At The GreenMount School, we develop readers who can think critically and thinkers who can read fluently. Reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills are integrated throughout the curriculum to produce active listeners and engaging speakers who choose their words with confidence and care.

At all grade levels, story is used as an important teaching tool. Our focus on narrative involves questioning who is telling the story, the environment in which the story is being told, and the larger context of any written piece. Fiction and nonfiction texts are carefully selected to include diverse perspectives from within our own community as well as highlight voices from around the world.

Teachers intentionally provide texts that serve as "mirrors," that reflect students' lived experience, as well as texts that serve as "windows" through which they can view experiences different from their own.

Thematic learning plays an increasingly essential role in our language arts curriculum as students progress from elementary to middle school. As students read, analyze, discuss, and debate ideas in both fiction and nonfiction texts, they grow in their ability to understand others and draw connections between concepts and time periods. Continued explicit instruction in writing, grammar, vocabulary, and spelling provides a concrete pathway for students to fully discover and learn to express their own unique voices.

Experiences such as field trips to local theaters, discussions with visiting authors, and student-led letter-writing campaigns provide authentic contexts for students to discover the power of different forms of expression.