Preschool to Kindergarden: Students work on maintaining sustained attention, listening skills, sequencing stories, contributing to class discussions in a relevant way, asking and answering questions, using appropriate vocabulary and reciting from memory.

Lower School: While continuing the above, students work on following multi-step directions, formulating a main point when speaking to others, reciting poems and presenting brief oral reports. By the end of lower school, students are able to listen for bias, motive, point of view and be attentive to the differences between literal and figurative uses of language. Also, they are able to identify non-verbal cues and also recognize information that is implied rather than stated. When speaking they are able to construct and deliver a organized speech in an effective manner as well as analyze the speeches of others.

Middle School: After the completion of middle school, students will also be able to discern true and false premises in another's speech, listen to and understand the impact of non-print media on consumers, make use of formal presentation techniques including presentation software, support and defend ideas in public forums, and deliver both impromptu and polished speeches.

Preschool to Kindergarden: Students identify letters of the alphabet and the sounds associated with them, blend sounds into words, segment spoken sentences into distinct words, decode and read grade level material with accuracy and speed. Moreover, they learn to distinguish print from pictures, use cues to determine unfamiliar words and phrases, and become familiar with fiction, non-fictioin, fairy-tales and poetry as different literary types.

Lower School: By the end of third grade, students have a solid foundation for independent reading. They demonstrate fluent oral reading, varying intonation and timing as appropriate for the text. Students use phonetic principles and rules to spell correctly or decode unfamiliar words. Students utilize different means such as word analysis or a dictionary to determine the meaning of unknown words. Having acquired various strategies to read with comprehension, students are able to summarize the plot of stories, state the main points of an expository text and draw conclusions from information in a text. By the end of lower school, students read aloud with fluency from familiar material. They show independence in using a range of strategies to identify unfamiliar words. They read silently and show understanding. In texts, they recognize main points and can select information to support what they say. In talking about texts they begin to use inference and deduction to explore and appreciate meaning. They use their knowledge to conduct research and find information.

Middle School: At this stage students read, independently, a range of texts and talk about interests and preferences. They show understanding of significant ideas, themes, events and characters and begin to make use of an appropriate vocabulary when referring to texts. Students recognize and express explicit meaning and begin to be aware of some implicit meaning and attitudes when making inferences and deductions. Students begin to talk about the author’s intention and give personal responses, supporting these with reference to the text. They locate and use ideas and information, and they are able to use technology to support their writing and research.

Preschool to Kindergarden: Along with a growing phonemic and print awareness that is needed to write, students are developing the coordination skills needed to write legibly. By the end of Kindergarten students have learned the basic structure of a simple sentence.

Lower School: By the end of third grade, students are able to write legibly in print or cursive. Compositions reflect the use of simple and compound sentences and proper punctuation, capitalization, and grammar usage. By the end of fifth grade, students develop the ability to make and shape text in order to communicate meaning in written language which is appropriate to the context, purpose, reader, and audience. Within the context of their writing, familiar and important words are spelled correctly and sentences are punctuated independently and with basic accuracy. Handwriting is accurately formed and consistent in size.

Middle School: At this stage, students will be comfortable and fluid in their handwriting and their handwriting is clear and legible. Aside from correct grammatical and punctuation usage, students will also be able to utilize proper citation and form in the composition of formal papers and reports.

Preschool to Kindergarden: With teacher assistance, students should be able to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories through pictures, words, and simple sentences as well as demonstrate a basic understanding of the writing process of pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing and publishing.

Lower School: Students begin with an introduction to the fundamental concepts of the writing process. Students are learning how to focus the topic for a given purpose and audience, organize and outline ideas, as well as use facts and details to enhance the plot, develop the character or setting, or help to illustrate the main idea. Using these basic skills and strategies students are able to plan, draft, revise and edit short stories, letters, poems, essays and short reports. By fifth grade, students compose with some independence. Their writing is based on a range of experiences and uses a variety of forms. Writing shows a sense of structure appropriate to the chosen form and includes some supporting detail to make meaning clear to the reader. Their work is sometimes planned in collaboration with the teacher and/or their peers.

Middle School: Students compose independently at this stage. The ideas are sustained and developed, making use of appropriate detail and vocabulary to enhance meaning. The writing demonstrates an ability to use appropriate form and style and shows an awareness of audience. Syntax and punctuation are used with increasing proficiency and more complex words are included in students’ own writing, and they are spelled correctly. The writing process is done with greater independence. Students plan, revise, and re-draft to improve accuracy and enhance meaning.

Preschool to Kindergarden: Students have a natural curiosity and while they easily ask questions, students are beginning to understand how to ask appropriate questions and use information from available resources to answer them. They begin to ask questions about what they are learning and, with assistance, gather information from a variety of resources and share it with others.

Lower School: As students move through the lower school, they are able to identify a topic and then select and utilize the appropriate sources (print and non-print) needed to investigate the topic. With an understanding of how to use a library and common reference materials, students can access information and cite sources used. When selecting information to be used, students can adequately summarize and organize the information into broad categories. By fifth grade, students demonstrate the ability to conduct research using various provided resources. Some independence is evident in the ability to conduct computer-generated research with guidance. Students organize information gained through research using basic note-taking strategies and writing outlines. They can classify information, and summarize and evaluate resources.

Middle School: Students conduct research in the library and on the computer, independently using supplied databases and guided Internet tools. Periodicals, almanacs, and other special references are becoming more widely used at this level. The ability to take notes using an outline format and writing from an outline is developing. Students are able to compare and contrast, summarize and paraphrase, and evaluate many of the resources found.