Living a Reading Life: A Snapshot of the Middle School English Program

Having just finished the first portion of the year, it is a good moment to reflect on the exceptional, creative, and challenging work our students have undertaken, guided by our outstanding faculty. As a school that sees exceptional literacy as a guidepost for our work, a look at our Middle School English classes highlights how we move towards that goal. The Middle School English program at St. Patrick’s exposes our students to rich, challenging literature and provides them with the skills and confidence to tackle any text. A sampling of highlights from our English classes follows. 

In Grade 6, students explored a variety of middle-school set stories: "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros, "Night of the Pomegranate" by Tim Wynne-Jones Recording, "Raymond’s Run" by Toni Cade Bambara, and "Popularity" by Adam Bagdasarian. Each of these stories is unique in character, voice, and outcome, and students used them to analyze literary elements such as plot, point of view, character, setting, and style through lively discussions, group activities and enhanced annotation techniques. Complementing this work, our Literature Circles program drew students and faculty and staff mentors together to read and discuss novels, integrating literary terms and themes from class.

Grade 7 students spent the fall reading and responding to two memoirs in verse: Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming and Margarita Engle’s Enchanted Air. For Brown Girl Dreaming, they learned of the author’s experience growing up in South Carolina and New York during the Civil Rights movement. They continued their study of memoir and verse through Margarita Engle’s Enchanted Air, a piece about a girl growing up between Cuba and the United States in the 1960s. Students closed the calendar year by reading the YA dystopian classic The Giver. Like their Grade 6 counterparts, Grade 7 students also participated in Literature Circles. Students read Rolling Warrior by Judith Heumann, a true story of a human rights activist.

Grade 8 students dove into diverse literature this fall, including novels, short stories, and poetry. They began with analyzing the summer reading novel Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix. They followed with a study of the early 20th century through F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic, The Great Gatsby. This novel was a gateway to understanding symbolism in reinforcing themes. Literature Circles read short stories including “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury, “Raymond’s Run” by Toni Cade Bambara, “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, “Legacies” by Nikki Giovanni, “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, "The Sun Is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon. 

Taking a moment to highlight this work is an excellent reminder of what one can get from reading a good book. As we move into winter, we want to remind you that reading at home is a wonderful way to extend this work. We hope your children (and you) find time to curl up with a warm drink and a good book during the winter months!