Merging Minds and Methods in Middle School ELA

This has been a pivotal year for the Middle School English Language Arts (ELA) Department. Under the leadership of Ms. Susan Johnson, the 8th-grade curriculum underwent a significant transformation, merging the previously distinct English and literature classes into a unified, comprehensive English Language Arts course, now taught by Mr. Chatom Arkin. This pedagogical approach has yielded impressive results, with students demonstrating a greater ability to integrate and apply key language elements to enhance both their reading comprehension and writing proficiency. These are skills that will help them excel in high school and beyond.

The course includes the teaching of essential grammar concepts critical to effective writing, including punctuation, usage, modifier placement, irregular verbs, agreement, and sentence structure. Students are not only assessed on their understanding of these concepts but also on their ability to apply them in their writing. Through journal prompts and various short writing assignments, students have the opportunity to practice and refine the skills they acquire.

This is where the integration of the curriculum truly becomes evident. Regularly, students are assigned analytical writing tasks based on the texts they are studying. At the start of the year, Mr. Arkin focused on strengthening students’ reading comprehension by modeling effective strategies, such as activating prior knowledge, summarizing content, making inferences, monitoring understanding, forging connections, and expanding vocabulary. Through the use of concise nonfiction articles and short stories, Mr. Arkin made these critical reading techniques accessible to all his students. As the year progressed, students transitioned to more complex works, including John Steinbeck’s The Pearl and Of Mice and Men, Phillip Hoose’s The Boys Who Challenged Hitler, and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Earlier in the year, students built the foundations of literary response writing through shorter readings; however, as they moved on to longer texts, the writing expectations rose. In these later stages, students were required to produce literary analyses that demonstrated both their understanding of literary elements and their ability to employ sophisticated analytical writing techniques.

It has been a privilege to witness the curriculum evolve under Mr. Arkin’s thoughtful guidance and to support him in this important development that further enhances our exemplary ELA program.