Language Arts
West Cobb seeks to develop lifelong learners who view writing, speaking, reading and listening not only as critical tools but as sources of inspiration and satisfaction. Our teachers acknowledge and promote the close connection between reading and writing through the use of a variety of language experiences.
Our reading program provides for a range of reading styles, needs and interests and is designed to develop readers who read for pleasure and information. To that end, we incorporate a variety of techniques to teach reading, including phonics, structural analysis, word patterns and whole words. Specific decoding skills and vocabulary are taught to comprehend the material. Children practice these specific skills to further their understanding of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Through the use of our varied curriculums, our Pre-K students learn phonemic awareness through rhyming words, blends and syllables. They are taught phonic skills with upper and lower case letters and initial sounds. Reading aloud to the class is a daily ritual. Our Kindergarten program continues their phonemic awareness through substituting and blendng sounds, identifying sounds in words, and using phonics to read unknown words. Our first and second grade classes have regular read-aloud and sustained silent reading sessions. Discussions might focus on character, plot, setting, mood, style, language or story structure.
Our writing program is designed to develop writers who communicate clearly, whether to convey information, to express ideas and feelings, or to describe experience. Through journals, book reports, letters, and work books the children are helped to write in a clear and focused manner. In our Pre-K and Kindergarten levels, students are encouraged to use invented spelling. Students write what they hear with the understanding that a story can be edited with the help of a teacher when they are ready to produce a completed work. At all levels, students focus both on the skills and process of writing and learning to draft, revise, edit and proofread. Students in our First and Second Grades express their ideas in a variety of forms such as memoirs, stories, poems, letters, interviews and reports. At the end of their time at West Cobb, most students have developed their own voice and write clearly organized paragraphs, essays, and reports.