Ebony Brown Elementary English Language Arts Coordinator		Email
	Elisar Gray Secondary English Language Arts Coordinator	Email
	Ebony Martin Secondary Reading Interventionist	Email
	Angela Hutton Intervention Lead Teacher	Email
	Fajetta Banks-Oseni Advanced Learning Lead Teacher	Email
Tiffanie Barner-Davis Early Literacy Lead		Email
	Erica Lloyd Secondary English Language Arts Lead	Email

Learning Aligned with the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards (CCGPS)

The Language Arts Department encompasses all components of the communication process—reading, writing, speaking and listening. The fundamental goal is to develop effective communication skills that will serve as tools for acquiring and applying other skills and knowledge. To communicate is to participate in an active, purposeful process that results in shared meaning.  

K-5 Grade Levels:
Students in grades K through 5 are focused on developing comprehension strategies that will enable them to manipulate grade-level texts of appropriate complexity, and communicate effectively both in writing and in speaking. Students will begin to anchor their inquiries and responses firmly to the text, whether literary or informational, using increasingly specific and relevant evidence to support their claims and inferences. Students’ thinking skills will extend to identifying main idea/theme, understanding character and plot development, and evaluating the impact of word choice. Additionally, students will identify structural elements in text such as scenes and chapters, distinguish narrative voice, understand the impact of aesthetic elements, and make logical connections. A key component of the Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE) is the expectation of appropriate grade level complexity in text choices. Complexity levels are assessed based upon a variety of indicators.

6-8 Grade Levels:
Instruction in grades 6-8 addresses students’ increasing maturity and the growing sophistication of their abilities, culminating in the development by the end of grade 8 of students who are ready to succeed in high school. Students should be able to comprehend more challenging books and articles, basing all of their analysis, inferences, and claims on explicit and relevant evidence from the texts. Students will expand on their ability to identify central ideas by identifying how those themes are shaped and conveyed by particular details. Their analysis of basic literary elements will extend to identifying connections and complexities within narratives and how individual elements weave together to advance plot and reveal character. These skills will be incorporated into the students’ own narrative and expository writing. Students will become increasingly adept at understanding an author’s biases, the use of complex rhetorical devices including logical fallacies, and tailoring his or her own prose for maximum influence. While continuing with a variety of literary non-fiction, students in grades 6-8 will begin to tackle more technical informational texts as well. Literary selections will include foundational materials from mythology, cultural histories, and religious traditions.

9-12 Grade Levels:
Because of the flexibility of the English Language Arts course offerings at the high school level, the Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE) for grades 9 through 12 is organized into grade bands comprise of 9-10 and 11-12. The 9-12 Standards define what students should understand and be able to do by the end of each grade band. As students progress towards the successful culmination of their high school careers, they will consolidate and internalize all of the skills instilled through the full progression of the GSE. High school students will employ strong, thorough, and explicit textual evidence in their literary analysis and technical research. They will understand the development of multiple ideas through details and structure and track the development of complex characters and advanced elements of plot such as frame narratives and parallel storylines. Student writing will reflect the ability to argue effectively, employing the structure, evidence, and rhetoric necessary in the composition of effective, persuasive texts. Students will be able to construct college-ready research papers of significant length in accordance with the guidelines of standard format styles such as APA and MLA. Students in high school will have built strong and varied vocabularies across multiple content areas, including technical subjects. Students will graduate with the fully developed ability to communicate in multiple modes of discourse demonstrating a strong command of the rules of Standard English.