6th-8th Grade English-Language Arts

Fountain Valley School District Middle School English Language Arts

The Fountain Valley School District (FVSD) Middle School English Language Arts (ELA) department follows the California Common Core Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy (link). Throughout middle school, FVSD students engage with challenging fiction and non-fiction texts, develop writing skills through full-length and shorter pieces, and practice speaking, listening, and language skills.

Teachers across FVSD’s three middle schools collaboratively design and teach two shared Units of Study to ensure high-quality, standards-aligned instruction.

Units of Study

Each unit includes reading a core text, analyzing related non-fiction, and using instructional strategies such as close reading and Socratic Seminars. Students complete a culminating writing assessment, with grade-specific rubrics used across schools to maintain consistency.

ELA Classroom Tools

All middle school students have access to Chromebooks in their ELA classrooms and use Google Suite tools for creating, revising, and finalizing their work.

Novel Units of Study

Trimester 1

6th Grade: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
7th Grade: Woods Runner by Gary Paulsen
8th Grade: The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett

Trimester 2

6th Grade: A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
7th Grade: The Giver by Lois Lowry
8th Grade: Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Trimester 3

6th Grade: Sylvia & Aki by Winifred Conkling
7th Grade: The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
8th Grade: Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhhà Lai

Resources

For more information, refer to the California Common Core State Standards (link).