English Language Arts. Maine has adopted the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts
English Language Arts. KINDERGARTEN L ANGUAGE ARTS 2 SEMESTERS Kindergarten Language Arts introduces students to a variety of literary and informational texts. Students will learn about basic story elements and plot sequences through classic pieces of children’s literature. First, students will explore nursery rhymes, such as “Hickory Dickory Dock.” Then, students will move on to fables, fairy tales, and folk tales, such as “Sleeping Beauty” and “The Three Little Pigs.” This course will also teach students how to use informational texts for learning. Students will learn the parts of a book and how to use text features to gain understanding. In each Unit, students will complete fun activities that bring texts to life. Students will demonstrate their ability to describe stories, make connections, and use standard English conventions in a variety of ways, including speaking and drawing. KINDERGARTE N PHONICS/SPELLING/ PENMANSHIP 2 SEMESTERS Phonics, Spelling, and Penmanship teaches students how to read and write letters and words, focusing on the mechanics side of language. This course explicitly and systematically teaches students the letter sounds in the English language. Students will acquire automaticity of 68 different phonograms by continually reviewing the letter sounds through listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The immediate recall of sounds and let- ters is necessary for students to become better readers, spellers, and writers. This course prepares a student to read by explicitly and systematically teaching how to spell and read individual words. Once students can effortlessly read individual words, they are then ready to comprehend sentences. For penmanship, students learn and practice proper sitting posture, correct pencil grip, directions for paper slant, and the steps for writ- ing manuscript. When students can form letters with automaticity and ease, they can focus on what they want to say. Writing by hand creates kinesthetic memories of letters, which also helps students learn how to read. 1S T XX XXX PHONICS & SPELLING 2 SEMESTERS Phonics, Spelling, and Penmanship teaches students how to read and write letters and words, focusing on the mechanics side of language. This course explicitly and systematically teaches students the letter sounds in the English language. Students will acquire automaticity of 72 different phonograms by continually reviewing the letter sounds through listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The immediate recall of sounds and letter...
English Language Arts. The primary goal of literacy instruction is to xxxxxx a love of reading and writing. Therefore, MOSAICS Public School’s literacy program will include an emphasis in both reading and writing to create well-prepared students who think critically about what they read and can thoughtfully express themselves through writing. All grades will incorporate the Idaho Core Standards into readers’ and writers’ workshops based around Xxxx Xxxxxx’x models of Readers and Writers Workshops as a part of the core curriculum. Learners will read a variety of print materials---from leveled books (fiction and non-fiction) to primary source materials. Students’ literacy experiences will be a mix of direct instruction, guided practice, exploration, and independent work. In the elementary grades, students will develop literacy skills in a reading block focused on the intentional development of decoding, fluency, comprehension strategies, and analytical skills—the foundational units of reading. In the middle school grades, students will continue building a repertoire of skills and strategies in comprehension and in analysis through deeper dives into more complex texts. Teachers will guide students through the writing process of pre-writing, drafting, editing and publication as well as word work focused on phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. Our teachers will support students to write – both for communicating academic content and learning, as well for personal expression and reflection. Students will have opportunities to write across genres through the Science and Inquiry Projects and in writer’s workshop. Writing will not only focus on skill development and technical aspects, it will also be a vehicle for student voice and expression. As a part of the Science and Inquiry Projects exhibition, students will be encouraged to write about their own interests and be creative in the presentation of their material. These presentations could include multiple forms of writing such as authoring a reader’s theater, designing pamphlets for specific audiences, scripting a movie and recording it for presentation, writing a letter to an editor of the newspaper, among many other ideas. While these readers’ and writers’ workshops lend themselves to both inquiry-based teaching practices and differentiation they do not necessarily, in and of themselves, support the integrated units of study MOSAICS desires to create. Because of this, MOSAICS teachers will draw on teaching ...
English Language Arts. Traditionally, CCA has relied on an internally created curriculum. This curriculum has been created by teachers with support from their coaches and network-wide efforts such as the Purposeful Planning Project. Though internally created curricula have garnered good results, we have begun to transition toward a purchased curriculum, Reading Reconsidered. Seventh- and eighth-grade English language arts (ELA) teachers are piloting the curriculum during the 2021–22 school year, and we hope to begin full implementation during the 2022–23 school year. Reading Reconsidered was created by Uncommon Schools, which has had outstanding academic results in similar communities on the East Coast. The curriculum also follows the “science of reading” principals, including a focus on knowledge building, intensive writing, and high-quality texts. Moreover, the curriculum is designed to be modular, meaning that a school or teacher can choose from a variety of outstanding texts at a given grade level to assemble their own scope and sequence each year. Finally, the curriculum wraps in many resources familiar to our teachers and leaders, including the text by the same name, Teach Like a Champion, Love and Literacy, and Get Better Faster. Reading Reconsidered does not yet have a rating from EdReports. The ELA Curriculum is supplemented by The Writing Revolution. The Writing Revolution provides teachers with an evidence-based and proven instructional methodology, the Xxxxxxx Method. This method enables students to master the skills that are essential if they are to become competent writers. In turn, those skills equip students to become better readers, to communicate more effectively in writing and speaking, and—most importantly—to elevate their thinking. The six principles of the Xxxxxxx Method include the following:
English Language Arts. Pg. 3 English Learners – Pg. 6 Mathematics – Pg. 7 Physical Education – Pg. 8 Science – Pg. 9 Social Studies – Pg. 10 Special Education (Including SPED placements at Redwood, Independent Study, Home-Hospital, Non-Public School/Residential Treatment, and Course Requirements for a Certificate of Achievement) – Pg. 11
English Language Arts. There are additional considerations when selecting the English Language Arts curriculum. Because this is a founding school year, we consider it essential to have a program that incorporates all foundational early literacy components within the program itself, rather than as add-on components. The instructional team probed on each ELA program’s approach to: • Phonemic awareness and letters • Systematic phonics instruction • Fluency (automaticity and prosody) • Comprehension strategies • Vocabulary The team also considered each program’s writing instruction as well as the level of exposure to reading-connected text at both an instructional and independent reading level and consistent access to texts that are at or above grade level. With these considerations in mind, the CWC Cincinnati team has narrowed down an ELA curriculum to two options: American Reading Company (ARC) Core K-8, and EL Education K- 5 Language Arts. Math When considering Math curriculum options, in addition to the broad considerations listed above for all curricular selections, the CWC instructional team will probe on each program’s conceptual problem-solving for young learners, computational fluency, level of rigor for students ready to progress, and support for teacher professional development in mathematics and mathematical progressions. The number of rigorous Mathematics curricula that meet these needs are lacking—even Everyday Math, the program utilized by CWC Kansas City, only partially meets expectations according to EdReports. The CWC Cincinnati team has narrowed down a Mathematics curriculum to two selections: Illustrative Mathematics and enVision Mathematics Common Core K-8. Implementation As noted above, one of the key considerations for curriculum selections hinged on vendor supports for teachers. All CWC Cincinnati educators will go through three weeks of professional development prior to the school year, but the school will facilitate a virtual “onboarding” with the ELA and Math programs to support foundational understanding with each program prior to the August PD in order to allow for educators to spend their time in August focused on classroom delivery. In addition to this summer professional development prior to the start of the school year, the instructional team will utilize the extensive PD opportunities available within each Math and ELA program option for additional asynchronous learning and coaching throughout the year. In addition, at the end of each quarter, the t...
English Language Arts. At CWC Cincinnati, we have adopted a balanced approach to teaching literacy, with an emphasis on promoting authentic reading and writing, often presented in a workshop structure. During workshops, teachers present a mini-lesson to the whole class, which briefly demonstrates a specific technique. Then students are given the opportunity to apply the technique independently to their project. Teachers conference with students and lead small groups for those who are likely to need more support, based on previous assessment. During these lessons, teachers observe and assist as needed, coaching students in applying the technique to their work (teachers can also utilize the workshop structure for other subjects, in addition to reading and writing). The balanced literacy instructional methodologies that make up this approach serve as our core techniques for teaching reading and writing, as indicated by the examples below.
English Language Arts. The elementary ELA curriculum is designed to build and strengthen skill sets in listening, speaking, reading, researching, writing, and language conventions. Students will be able to appreciate and use their communication skills, vocabularies, and writing abilities in an authentic manner both within their literacy blocks and throughout their schoolwork and project activities. We will also emphasize the writing process necessary for clear and effective academic writing as students apply their developing understanding of writing techniques in various genres from narratives to research papers. Students will become familiar with the elements and techniques of literature, including plot, setting, character, narrator and voice, theme, irony, foreshadowing, and symbolism. They will learn to become literary critics of poetry, drama, short stories, and novels. These efforts are supported by grammar and vocabulary practice. Use of inquiry and the discovery process encourages students to fully challenge and engage their diverse learning styles. Furthermore, by using an integrated curriculum, CWC Cincinnati will develop students’ communication skills in all subject areas. CWC Cincinnati is working with local and national experts to ensure the curriculum selected is aligned with the school’s mission, vision, and learning model, and will support the replication of a high-quality school model. The curriculum will have a significant commmitment to culturally responsive pedagogy, will be supportive of teacher use and deicison-making (wihtout being scripted), and will be academically rigorous in challengaing and suppporting all students. Possible programs under consideration include, but are not limited to, American Reading Company (ARC) Core K-8, and EL Education K-5 Language Arts, both of which are highly rated by various instructional material reviewers. Citizens of the World – Cincinnati will identify and implement a high-quality ELA curriculum in the Cincinnati school, to include an early reading program highly rated by xxxxxxxxx.xxx or the What Works Clearinghouse and incorporating scientifically based instruction; Citizens of the World – Cincinnati will evidence demonstrated progress of preparing the new school team to teach/implement the new ELA curriculum and use data to monitor student performance and inform instruction; and, Citizens of the World – Cincinnati will analyze alignment of the project-based materials being used in all subjects to ensure that all Ohio ...
English Language Arts. The ELA curriculum has been designed to scale up student’s fluency in English grammar, skill in reading informational texts as well as literature and with an eye toward the intensive, information rich reading that students will be expected to do at college and in the workplace. FlexTech ascribes to and follows the beliefs articulated by the designers of the Michigan Academic Standards with regard to achievement within the English Language Arts: As a natural outgrowth of meeting the charge to define college and career readiness, the Standards also lay out a vision of what it means to be a literate person in the twenty-first century. Indeed, the skills and understandings students are expected to demonstrate have wide applicability outside the classroom or workplace. Students who meet the Standards readily undertake the close, attentive reading that is at the heart of understanding and enjoying complex works of literature. They habitually perform the critical reading necessary to pick carefully through the staggering amount of information available today in print and digitally. They actively seek the wide, deep, and thoughtful engagement with high quality literary and informational texts that builds knowledge, enlarges experience, and broadens worldviews. They reflexively demonstrate the cogent reasoning and use of evidence that is essential to both private deliberation and responsible citizenship in a democratic republic. In short, students who meet the Standards develop the skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening that are the foundation for any creative and purposeful expression in language. With this in mind, and with careful data analysis, the curriculum is regularly reviewed and aligned. The English Language Arts curriculum in 7th and 8th grade is intended to begin to introduce students to the more complex texts they will encounter in high school and beyond. Specifically, students will begin to read more non-fiction texts and will begin to analyze the craft of writing as a tool to persuade, entertain, and inform. Students will also write frequently and reflect upon their writing. In conjunction with the advisory class, Junior High students will self-monitor their engagement with reading and writing and use discourse to deepen their understanding as well as begin to synthesize multiple texts for the coherent, concise and professional presentation of their own ideas. In all Junior High English courses students will improve literacy using non- f...
English Language Arts. The Reading Wonders (K-5), Springboard and Collections (6-8), and Being a Writer curriculum will include strategies for students reading at grade level or higher, as well as for students who are reading below grade level. It is expected that students will master reading, writing, and verbal skills through continuous infusion of reading skills in all subject areas. Text which reflects the Idaho Content Standards complexity bands will be used to teach reading skills and strategies. Lessons will support students by building a strong reading foundation, accessing complex text, finding and using text evidence, engaging in collaborative conversations, and writing to sources. To build a foundation in language, students must gain control over many conventions of Standard English grammar, usage, and mechanics as well as learn other ways to use language to convey meaning effectively. The School will provide students with increasingly complex texts, including novel studies, to aide student growth in reading comprehension, and expose them to complex vocabulary. Through Language Arts, students will also be required to develop a range of oral communication and interpersonal skills through whole group discussions as well as individual, partnered, and small group presentations. Through these, students learn and engage in contributing accurate and relevant information; responding to and developing what others have said; making comparisons and contrasts; as well as analyzing and synthesizing a multitude of ideas through various language arts domains. Students will also get the chance to compare and contrast thematically-based texts in different genres; for example, stories and poems/historical novels and fantasy stories. They will write routinely over short and extended time frames for a variety of tasks, purposes, and audiences. Writing As part of the Language Arts Curriculum, students will enhance writing skills through daily writing assignments in various modes, including, but not limited to, expository, persuasive, and narrative. The tasks will require students to use writing as a way of offering and supporting opinions, demonstrating understanding of the subjects they are studying, and conveying real and imagined experiences and events. In addition, students will be required to compose writing pieces that are text based. Via the writing process, the students will plan, revise, edit, and publish their writing, with the end goal of teaching that a key purpose to writing ...
