Mission: The English Department provides students with the skills to enable them to become proficient communicators regarding writing and speaking with clarity and precision. The Reading Department provides skills that enable boys to become proficient, critical, and enthusiastic readers. Nexus instills purpose and meaning to reading through a variety of genre, texts, and cross-curricular connections.
In grades four (4) through eight (8) the main components of the English program are writing, grammar usage, oral language skills, literature, vocabulary, and spelling development. In grades four through six the students also attend a formal reading class where library usage and vocabulary skills are emphasized.
Grammar and usage skills are taught through the medium of each student’s own writing and through regular whole‐class lessons. Writing process (pre‐writing, drafting, editing and publication) and Six Traits of Writing (ideas/content, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions/skills) are central components of writing instruction.
Admitted 9th grade students will take English I. Students will engage in in-depth analysis of increasingly more complex literature, view that literature from its historical perspective, and connect it to other arts. They will write literary analyses, logical arguments, informational/explanatory texts, narratives, and focused research projects. These writing tasks will be both formal and informal.
Additionally, they will engage in speaking and listening activities that use and incorporate media and technology. As a result of the reading, writing, speaking, and listening students will do in this course, they will grow their vocabulary and their understanding of how to communicate effectively by making skillful choices when expressing themselves with language.
In grades four (4) through eight (8) the main components of the English program are writing, grammar usage, oral language skills, literature, vocabulary, and spelling development. In grades four through six the students also attend a formal reading class where library usage and vocabulary skills are emphasized.
Grammar and usage skills are taught through the medium of each student’s own writing and through regular whole‐class lessons. Writing process (pre‐writing, drafting, editing and publication) and Six Traits of Writing (ideas/content, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions/skills) are central components of writing instruction.
Admitted 9th grade students will take English I. Students will engage in in-depth analysis of increasingly more complex literature, view that literature from its historical perspective, and connect it to other arts. They will write literary analyses, logical arguments, informational/explanatory texts, narratives, and focused research projects. These writing tasks will be both formal and informal.
Additionally, they will engage in speaking and listening activities that use and incorporate media and technology. As a result of the reading, writing, speaking, and listening students will do in this course, they will grow their vocabulary and their understanding of how to communicate effectively by making skillful choices when expressing themselves with language.