Welcome to our 6th-8th Grade Language Arts Department page. Thank you for visiting!

At Athlos Leadership Academy, we combine several resources to create our 6th-8th grade language arts curriculum.  We use Wheatley Portfolio Curriculum Maps to guide our reading and writing instruction. Wheatley provides a coherent sequence of thematic language arts units (six units per grade). The units connect the skills outlined in the Minnesota State Standards with works of high-quality literature and informational texts. Students will read and analyze many complete works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry through their middle school years at Athlos. 

Write Source is a writing curriculum implemented in Grades 6 through 8 that enables students to master the writing process, key writing forms, the 6 + 1 Trait Writing Model, grammar, usage, and mechanics. This curriculum is used in conjunction with our Wheatley units. 

At ALA, we use Wordly Wise 3000 to provide explicit vocabulary instruction in Grades 6 through 8. The words chosen for Wordly Wise 3000 were selected to expand grade level vocabulary and improve reading comprehension by ensuring students master words they will encounter in content-area reading, grade-level literature, and high-stakes tests, including the PSAT, SAT, and ACT. 

Core Knowledge Sayings and Phrases are integrated throughout the Language Arts curriculum in Kindergarten through Grade 8 at Athlos Leadership Academy. Mastering these idioms and foreign phrases supports reading and listening comprehension.