To provide a stimulating and challenging language arts curriculum, Great Lakes Learning Academy (GLLA) has formed an exclusive online partnership with the Great Books Foundation. Our high-ability middle school students excel using the foundation’s highly regarded Junior Great Books® program.
A Respected Curriculum
The Junior Great Books curriculum is based on the idea that everyone can read and understand excellent literature—and that literature has the power to engage the imagination as well as the intellect. Students in our gifted and talented language arts programs read great literary works and use them as a launching point for deepening their comprehension, critical thinking, and writing skills. They complete a variety of learning activities, both online and offline, and may participate in individual and group projects.
Creating a Lively Discourse
Central to this program is Shared Inquiry™, a method of actively interpreting a text with others in a group. During sessions, teachers serve as Shared Inquiry discussion leaders, posing thought-provoking questions and guiding students to reach their own interpretations of the text. These real-time discussions give students the opportunity to develop social and communication skills as they interact with their gifted and talented peers. Gifted and talented language arts students gain experience in:
- Presenting ideas logically and persuasively
- Supporting their opinions
- Listening actively and carefully to others
- Agreeing and disagreeing constructively
- Responding to other students’ ideas, questions, and comments
- Revising ideas and evidence based on Shared Inquiry discussion
- Writing description, narrative, expository essays, and persuasive essays
Teachers may also offer enrichment activities for gifted middle school students to express themselves creatively, to explore topics of special interests, and to integrate cross-curriculum subject matter into their language arts projects.