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6th Grade English

The Middle School English Language Arts program is literature-based, coordinating reading and writing skills with specific texts. Students read and discuss literature and are expected to respond to material through creative and analytical writing as well as in an oral format. Incorporated into the writing curriculum is a review of paragraph and essay structure. In addition to literature, there is a comprehensive skills program that focuses on strengthening student’s grammar, vocabulary, and spelling in their writing.

LITERARY ANALYSIS AND READING SKILLS

Students read an array of novels in the Middle School, including, but not limited to, The Egypt Game, A Single Shard, Where the Red Fern Grows, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Dogsong, The Giver, The Outsiders, Romeo and Juliet, Hatchet, Island of the Blue Dolphins, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, A Wrinkle in Time, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, A Long Walk to Water, Macbeth, The Chosen, Lord of the Flies, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Inside Out & Back Again, The Contender, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Old Man and the Sea, Hamlet, The Call of the Wild, A Separate Peace, The Pearl, Oedipus, The Grapes of Wrath, Black Ships before Troy: The Story of the Iliad, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Othello. Students engage in a range of activities in order to explore the pieces read, including novel-based units and cooperative learning. Students also read assorted literature genres throughout the year. The Holt McDougal Literature textbooks are utilized for reading short stories, newspaper articles, and poems. The textbooks are also utilized to teach grammar and literary concepts, such as irony, conflict, characterization, and more.

WRITING

Students write response logs where they focus on answering questions that correlate with the current novel or story we are reading and encourage students to further deepen their personal understanding of the text. Students also engage in Writer’s Workshop assignments; focusing on: Argument, Informational/Explanatory Writing, and Narrative Writing. The goal of the writing program is to guide students to construct sound arguments on substantive topics and use support to back up their statements. Students also engage in additional writing assignments—these range from creative to informational writing. Some examples of the weekly writing assignment would be: Personal Narrative, Response to Literature, Interpretive Essay, and Poetry. Students are held to rigorous writing standards in which their mechanical writing aspects (spelling, grammar, punctuation), as well as content, comprise the overall grade. Students work on multiple drafts of a written piece, utilizing teacher conferencing, and self and peer-editing skills.

GRAMMAR

Grammar lessons take place weekly. The scope of grammar instruction includes, but is not limited to, homophones, run-on sentences and fragment sentences, editing techniques, diagramming sentences, verb phrases, kinds of sentences, subject, object, and possessive pronouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections, subject-verb agreement, capitalization, and punctuation.

VOCABULARY

Students are introduced to new vocabulary weekly. Utilizing the current novel text, appropriate and comprehensive vocabulary is chosen and evaluated using context clues and the dictionary to determine meaning. Students utilize the vocabulary in class daily. Students complete weekly vocabulary assignments and take a weekly vocabulary test.

SPELLING

Students complete weekly spelling assignments based on grade level and individual needs. Students complete a weekly spelling test.

SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL

The Shakespeare Festival is a culmination of the students’ hard work studying the life and words of Mr. William Shakespeare. The children engage in an exciting and interactive unit on Shakespeare, examining the entirety of his colorful life, learning his techniques, and reading his plays. They then create an amazing performance for fellow pupils, friends, and family at the annual Festival. The Shakespeare Festival itself is a wonderful celebration of song, speech, performance and merriment developed and executed by the students themselves. It is a combination of theatrics, history and original works of writing, presented by a costumed and excited middle school each year.

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Congratulations To Our Walt Whitman Poetry Contest Winners!

 

                

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LHS is a recognized New York State private school, located in Suffolk County, Long Island.

 

 

 

 

Parent Bravos

Here is a small sample of some of the  beautiful comments from our Parents

From a 6th Grade Parent:

Dear Mr and Mrs Stark,
And all our wonderful LHS teachers! We want to support all parents in sending our deepest gratitude for giving our kids some sense of normalcy during these very challenging times.
It’s very important for us to know that while my husband, as many other ICU doctors and nurses, are fighting every day with this vicious disease, our children can still follow their routine, learn, and communicate with their teachers and friends. It helps us, parents, and it definitely helps kids to continue their growth as individuals.
I see excitement in (our daughter’s) eyes when she is getting ready for school in the morning, when she is running to the printer to get an assignment, or just talking to her friends during breaks.
Thank you so much to every single one of you!
 
 

From a 3YR Old Parent:

“We wanted to say thank you for accommodating the preschool families with the tuition suspension during this time.
We are also amazed (and truly grateful) that the zoom on- line learning format is continuing despite the circumstances.
I know this is not an easy time for businesses, organizations etc. If there is anything at all we can do to help the school during this time or once we return, please let us know. Maybe a fundraiser or maybe there is something we can do for our individual teachers. Just brainstorming…
Finally, some thoughts as we’ve entered week 3 of zoom/on-line learning. It’s been such a wonderful experience participating in our kids’ learning! Yes managing working from home and helping with homeschool can be exciting… but I’ve enjoyed seeing firsthand how dedicated our teachers are to not only teaching and providing additional resources to enhance learning, but also doing it with such great enthusiasm.
 There’s a great sense of community and collaboration between administration, teachers and parents, and it is evident that our main goal is how to make this experience the best it can possibly be.
How lucky are we to have such amazingly dedicated teachers in our kids’ lives! How blessed are we to be part of the
Laurel Hill family!
In the midst of chaos you have given us a sense of normalcy and we are genuinely appreciative of all your efforts.
 
 

 

 
 
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As Charles Dickens famously observed…
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .
it was the season of darkness,
it was the spring of hope . . .
We at Laurel Hill live “the best of times” every day because we are blessed by the beauty, by the serene innocence, and by the precocity of our boys and girls.
We at Laurel Hill live “the best of times” every day for the blessing of totally dedicated teachers and support staff who clearly know why they selected to do what they do in career and in life and give, and give, and give tirelessly to fulfill their greatest ambitions for their children’s growth and well being.
We at Laurel Hill live “the best of times” because we are blessed to have families joined with us to support and to build – partners in turning great ideas into great accomplishments, partners ready to share their skills and to help in the work that needs to be done.
 
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
 
FROM A TEACHER….
Ms. Bond’s Zoom Classroom
Never in my teaching career would I have thought that I would need to teach elementary class via online classes. Yet, here we are in uncertain times, teaching in a media platform that is geared towards the children of this generation.
As apprehensive as I was before the first day of Zoom (I woke up a number of times during the night like it was my first day of school!), I now feel energized and excited about what we are able to do with the Zoom program. I’ve found that I’ve been able to keep most of my teaching the same as when it is a live class! In Reading, we’ve done an author study and vocabulary work in just three days! I am so proud of how much hard work my students continue to do while they are at home!
FROM A PARENT…..
I hope this email finds you well and safe. I have been thinking about you & Mr. Stark often and must first apologize for the time lapse in reaching out to express my deepest gratitude. I can’t believe that we have just completed 3 weeks of successful and engaging remote learning. Your steadfast leadership at the onset of this crisis was inspiring. As this crisis turned into a nationwide tragic pandemic, your engaging and detailed remote learning program did not waiver. In fact, it strengthened! Our children were the lucky ones to maintain a sense of normalcy with their routine schedule and engaging “live” classes with all of their treasured teachers and classmate friends.
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