main lesson classes, the students have enjoyed poetry from the Bhagavad Gita and the Vedas to the Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll. In class five, students are focused on recording their own experiences. They write accurate accounts of events that they have seen. Dictionary work and understanding complex vocabulary words take center stage in lessons.
Class 6 students work on the organization and coherence of their writing. They also refine their grammar skills by focusing on specific rules and concepts and then engage in literary analysis. The literature study of Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Spear introduced opportunities for character analysis and debate. Percy Jackson’s ‘The Lightning Thief’ allows them to broaden their knowledge of myths and legends. They began essay writing by creating narrative essays based on mythology and mythical creatures that inspire each student.
The writing curriculum for Grade 7 aims to develop beautiful picture-writing by way of reading, analyzing and feeling inspired by the writing of others. Students practice expressing their feelings and a mood through the choice of words, the tone of writing, and description of the right details of the surroundings. They also practice writing to describe experiences felt by the senses, e.g. a place, an animal, a thing or a person at work. They also learn to use a thesaurus for a better choice of interesting, descriptive, or apt words. The writing curriculum includes writing about giving directions, perspective, and writing a report. Simile, metaphor, and personification are also used to enrich writing. Students also refine their grammar skills and dive into more complex literary works by analysing the themes and character development and ultimately developing a deeper understanding of the literature. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien is used for literature study.
In the History Main Lessons on the Age of Discovery and The Renaissance, the students are encouraged to read around the subject and do independent research into that topic, for example, creating travel brochures for Baghdad using persuasive writing, after studying Marco Polo in Main Lesson. Essay writing continues; they start choosing carefully selecting words, and varying sentence structures. In ML there is the opportunity to compare and contrast different characters in history or different geographical areas.
The ‘Wish Wonder and Surprise’ ML allows the students to create work out of themselves for the first time, rather than retelling the ML content. They read poems, stories and prose extracts on these three qualities, and experiment with form, structure and vocabulary to write, edit, and sometimes co-create their own imaginative work.
Class 8 calls for more of a focus on research skills: how to gather information; evaluate sources; and then present findings in a written form. Students are also called upon to develop more critical thinking and analytical skills through their literary criticism; they explore themes, study symbolism, and discuss authorial intent. In keeping with the ML on Revolutions, Class 8 studies Dickens’ ‘A Tale of Two Cities’. Work on this novel includes creative writing inspired by Dickens’ style, notes and reflections on individual chapters of the novel, and lengthy essays taking in central questions and themes of the novel.
The Grade 8 Project is a mammoth task in which each student must select a mentor in the community. The students are asked to select an area of interest which goes beyond their comfort zones, doing something risky that they can fail in, and exercising a new part of themselves. They do practical experimentation in tandem with book-based research. In May they come before the Lotus and Ivy community to share the results of their work, as well as submitting a lengthy write up.
Poetry study may link to Main Lesson topics such as the Industrial Revolution. The students explore the different styles used to emphasize or create a range of moods and learn about a range of poetic techniques. They compare and contrast the treatment of the same or similar topics in different ways by the different authors, to understand how differing positions and perspectives can co-exist, and both be true.
The students have their first experience of reading a Shakespeare play, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, writing essays on the themes, characters and language and deepening their literary analysis. The Short Story ML gives the students the opportunity to read a range of authors from different cultures, and to develop their essay writing skills, commenting on features such as character, language, form, and structure. They write their own short story, paying attention to elements such as plot, character, setting, theme, use of dialogue, and imagery. Study of grammar serves the story-writing craft, with students encouraged to use participial phrases, absolutes, appositives, and adjectives out of order to enliven their writing.
In the ‘Comedy and Tragedy’ Main Lesson in Class 9, the students build on skills they have started to develop in Class 8, but go further, making comparisons between texts, and finding parallels and connections between plays written in very different time periods. Language Arts affords the opportunity to read and discuss two such different plays, Sophocles’ ‘Oedipus Rex’ and Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’. The presentation of the tragic hero in each play will give the 9th grader the chance to make judgments and comparisons, and to argue an individual point of view, which will need to be supported by referring closely to the text.
The History of the Novel is also studied in LA, with a study of Herman Melville’s ‘Moby Dick’ Students will learn how the novel recapitulates the earlier genres of epic, drama and poetry, and understand how Melville’s work expresses all of these in different chapters. As in the Comedy and Tragedy ML, students will wrestle with the problems of fate and free will, and explore other themes and key characters. Students will present individual chapters to the rest of the class, commenting on interesting and notable features, backed up with relevant quotations. They will write in a range of different styles, including essays, persuasive and descriptive writing inspired by Melville’s style, and participate in vocabulary enrichment exercises based on new words they have encountered in the novel. Class 8 will be presenting their projects at 2.30 ET on the following dates in May: Tuesday 6th and 13th May.