Seventh grade English introduces students to literary analysis and emphasizes effective strategies for communicating ideas and opinions. Students craft thesis statements, find textual evidence, and structure arguments, in written and oral forms. To create effective writing, students learn writing traits, including ideas, organization, word choice, voice, fluency, and conventions. The curriculum features plentiful opportunities for narrative, analytical, descriptive, reflective, and creative writing as well as poetry. Students read a variety of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Students use strategies such as text annotation to encourage them to record their reactions and observations; connections between and among texts are emphasized.

Eighth grade English builds on the seventh grade studies of language, grammar, literary themes and purposeful writing. Students are invited to examine, question, and critique a variety of social environments and, in the process, their own. Analytical writing instruction emphasizes coordinating the focus and scope of a thesis statement, selecting the best evidence to support a given point, and crafting introductions and conclusions that compel the reader to care. Other types of creative writing, such as poetry, narrative and personal reflection, also play prominent roles in the curriculum. The literature is selected to connect with the American History course both historically and thematically. Consequently, the core texts include historical fiction, memoirs, and allegories. Through group discussion, journal writing, text annotation, and a variety of projects, students develop a vocabulary of literary terms and an appreciation of the author’s craft.

The grammar curriculum reviews basic sentence structure before focusing on how to recognize and manipulate phrases and clauses. As they continue to study vocabulary through classical roots, students are increasingly encouraged to decode and interpret meanings of new words, matching word choice to purpose and audience with precision. Small-group literature circle discussions are also regular components of the class.