Reading
Units of Study for Teaching Reading: A Workshop Curriculum
The Reading Units of Study gives each child the instruction, opportunities for practice, and concrete goals to help them meet and exceed state reading standards. Each reading unit represents about 6 weeks of reading instruction.
10 Essentials of Reading Instruction
I. Good Teaching Matters. Learners need teachers who demonstrate what it means to live richly literate lives, wearing a love of reading on their sleeves. Professional developments improve teachers with their ability to teach high quality reading instruction.
II. Readers need long stretches of time to read. Research supports the notion that teachers who teach reading successfully provide their students with time for actual reading.
III. Readers need opportunities to read high-interest, accessible books of their own choosing. Our students have access to books that they can read with high levels of accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. Our students have opportunities to use skills and strategies with automaticity.
IV. Readers need to read increasingly complex texts appropriate for their grade level. Teachers scaffold instruction to provide students access to complex texts.
V. Readers have direct, explicit instruction in the skills and strategies of proficient reading. Teachers explicitly teach reading strategies and give ample opportunities to practice these skills in order to improve reading comprehension.
VI. Readers need opportunities to talk and write in response to texts. Talking and writing provide concrete and visible ways for learners to do thinking that later becomes internalized.
VII. Readers need support reading nonfiction books and building knowledge based on academic vocabulary through information reading. Students have many opportunities to read and comprehend nonfiction texts. Students who read a great deal of nonfiction gain knowledge about the world as well as critical vocabulary.
VIII. Readers need assessment-based instruction. All learners are not the same and need do not need the same thing to progress. Teaching is responsive to student’s needs. Student need is based on formative and informative assessments.
IX. Readers need teachers that read aloud to them. Reading aloud is essential to teaching reading. Teachers read aloud to embark on shared adventures, to explore new worlds, or to place important topics at the center of the classroom community.
X. Readers need a balanced approach to language arts. Our classrooms have high literacy engagement and balanced instruction in place.
Click here to learn more about Units of Study in Reading, Grades K-2
Writing
Units of Study for Teaching Writing: A Workshop Curriculum
The Writing Units of Study supports explicit instruction in opinion/argument, information, and narrative writing. It provides ample opportunity for practice. This curriculum helps teachers use learning progressions and writing rubrics in order to observe and assess student writing, help students self-reflect and make personal writing goals, and set trajectories of growth.
10 Essentials of Writing Instruction
I. Good Teaching Matters. Learners need teachers who demonstrate what it means to live richly literate lives, wearing a love of reading and writing on their sleeves.
II. Students need a balanced approach to English/language arts, one that includes a responsive approach to the teaching of both reading and writing.
III. Writing needs to be taught like other basic skills, with direct, explicit instruction— including spelling, conventions, and the skills and strategies of proficient reading and writing.
IV. Writers need extended opportunities to write.
V. Writers learn to use the writing process: rehearsing, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing their writing.
VI. Writers deserve to write for real, to write the kinds of texts that they see in the world, and to write to put meaning onto the page.
VII. Readers and writers need teachers to read aloud to them.
VIII. Students have opportunities to talk and sometimes to write in response to texts.
IX. Readers need to read increasingly complex texts appropriate for their grade level and they need support reading nonfiction and building a knowledge base and academic vocabulary through information reading.
X. Students have clear goals and frequent feedback tailored specifically to them. They need to hear ways their writing is getting better and to know what their next steps might be.
Click here to learn more about Units of Study in Writing, K–2
Word Study
Fundations
Fundations® utilizes a structured literacy approach grounded in the science of reading to make learning to read fun while laying the groundwork for lifelong literacy. The program’s research-based approach and extensive materials allow K–3 teachers to confidently present a carefully structured reading, spelling, and handwriting curriculum using engaging, multisensory techniques. Fundations is aligned with the science of reading and guides teachers to provide effective instructional practices.
Instructional Principles
I. Structured, Sequential, & Cumulative: All concepts are taught and practiced step-by-step following a specified sequence and building upon previously taught skills. Optimal learning is facilitated by a gradual release of responsibility that moves from teacher demonstration, guided instruction/practice, then collaborative learning, and finally, independent success.
II. Visible, Direct, & Explicit: The teacher directly teaches all concepts and skills to students through explanation, modeling, and active learning. Classroom demonstrations using manipulatives accompany explanations. Students are only expected to demonstrate knowledge of concepts taught.
III. Multisensory, Engaging Multiple Learning Modalities: Lessons are interactive in nature and designed to fully engage students in the task at hand. All skills and concepts are taught and reinforced through visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic senses. This learning through various modalities helps students maintain their focus.
IV. Differentiated & Diagnostic: Teachers plan lessons diagnostically to differentiate instruction based on students’ needs and mastery of previously taught material. Teachers assess student mastery by analyzing student outcomes on formative and summative assessments through daily observations.
V. Integrated: Each lesson plan incorporates a variety of learning activities to ensure an integrated and applied approach to skill and strategy development across all areas of instruction.
VI. Ample Practice with Targeted Feedback: Multiple and varied opportunities to deliberately practice, apply, and reinforce new and mastered skills and demonstrate understanding are provided within each lesson through a range of learning activities. Students receive immediate,
specific, and supportive feedback.
VII. Cognitive & Rigorous: Students are engaged in metacognitive thinking because it is essential they understand the underpinnings of word structure and can apply and generalize concepts. Teachers directly discuss with students how and why they can now decode and spell words. Students explain, apply, and generalize concepts to express what they do to succeed.
VIII. Emotionally Sound: Expectations are clear and manageable. Students develop self-efficacy as they see their small successes add up to very measurable achievements. Regular activity routines allow students to focus on learning concepts rather than activity processes. Students are engaged in rigorous work, but have necessary scaffolding and support for both daily successes within a lesson and overall reading and writing success.
Click here to learn more about Fundations® - Wilson Language Training
Mathematics
Illustrative Mathematics
Illustrative Mathematics is a problem-based core curriculum designed to address content and practice standards to foster learning for all. Students learn by doing math, solving problems in mathematical and real-world contexts, and constructing arguments using precise language. Teachers can shift their instruction and facilitate student learning with high-leverage routines to guide learners to understand and
make connections between concepts and procedures.
Essentials of Illustrative Mathematics Instruction
IX. Spark discussion, perseverance, and enjoyment of mathematics. Illustrated K–5 Math is a problem-based core curriculum rooted in content and practice standards to foster learning and achievement for all. Students learn by doing math through solving problems, developing conceptual understanding, and discussing and defending their reasoning. Teachers build confidence with lessons and curriculum guides that help them facilitate learning and help students make connections between concepts and procedures.
X. Intentional lesson design that promotes mathematical growth. Every activity and lesson in Illustrated K–5 Math tell a coherent mathematical story across units and grade levels based on both the standards and research-based learning trajectories. This allows students the opportunity to view mathematics as a connected set of ideas and offers them access to mathematics when developed into the overarching design structure of the curriculum.
XI. Focus on developing learning communities. The first unit in each grade level provides lesson structures which establish a mathematical community and invite students into mathematics with accessible content. Each lesson offers opportunities for the teacher and students to learn more about one another, develop mathematical language, and become increasingly familiar with the curriculum routines. The use of authentic contexts and adaptations provides students opportunities to bring their own experiences to the lesson activities and see themselves in the materials and mathematics.
Click here to learn more about Illustrative Mathematics | Kendall Hunt
Science
Studies Weekly
Studies Weekly is a customized, standards-based core curriculum founded on deep learning strategies that increase student knowledge and skills in science. It engages students through stories with colorful illustrations that have research-based content infused with reading and literacy strategies.
Click here to learn more about Studies-Weekly-NGSS-Standards-Correlations.pdf (studiesweekly.com)
Social Studies
Studies Weekly
Studies Weekly is a customized, standards-based core curriculum founded on deep learning strategies that increase student knowledge and skills in social studies. It is fully aligned with NGSS, hands-on with open-and-go lessons, and driven by guiding questions that push students to explore.
Click here to learn more about Social Studies Curriculum | Studies Weekly - Studies Weekly
Social Emotional Learning
Conscious Discipline
Conscious Discipline is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary self-regulation program that integrates social emotional learning, school culture, and discipline. It helps teachers and administrators build a school that is based on internal resources of safety, connection, and problem solving. When teachers and staff become emotionally intelligent, we can create a healthy and positive learning environment that maintains optimal learning states for students.
The Three Core Components of Conscious Discipline
I. Safety, through self-regulation, Conscious Discipline enhances adults’ and children’s ability to recognize and manage psychological and emotional upset.
II. Connection, through creating a compassionate School Family culture, Conscious Discipline motivates adults’ and children’s willingness to engage in healthy relationships and help each other to be successful and change perceptions about conflict.
III. Problem Solving, through changing our response to conflict and upgrading social emotional skills, Conscious Discipline boosts adults’ and children’s ability to adapt to changing situations (resiliency).
Click here to learn more about Conscious Discipline - Social and Emotional Learning
Assessment and Progress Monitoring
Student growth is regularly measured using a wide variety of assessments and screenings to ensure that instruction is tailored to each child’s specific learning needs.
Assessment tools
Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Growth
Measures reading and math achievement and growth.
*Science subtest added for 2024-2025 school year
Phonological Awareness Screening Test (PAST)
Measures students’ phonological awareness skills (the ability to recognize and manipulate spoken parts of sentences and words.)
Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark System
Used to determine students’ independent, instructional, and frustration reading level.
Phonics Survey
Measures students’ phonics skills (matching the sounds of spoken English with individual letters or groups of letters.)
Unit Assessments
Teachers use a wide variety of informal and formal assessments to monitor student learning in reading, math, writing, and content areas.
Multi-Tiered System of Supports
Student growth is regularly measured using a wide variety of assessments and screenings to ensure that instruction is tailored to their specific learning needs. The level of support is based on students’ academic and social-emotional needs.
Tier 1: Core Instruction
All students receive classroom instruction using the subject area curriculums.
Tier 2: Targeted Intervention
If a student is below grade-level, he/she will work with a small group daily on specific skills. Student progress is monitored every two weeks and response to intervention is evaluated every 6-8 data points.
Tier 3: Intensive Intervention
If a student is below grade-level and not making adequate progress while receiving Tier 2 support, he/she will work with a smaller group or 1-to-1 on targeted skills daily. This is in addition to their tier 1 and tier 2 instruction. Student progress is monitored weekly and response to intervention is evaluated every 6-8 data points.
Special Education Referral
If a student is not making adequate progress after working through the tiered support system, referrals can be made to the Martin County School District and other partner agencies to evaluate for speech/language disorders, learning disabilities, and other conditions that effect learning. Our teachers and administrators are part of the school-based team that oversees your child’s evaluation and learning.
