Monroe Township High School

The goal of the Monroe Township High School Language Arts program is to develop and enhance a student's ability to communicate effectively for varied purposes and audiences. Probably the single most important attribute of academic and career success, effective communication is based on the components of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking.

A successful high school English program develops these components through an integrated approach to the language arts. This includes instruction in and practice of the support skills underlying each of these processes. For example, in the writing component, students write regularly, in a variety of modes and for a variety of audiences, using writing activities designed to appeal to students’ interests and needs. Students learn strategies for prewriting and revising - in essence, skills for critical thinking, such as analysis, synthesis, problem-solving, and evaluation. Frequent formal and informal assessment of the student’s writing provides the teacher, the student, and the parents with information about areas of strength and the areas that need improvement.

Reading and writing about literature become increasingly more important as students develop the sophisticated skills of analysis and interpretation. By the time they complete their senior year, students willl have read signficant works of American, British and World literature. They also will have learned to express themselves in all of the rhetorical modes and to conduct independent research.