Students focus on basic reading comprehension and mastery of basic writing skills as they use interpretive thinking skills. Students regularly produce writing as they are taught to use the Five-Step Writing Process, which includes strategies for prewriting, planning, drafting, revising, and editing writing assignments. They are introduced to the Triangle Model for Writing which highlights voice, audience, and topic in each writing task. All graded writing assignments use the Five-Step Process and the Triangle Model as students learn that writing is an active thinking process. Attention is paid to editing, the final step of the writing process.
Students work on the mechanics of writing as they polish their drafts.
Readings are drawn from novels, stories, and anthologies, as well as other sources. Readings are related thematically to provide the basis for discussion, journal writing, and projects. Vocabulary building is done through lists drawn from the readings. Connections to the Henry David Thoreau House theme are made through journal writing, reading selected quotations from Thoreau, and writing about the annual trip to Walden Pond. Click on the House at Walden to move to the next course of study description for grade six.