Language Arts
At Vermont Commons School, we value the voices of our students. We want to hear their ideas, both creative and analytical. To that end, the coursework in Language Arts at Vermont Commons School focuses on developing students' critical thinking and writing skills. Students study writing, the grammar and mechanics of language, and literature concurrently.
The literature that students study is organized by ecological themes that reflect and explore relationships between people and their environment. Literature choices include a broad range of genres and authors. Courses are generally arranged in the following order:
- 7th Grade: Place and Identity
- 8th Grade: Animals and Myths
- 9th Grade: Travel Narratives: Away from Home
- 10th Grade: Rhetorical Strategies/Genre Elective
- 11th Grade: Applied Literary Criticism: Ways of Reading the World
- 12th Grade: Single-Author Study/ AP English
In each Language Arts class, a “Writing Course” component is imbedded into the curriculum. Typically, students will develop a piece of creative or analytical writing that is connected by theme or style to the literature they are reading. This piece is then revised over a three-week block, during which time students receive and incorporate feedback from their peers and teacher. Writing Course assignments allow students to explore many genres by incorporating the characteristics and conventions they are reading into the fiction, plays, poetry, critical essays, book reviews and editorials that they are writing.
During the three to four week process of developing a writing project, students are also learning about grammar and the mechanics of language. As they master these ideas, they are expected to incorporate them into their process of editing.
In order to truly hear our students’ voices, Vermont Commons School hosts an Evening of Student Readings twice during the academic year. As a community, we value students’ creativity and scholarship and look forward to hearing their stories, essays and poetry at this event. All students are expected to share a piece of writing at one of these evening events. Friends and family are encouraged to attend.