Richland Academy: Curriculum

English. Our students learn to read by phonics. Why? Research indicates that early readers learn best from a structured, comprehensive, and systematic phonics program. By mastering phonemic awareness at a young age, our students make the transition from learning to read to reading to learn. With the foundations of the Core Knowledge program they will gain an appreciation of modern and classical literature, including poetry and the works of Shakespeare. Since children progress at different rates in their language development, we adapt our reading and writing programs to individual needs. In the end, all of our students develop skills in:

Fluent reading	Comprehension	Spelling and Grammar
Syntax	Writing Mechanics	Creative Writing and Poetry

French. At Richland, we make every effort to ensure that the study of French is an enjoyable and rewarding experience. Among the many benefits of bilingualism are the discovery and understanding of new cultures, new perspectives on the world, and diversified channels of communication.

We have adopted a kinesthetic, multisensory approach to French, a technique used with great success in many full immersion programs at Canadian schools. This unique approach visualizes words and phrases through hand gestures and body movement. Children are engaged in kinesthetic learning—seeing the language; acting the language—which has proven to be much more effective than attempting to learn through reading and writing alone. In the early grades, children developing listening, comprehension, oral expression, and vocabulary skills.

After developing phonetic awareness, they are introduced to basic reading and writing skills. A commitment to oral fluency encourages the development of grammatical knowledge. By Grade 3, students practice basic grammar structures and work with more complex written materials. By the end of Grade 8, students are able to communicate fluently in open-ended situations, read many different texts, and write short essays.