Sierra Leone JSS3 Syllabus - Language Arts

This course covers the essential components of language arts, focusing on developing reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. It also includes a literature component, covering prose, poetry, and drama. The curriculum aims to equip students with the necessary language skills for effective communication and critical thinking. The resources used in this syllabus are developed by the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) of Sierra Leone. The following are the key components of the syllabus:

Reading

• Fluent Reading: Emphasis is placed on reading fluently with appropriate voice modulation, intonation, and stress. Students engage in exercises to improve their reading speed, accuracy, and expression.
• Reading Comprehension: Students develop their comprehension skills through various activities, including answering factual and inferential questions, summarizing texts, and using context clues to understand unfamiliar words.
• Reading Strategies: Different reading strategies are introduced to help students effectively extract information from various text types. These strategies include skimming, scanning, and close reading.
• Prose: Students study selected prose texts, analyzing themes, characters, settings, and plot. They also learn about different types of prose, including narrative, descriptive, and explanatory.
• Poetry: Students analyze selected poems, focusing on themes, literary devices (such as simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, and rhyme), and interpretation.
• Drama: Students study a prescribed Shakespearean play, focusing on character development, plot, themes, and context. They also learn how to answer context questions.

Writing

• Composition: Students practice writing different types of compositions, including narrative, descriptive, and persuasive essays. They learn about essay structure, paragraph development, and the use of transition words.
• Creative Writing: Students engage in creative writing activities, developing their imagination and storytelling skills. They learn about story elements, such as setting, characters, plot, climax, and outcome.
• Letter Writing: Students learn how to write different types of letters, including informal, semi-formal, and formal letters. They practice writing letters for various purposes, such as requesting information, making complaints, and expressing thanks.
• Articles for Publication: Students learn how to write articles suitable for publication in school magazines and local newspapers. They focus on article structure, appropriate language, and addressing social issues.
• Spelling and Dictation: Spelling drills and dictation exercises are used to improve spelling accuracy and vocabulary.

Listening and Speaking

• Oral Narrative: Students develop their oral presentation skills through activities such as self-introductions and storytelling.
• Listening Comprehension: Students practice listening to and understanding spoken language through various activities, including listening to radio programs and documentaries. They learn how to summarize main points and discuss issues.
• Speech Writing and Oral Presentation: Students learn how to plan, write, and deliver speeches for different occasions. They focus on using appropriate language, voice modulation, and engaging the audience.

Grammar

• Parts of Speech: Students review the eight parts of speech (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections) and their functions in sentences.
• Verb Tenses: Students study various verb tenses, including simple present, simple past, past continuous, past perfect, present continuous, simple future, future continuous, and future perfect. They learn how to use these tenses correctly in different contexts.
• Pronouns: Students learn about different types of pronouns, including personal, possessive, reflexive, demonstrative, interrogative, indefinite, reciprocal, and relative pronouns. They practice using pronouns correctly in sentences.
• Adjectives and Adverbs: Students study comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs, learning how to use them to make comparisons.
• Prepositions and Conjunctions: Students learn about the use of prepositions and conjunctions to connect words, phrases, and clauses.
• Direct and Indirect Speech: Students practice changing sentences between direct and indirect speech, making the necessary changes to verb tenses, pronouns, and time expressions.
• Question Tags: Students learn how to form and use question tags in both positive and negative questions.
• Phrasal Verbs and Idiomatic Expressions: Students learn about phrasal verbs and idiomatic expressions, expanding their vocabulary and understanding of figurative language.
• Sentence Structure: Students learn about basic sentence patterns and how to identify the subject, predicate, object, and complement in sentences. They also practice changing sentences between active and passive voice.
• Punctuation: Students review and practice using various punctuation marks, including commas, full stops, question marks, exclamation marks, colons, and quotation marks.