The White Oak Language Arts program is focused on preparing our students with the sophisticated literacy skills necessary for college and modern workplace. Because White Oak School’s program is specifically designed to assist our students in developing expressive and receptive language skills, students engage daily in three classes dedicated to the acquisition and expansion of language skills.
The White Oak Language Arts program is focused on preparing our students with the sophisticated literacy skills necessary for college and modern workplace. Because White Oak School’s program is specifically designed to assist our students in developing expressive and receptive language skills, students engage daily in three classes dedicated to the acquisition and expansion of language skills. The three classes are English-Language Arts, Oral Expression, and a 1:1 Tutorial. Each class meets each day for fifty minutes of personalized, intensive literacy-skill instruction. This comprehensive approach utilizes research-based instruction and strategies and provides a truly effective language arts program for students with specific language-based learning disabilities.
In their English-Language Arts classes, students are guided step-by-step in developing grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, writing, editing, group discussion, and independent work skills. Standard grammar conventions of the English language are a key focus throughout the program. Students work to increase vocabulary knowledge by focusing on using context clues to determine meaning, analyzing meaningful word parts, utilizing reference materials, and through explorations of idioms, figurative language, metaphors and similes. In ninth and tenth grades, MCAS preparation (practice and strategies) is also a key component in the curriculum.
Literature selections – novels, essays, speeches, biographies, short stories, plays, and poetry – are drawn from the Massachusetts Frameworks Appendices. Literature is read independently and also read aloud collaboratively and discussed in depth, and students respond both orally and in writing to comprehension questions. Students also work to interpret and analyze the structure of texts. They focus on making inferences and predictions and supporting their ideas with details from the text. They work to identify themes and summarize central ideas with supporting details in oral and written formats. The intensity and student-centered pace of this approach allows our students to engage with literary texts to greater depth.
Students engage in writing for a variety of purposes – persuasive, informative or expository, and narrative. They routinely work to strengthen and develop their writing through pre-writing exercises, short- and long-term writing assignments, and revising, rewriting, editing, and giving oral presentations. Writing scaffolds are utilized and adapted as students grow in their writing skills. When developing essays or research projects, they focus on gathering relevant information from valid sources, organizing their information, and clearly expressing their ideas with supporting details in writing before revising, editing, and giving oral presentations of their work.
At each level of the Language Arts program, students focus on comprehending increasingly complex literary and informational texts. They learn to express their ideas, both orally and in writing, with growing richness of language and independence.
World Literature and Introduction to Genres and Themes courses alternate yearly for Grades 9 and 10. American Literature and British Literature courses alternate yearly for Grades 11 and 12. The authors, topics, and skills addressed at each level are in accordance with the MA Curriculum Frameworks and also correspond to the Common Core Curriculum.
During this year-long course, students study a variety of works from across the globe and how they relate to each other and the world we face today. Novels, short stories, and poems are selected from a variety of authors including Arthur Miller, Joseph Conrad, Kate Chopin, Chinua Achebe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, T.S. Eliliot, and Alfred Lord Tennyson. The class also focuses on MCAS preparation and critical thinking skills. In addition, an emphasis upon language skills is the foundation for literature exploration, and students work on developing reading comprehension, written composition, vocabulary, time management, and organizational skills.
Students study a variety of novels, short stories, poems, and informative texts which they break down and categorize, enhancing their ability to recognize literary devices and improve textual analysis. Authors studied include William Shakespeare, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, S.E. Hinton, Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson. The class also focuses on MCAS preparation and critical thinking skills. In addition, an emphasis upon language skills is the foundation for literature exploration, and students work on developing reading comprehension, written composition, vocabulary, time management, and organizational skills.
Students study a variety of genres and themes in American literature, how they relate to events occurring in American history and how literature has evolved throughout history. Authors and literature included in this study are Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and Narrative of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, as well as short stories by Ray Bradbury, John Updike, and William Faulkner along with poems from different eras of American history. An emphasis upon language skills is the foundation for literature exploration, and students work on developing reading comprehension, written composition, vocabulary, time management, and organizational skills.
Students study literature from major British authors, including a variety of genres and themes and how they evolved through history. Authors and literature studied include selected tales from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Arthurian legends, selected plays by William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, George Orwell, Jonathan Swift, and a variety of poems and short stories from different eras of British Literature. An emphasis upon language skills is the foundation for literature exploration, and students work on developing reading comprehension, written composition, vocabulary, time management, and organizational skills.
These classes are highly focused on literacy skill development in the areas of reading comprehension, vocabulary development, and written expression. These skills are built upon in class in structured, sequential, multimodal ways. Classes in these grade levels explore a variety of literary works from various genres as dictated by the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks.
White Oak School hereby represents and warrants that it does not discriminate on the grounds of age, race, color, sex, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, and homelessness.
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Updated 7/7/25
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