Language Arts

Beginning with our smallest children, students gain skills in listening and speaking in an environment that is safe to share ideas. They are given opportunities to speak in front of their peers and to share with others in Trinity Together Time, the weekly assembly. By the time students graduate in sixth grade, they are well-spoken.

Children are immersed in high quality literature. The reading program is very explicit, systematic, and sequential with significant emphasis on phonemic awareness and phonetic instruction. Students are placed in flexible and fluid guiding reading groups to build and apply skills. Comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency are integral components of instruction. Children are given a variety of reading experiences with a love of reading as one of the primary goals.

Students write daily not only to develop skills in communication, but also to share their ideas, stories, and voice. Expository and expressive writing is taught in a writer’s workshop format which includes mini-lessons, writing, conferencing, and sharing.

Orton-Gillingham based, Trinity’s program reflects children’s developmental stages, moving from inventive spelling to the utilization of the conventional system. Students gain a strong foundation of strategies and rules which facilitate conventional spelling.

Grammar instruction provides students with knowledge of the structure of language as well as conventions of English. An essential component of communication, grammar instruction is most effective when skills are taught in isolation as well as applied as an integral part of students’ spoken and written language.

Students participate in the Handwriting Without Tears program with the goal of developing legible handwriting. Through formal instruction, an incremental and sequential system provides students the opportunity to build confidence, fluency, and automaticity.