Elementary Curriculum

Literacy curriculum builds upon the learners’ prior knowledge gained in pre-school, continuing with the immersion in a language-rich environment, while focusing on the building of alphabetic knowledge and phonemic awareness skills. Literacy experiences are play-based, interactive and hands-on. Read alouds, shared reading and perusing books in the classroom library are core pieces to the kindergarten literacy program. The writing process encourages the expression of language. Children share their stories, thoughts, and wonderings, enabling them to develop their own “voice” as they grow as readers and writers. Learners continue to gain comfort with writing tools and letter formation. Kindergartners enjoy sharing their writing and thoughts about stories with their peers — they experience first-hand the need for and joy of sharing stories and working collaboratively with others to generate writing projects.

Reading, writing, and word study skills and concepts are taught explicitly and practiced each day. Using a balanced literacy model, learners will develop appropriate skills and strategies needed to 
read, spell, and write texts of various genres and for different purposes. It is a goal for children to
feel that what they learn as readers and writers has meaningful and practical application in school
and beyond. We understand that first graders will arrive with a variety of skill levels in reading.
 Through direct teaching and individual assessment, teachers learn about the strengths and needs
of each reader. Throughout the year, the learners are developing decoding skills, fluency,
comprehension strategies, and inferential thinking. In writing, they are learning to draft, revise, edit, and publish their work. Children share their stories, thoughts, and wonderings, enabling
them to develop their own voice as they grow as readers and writers. First graders develop
control of their letter formation through a handwriting program. Learners receive consistent word
study instruction to develop connections to sounds and letters involved in their reading, writing,
and spelling. In addition, first graders learn strategies for applying spelling patterns and core sight
words into the proofreading and editing of their written work.

Reading, writing, and word study skills and concepts are taught explicitly and practiced each day. In second grade, the emphasis shifts to more complex decoding skills and more sophisticated comprehension skills. The books evolve to take on more nuanced characters/traits and situations and exciting plots.
We expect the children to share and express their thinking and specific ideas about their reading in both verbal and written form. Second graders will write in a variety of genres and deepen their understanding of the writing process: generating ideas, drafting, revising, editing and publishing. Children share their stories, thoughts and wonderings, enabling them to develop their own voice as they grow as readers and writers. Teachers introduce diverse mentor texts to inspire their students’ developing writing styles. The second grade literacy program also focuses on writing mechanics, punctuation, grammar, and capitalization. Spelling concepts advance to more complex patterns and syllable types; students’ sight-word repertoire expands as they continue to commit such words to memory.

Reading, writing, and word study skills and concepts are taught explicitly and practiced each day. In third grade, children are transitioning from learning-to-read to reading-to-learn. Learners immerse themselves in ‘just right’ fiction books and expository non-fiction. Vocabulary development, envisionment, ascertaining main ideas, recognizing text infrastructure, and thinking deeply are some skills directly taught and practiced. As the books evolve to take on nuanced characters/traits, situations, and exciting plots, we expect the children to express their thinking and ideas about their reading in both verbal and written form. Expanding from second grade, third graders continue to write longer and more thoroughly. Teachers continue to model and directly teach skills to support: drafting and revising; synthesizing and organizing; and writing persuasively about meaningful topics. The third grade literacy program also focuses on writing mechanics, punctuation, grammar, and capitalization. Spelling concepts advance to more complex patterns and syllable types; students’ sight-word repertoire expands as they continue to commit such words to memory.

Learners progress with the essentials of quality reading instruction (the framework that informs mini lessons, one-on-one conferences and small group strategy lessons) continue to be the backbone of Reading Workshop. Learners begin to refer to relevant details and/or examples from sources to back up their thinking and demonstrate authentic understanding of a text. At this stage in a young reader’s life, a main teaching goal is to empower learners to develop their own ideas and interpretations about complex characters and themes.
Research becomes front and center as learners investigate topics and explore history while developing skills in cross-text synthesis, close reading, analyzing, comparing/contrasting and evaluating multiple points of view. The writing process works in tandem with reading. Learners will try their hand at opinion, information and narrative writing, and further understand the transfer of perspective from reading to be brought to their writing. Fourth Graders delve into developing believable characters with struggles and motivations. As learners embark on thesis-driven persuasive essays, they are mindful of organization as evidence is gathered to support and express opinions on a topic they know about; historical research reports will demonstrate use of details to vividly describe events from long ago. Spelling concepts, vocabulary and grammar is taught in a highly explicit, multi-sensory way. Daily instruction to support orthographic knowledge allows for more fluid, joyful, and efficient reading, spelling and writing.

Fifth Grade learners at The Innovative School will continue to be encouraged to make connections between literature and their own lives. They will be inspired to read closely, observe story elements, and compare and contrast texts with similar themes. Age-appropriate texts will be selected with an understanding and awareness towards racial, ethnic, socio-economic, and gender diversity. Non-fiction texts become more complex, and the following skills will be more deeply explored: fluency, word solving strategies, research, and perspective. 

The social aspect of reading continues with book clubs as learners are held accountable to share higher level thinking, how authors develop characters and themes, and metaphorical, as well as analytical thinking. Learners will design, write and revise literary essays. They will continue to grow ideas about the texts they read, which in turn, instills the practice of reading interpretively and carefully – to identify evidence that supports thinking. Learners will have opportunities for an increased nuanced sense of language (including vocabulary and grammar) to work in authoring a wide variety of writing, from short creative pieces to culminating essays – both creative and expository. An overarching goal for Fifth Grade learners: to continue to develop as adept readers, compelling writers, skilled speakers and active listeners.