The middle school language arts literacy program conforms to the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards in Language Arts Literacy. The course of study focuses on the development of reading and writing skills. Oral and aural language is developed to support reading and writing skills. The program also develops technical accuracy in the conventions of standard written English.

Reading development: Reading development relies on several component processes. Reading instruction in the middle school develops fluency, vocabulary and knowledge schemas in the service of text comprehension.

• Fluency refers to the accuracy and automaticity of decoding to read with appropriate rate, expression and phrasing (meaningful units).
• Vocabulary development refers to knowledge of morphology (word class, prefixes, suffixes) and meanings, and the ability to interpret novel words in contexts of use.
• Knowledge schemas refer to frames of knowledge (motivation; personal knowledge [prior knowledge, prior experience], content knowledge, and textual knowledge (knowledge of author, text structure, genre) that assist students in constructing meaning from text.
• Text comprehension skills and strategies denote readers’ interactions with text to construct meaning (e.g., construct a goal for reading; identify an author’s purpose for writing and the strategies used to achieve this purpose) before, during and after reading.
• Cognitive strategies denote the tools used to construct meaning from text (e.g., marginal notes, outline, summary, questions).
• Metacognitive strategies assist the reader in determining the degree to which actions to construct meaning are successful (e.g., study strategies to remember, communicate, connect to prior knowledge, and monitor comprehension).

Writing development: In general terms, goals for writing instruction involve process, fluency, and technical accuracy. The writing process includes brainstorming, organizing, drafting, revising, editing and publishing, and develops the skills of intensive writing.

• Brainstorming engages students in developing ideas for the content of their writing.
• Organizing challenges students to develop a logical structure for this content. In the drafting phase, students develop the writing product; e.g., paragraph, essay, poem, research paper.
• In the revision process, students use feedback and self-reflection to improve the content and organization of the writing product.
• Editing requires students to monitor the technical accuracy of their written expression; e.g., capitalization, punctuation, sentence structure, grammar, spelling.
• When students publish their work, they present it to the audience for whom the writing product is intended. Middle school students use the writing process to produce essays and other non-fiction texts.
• Fluency refers to the ability to write quickly and abundantly with appropriate structure. Activities that develop fluency include journal writing and “quick writes” (e.g., “Describe a person who is very important to you in three minutes.”). Activities that develop fluency also develop the skills of extensive writing.

Writing instruction addresses the following questions in developmentally appropriate and appropriately rigorous learning activities.

• Content (About what should students write; e.g., aspects of personal experience, literary criticism, research, core curriculum content?)
• Genre (In what forms should students write; e.g., poem, personal narrative, expository essay, literary criticism, news article, research report?)
• Purpose (For what purposes should students write; e.g., intensive vs. extensive writing; persuasion, exposition, narration?)
• Rhetorical repertoire (In what rhetorical modes should students write; e.g., persuasion, exposition, comparison/contrast, chronology?)
• Audience (For whom should students write; e.g., peers, parents/guardians, teachers, newspaper editor, public [not] educated on a particular topic?)