Language Arts

Language arts includes the subjects of reading, writing, speaking, and listening.  At St. Joseph Catholic School, our language arts program sets the stage for studetns to develop critical thinking skills and produce life-long learners.  Primary grades focus on developing phonological awareness skills that transition into a stong phonics foundation through direct, systematic, and sequential phonics instruction.  Languagre arts teachers are trained in using Orton-Gillingham for whole group instruction and samll group reinforcement, when needed.  Students acquire vocabulary through fiction and nonfiction read alouds, classroom discussions, content exploration, and hands-on centers.  Primary grades focus on developing reading fluency which in turn, fosters more developed reading comprehension skills.  All grade levels integrate reading and writing responses to fiction and nonfiction texts into the daily curriculum.  Students learn manuscript and cursive writing using the Zaner-Bloser handwriting series.  

 Textbooks used:

• Kindergarten:
  • Meet the Superkids
  • The Superkids Club
• First grade:
  • Adventures of the Superkids
  • More Adventures of the Superkids
• Second grade:
  • Wonders Reading Series

• Match all consonant and vowels to appropriate letters
• Segment, blend, and delete sounds and word parts
• Decode one syllable and multisyllabic words using letter/sound correspondence
• Use phonetic analysis to identify and decode words
• Recognize and read grade appropriate irregularly spelled words
• Recognize reading as a means to obtain information
• Read on-level text with purpose, understanding, accuracy, appropriate rate, and inflection
• Recall facts and details when reading
• Apply rules of punctuation and capitalization
• Write three sentences and progress to a structured paragraph about an assigned topic
• Produce and expand sentences for oral and written language
• Contribute relevant ideas to group discussions