Language Arts Homeschool Curriculum
English Language Arts, sometimes referred to as ELA or simply language arts, is a comprehensive literacy program meant to build strong communication skills by deepening students’ understanding of the English language through speaking, reading and writing.
The Time4Learning language arts curriculum is designed to give students from PreK-12th grades a comprehensive, standards-based education that includes phonics, reading fluency, grammar, writing, comprehension and more. The curriculum is online and is taught through interactive lessons and activities which include quizzes and tests to help parents assess their child’s understanding. The beauty of Time4Learning’s homeschool language arts curriculum is that it follows a student-paced approach that grants them the freedom to redo activities and lessons or retake tests and quizzes if need be.
Why is Language Arts Important?
According to Merriam-Webster, language arts is defined as, “the subjects (such as reading, spelling, literature, and composition) that aim at developing the student’s comprehension and capacity for use of written and oral language.” As such, the components of language arts make it an important part of your child’s homeschool curriculum because it is the basis for reading and writing, without which further learning couldn’t take place. Language arts helps the youngest learners build their phonemic awareness, develop their literacy as they grow, and then allow them to be successful readers and writers.
What do You Learn in Language Arts?
A language arts curriculum is typically designed to further enhance student literacy (this includes reading, writing, speaking, and sometimes, even listening skills). In order to accomplish this, an English Language Arts curriculum will usually include the following subjects:
- Phonics – Understanding sounds through letter recognition, blending, and decoding is the foundation for rereading and reading, which leads to fluency. Fluency is the ability to sound out familiar and unfamiliar words in text while reading.
- Reading – Building critical thinking skills through pre-reading, reading comprehension, making inferences, asking questions, summarizing, comparing and contrasting, analyzing characters, and identifying cause and effect creates an understanding of literature.
- Grammar – Developing skills in spelling, punctuation, parts of speech, verb tenses and sentence types leads to better reading writing, listening and speaking.
- Vocabulary – Learning multiple meanings, synonyms, antonyms, prefixes, suffixes, parts of speech, and using context clues help students broaden their oral expression, writing, and speaking skills.
- Writing – Beginning with prewriting, applying the writing process, sentence and paragraph structure, sequencing, conventions, various genres of composition, response, analysis, and creative thinking structures students’ writing.
- Spelling – Learning specific letter combinations, understanding the relationship between sounds and letters, patterning of consonant-vowel-consonant, short and long vowel sounds, sight words, commonly misspelled words, subject-specific terminology, etymology of words.
Language Arts Curriculum Overview
Time4Learning provides a complete preschool-twelfth grade online language arts curriculum, which correlates to all state standards. The materials are delivered using a combination of animated lessons, instructional videos, worksheets, quizzes, tests and both online and offline projects designed to develop and build literacy from the basics through college and career readiness. Language arts is offered in the following ways:
| Grades | Language Arts Lessons | Language Arts Extensions |
|---|---|---|
| K-2 | Systematic phonics-based learning to read. Less concern is placed on topics and greater emphasis is placed on a systematic approach to letter sounds and text elements. | Thematic-based approach to phonics and reading. Students explore phonics through a series of stories, which are not necessarily systematic. |
| 3-6 | Complete series of lessons to improve vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing skills. Lessons provide students with instruction, practice and assessment. | Skill based lessons provide students with instructional lessons and practice that cover spelling, grammar, writing and reading comprehension. |
| 7-8 | Complete series of lessons to improve vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing skills. Lessons provide students with instruction, practice and assessment. | Supplemental instructional lessons and material for students to improve reading comprehension and writing skills and strategies. |
Language Arts Preschool Curriculum
Preschoolers will start building their pre-reading skills with fun activities and lessons that don’t even feel like schoolwork. The preschool language arts curriculum features numerous themes such as My ABCs, At The Zoo, Days of the Week, and more, all spread across various levels.
Language Arts Kindergarten Curriculum
For kindergarten students who are becoming more familiar with letters and the sounds they make, the Time4Learning language arts curriculum helps these budding readers and writers meet their milestones in fun and engaging ways. Students delve deeper into the particular sights and sounds of each letter in the alphabet so they can develop a solid foundation and thorough understanding of phonics before beginning their journey into reading.
Language Arts Elementary Curriculum
For students in first through fifth grades, the Time4Learning language arts curriculum focuses on mastering numerous skills such as phonics and reading fluency for the earlier grades, and then building grammar, reading comprehension, writing skills, and more. Students also have access to Language Arts Extensions that includes literature, spelling rules, and more.
Language Arts Middle School Curriculum
Middle school students will focus on further advancing their writing, comprehension, and literature skills with the Time4Learning language arts curriculum. Students will delve into more detailed and complicated content across various literary genres, as well as enhance their vocabulary, grammar and parts of speech knowledge. Advanced comprehension skills are developed through the use of context clues, figurative language, point-of-view, and cause and effect.
Language Arts High School Curriculum
The high school ELA curriculum is organized into individual courses that help students achieve college and career readiness. The high school English courses have an increased emphasis on writing. Reading skills are also a huge focus and teach students to analyze all parts of a story in both fiction and nonfiction passages, dramas, poetry, and more.
Why Choose Time4Learning’s Language Arts Curriculum
Some of the reasons why homeschoolers around the nation (and world) choose Time4Learning’s online ELA curriculum as their core program are:
- Comprehensive program designed to build strong literacy skills
- Incorporates strong and clear visual and auditory elements to maximize learning
- Helps develop students’ skills in literary analysis and interpretation
- Correlates to all state standards to ensure compliance
- Combination of animated lessons, instructional videos, worksheets and quizzes to inspire love of learning
- 24/7 access from any time zone, anywhere in the world
- Flexible grade levels and freedom to customize lessons
- Builds college and career readiness
For students with special needs, the Time4Learning language arts curriculum provides an engaging, flexible format that motivates them and gets them excited about learning. The multimedia-based lessons and activities keep students engaged as they learn and retain information in the process. Students can work on different levels for each subject and also have access to one grade level above and one below, allowing parents to customize the curriculum based on their child’s specific needs.
What a great program
By Charity
“Language Arts is teaching all the correct things kids need for proper sentence structures and paper writing for future use.”
