At Hamlin, teachers in the language arts endeavor to:

• Recognize that at the center is the LEARNER; the teacher is the bridge between students and the discipline of language arts.
• Maintain constant curiosity about and commitment to finding the best ways to work with students.
• Recognize the complex interactions among reading, writing, listening and speaking.
• Recognize four purposes of language use: for obtaining and communicating information, for literary response and expression, for learning and reflection, and for problem solving and application.
• Recognize that the explosion of information access has a corresponding requirement for flexibility, confidence, and skill in broad forms of communication.
• Recognize that language learning is a dynamic and lifelong process through which individuals develop and fine-tune an expanding repertoire of capacities for communicating with others and themselves.

The ultimate goal of the language arts program is to ensure that students are able to use language to address their own needs as well as the needs of their communities and the greater society. Students are given opportunities to engage in a wide array of experiences with language and to compose many different types of texts that draw upon their imagination and involve the use of literary language. They are guided to develop competencies over time in a developmentally appropriate sequence. We strive for this goal through valuing joyfulness and intellectual curiosity. Through the language arts curriculum, teachers strive to engender in their students compassion and confidence in an atmosphere of good humor and kindness.

In the Lower School as well as the Middle School, language arts classes are largely literature-based. In grades K-6, language arts and social studies are integrated; in the seventh and eighth grades, students have separate English and social studies classes and curricula, although there is purposeful overlap and connection. In the Lower School, at least 90 minutes of instruction are dedicated to the language arts each day, not counting weekly visits to the library. In the upper division, English and history classes meet for 40 minutes each day.

Specific knowledge and skills in reading taught at Hamlin include phonemic awareness, phonics and decoding skills, reading fluency, comprehension skills, and information and study skills. Students learn to compare and contrast, predict outcomes, recognize story structures, draw inferences, make generalizations, recognize point of view, identify main idea and supporting details, and determine persuasive devices.

Writing is central to the language arts curriculum, and it is taught as a process in all grade levels. Emphasis is placed upon pre-writing, drafting, and multiple revisions, and students employ a variety of genres and formats to express meaning. In the Lower School language arts writing program there is a focus upon description and narrative, while at the upper grades there is a gradual shift to more analytical written expression.

Methods we employ in the teaching of language arts include small and large group discussions, direct instruction, free-writing, teacher-student conferences and editing, peer discussion and feedback, literature circles, learning centers, role-playing, portfolios, presentations and speeches, mind maps, outlines, and teacher modeling.

The language arts curriculum is designed to help students use language clearly, flexibly, critically, and creatively, whether in writing or in speech. Classroom discussion, used daily in the Hamlin program, encourages the expression of feelings and insights that are shared with others and examined in an atmosphere of respect and honesty. Students are instructed in how to question, challenge, and observe in ways that are constructive and meaningful. In addition, cooperative learning and group work are used to encourage students to examine assumptions and to work together to come up with effective approaches and solutions to solving problems. Student learning is made visible in a variety of forms, including journals, personal and interpretive essays, creative short stories and poems, demonstrations, essays, and autobiography and memoir.