Departmental Mission:

Upon graduation at FHSA, each Arts graduate will have experienced rigorous and engaging coursework in Language Arts. Culminating in research using scholarly articles in the upper level courses, all students entering Fordham High School for the Arts are enrolled in ELA 9, regardless of level in 8th grade. All 9th graders sit for the CCLS ELA Regents Exam in January of their first year, and June if necessary in order to earn a ‘college ready’ score (80 or higher). By front loading students with foundational skills in reading and writing, all students will be enrolled in Advanced Placement (AP) coursework by their 11th grade year.

ELA I/II (Grade 9): In this year-long course, students will explore real-world problems that affect our lives and the lives of millions around the world through engagement with literature, informational texts, visual art and more. All learners will learn how to write effective arguments in the Writing Lab (Unit 0), an introductory unit of study that builds foundational skills and structures used throughout their four years in high school. Students are provided a choice of applicable topics related to their own lives, and use informational texts to develop sound arguments. Additionally, students analyze texts to determine a central idea developed by the author using writing strategies over the course of a text. Regular benchmarking occurs through timed writing, in which students engage in 1:1 conferencing following drafts of their work and provides opportunities to highlight growth and areas for improvement.

ELA III/IV (Grade 10): This year-long course provides 10th grade students with opportunities for cross-content learning in various subjects including Global History, Computer Science and the Creative Arts. With an emphasis on world literature, argumentative writing, verbal and written analysis tasks, research-based evidence, and effective technology use, students will emerge as critical readers, writers, and thinkers. Students will ultimately guide their own learning in order to solve open-ended problems. The objective is to prepare students for any future endeavor, emphasizing the importance of independent work, small-group collaboration, increased reading comprehension, and strong writing skills. Scholars will also have the opportunity to explore a rich and diverse repository of texts related to facial recognition technology (FRT), with a specific focus on how it works, its demonstrated limitations, and its impacts on society. By the end of this year-long course, students are able to access primary source databases and cite research in essays surrounding the essential question.