Elementary Literacy
One of our most important missions as educators is to ensure that all students become proficient, confident and engaged readers, writers, speakers and listeners. The New York State Next Generation English Language Arts Learning Standards can be found here and serve as the foundation of the development of the work we do in the areas of reading and writing.
On January 11, 2024, the New York State Department of Education released 7 Literacy Briefs. These briefs are to be viewed as guidance documents to ensure our literacy curriculum, instruction, and assessments are aligned to the Science of Reading. Bedford Central School District is well on its way to ensuring this alignment. See our BCSD Literacy communication, sent on January 11, 2024, regarding our District's literacy initiative.
THE BIG 6 AREAS OF READING:
Simply put, reading is making meaning from print. And yet, this seemingly simple process of reading does not develop naturally in human beings. Rather, it requires the integration of various areas of the brain working together in new ways. A solid understanding of the concepts of print and strong oral language fluency combine to create a strong foundation upon which students can become successful readers. Upon this foundation, there are specific skills that must be developed to lead to proficient reading. These are known as The Big 6 Components of reading:
- Oral Language
- Phonemic Awareness
- Phonics
- Vocabulary
- Fluency
- Comprehension
Strong phonemic awareness, combined with phonics knowledge, allows students to develop the process of orthographic mapping, which is essential for readers to become fluent readers and comprehenders of print.
CURRICULUM MATERIALS
On May 8, 2024, the District's Board of Education adopted new core literacy curriculum, aligned to the Science of Reading, for all 5 elementary schools beginning in the 2024-25 school year. In order to effectively teach the Big 6 areas of reading, at the Tier 1 universal core instructional level, our curriculum resources include:
Bookworms K-5 Reading and Writing (BHES, BVES, PRES, WPES)
The Bookworms K-5 Reading and Writing is a core literacy curriculum for students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade. In Bookworms students are actively reading, writing, listening, and speaking about complex ideas every day. The Bookworms curriculum is divided into three 45-minute blocks. The Shared Reading block features real books that are written for that particular grade level. Students will read these books with the support of teachers and peer partners. The purpose of these lessons is to build fluency, vocabulary, and critical thinking about a text. The English Language Arts (ELA) block features an Interactive Read Aloud that is nearly always above grade level. The purpose of working with an above-grade-level text is to build language, vocabulary, and background knowledge and improve students’ inferential thinking. During this time, students also participate in high-level grammar instruction by studying sentences. The final block of time is called the Differentiation Instruction (DI) block. During that time, teachers provide targeted phonics instruction based on student assessments. When students are not meeting with a teacher, they are working on written assignments from shared reading or targeted independent reading practice with decodable readers and trade books.
American Reading Company (ARC) Core (MKES only)
Students in the Dual Language Bilingual Education program (DLBE) housed at MKES receive core literacy instruction in ARC Core, an award-winning, high-quality curriculum that supports student reading development with engaging texts, authentic research, and foundational skills instruction. It is a high-quality instructional material (HQIM) built on the Science of Reading and recognized as one of 8 curricula that builds knowledge according to the Knowledge Matters Campaign. Organized around four topic-based units, students will learn about science, social studies, and literature through daily reading of books, conversation with peers, research, and writing. Teachers will use whole-group, small-group, and individualized instruction to offer opportunities for students to gain and practice reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. Through extensive reading, skill-building, writing, research, and analysis, students will learn new information, develop vocabulary, and build expertise. An assessment system provides consistent information to teachers about where students are and what they need to learn next in both English and Spanish.
Heggerty (Grades K)
The Heggerty Phonemic Awareness program provides students with explicit instruction in phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate individual spoken sounds (phonemes). Phonemic awareness is the highest level of phonological awareness. There are 44 phonemes in the English language, meaning 44 different sounds. Even though we have 28 letters, these letters on their own, along with others, make 44 sounds. Phonemic awareness is the prerequisite skill necessary for learning to read. Heggerty lessons are designed to be given daily, for approximately 10–15 minutes. Students are explicitly taught the phonemic awareness skills for early literacy development. In our DLBE program, lessons are provided in both English and Spanish. The Heggerty assessment tool measures student progress in this area.
Fundations (Grades K-3)
Wilson Fundations provides research-based materials and strategies essential to a comprehensive reading, spelling and handwriting program. Fundations is a multisensory and systematic phonics program that benefits all K-3 students. The lessons include time for whole class direct instruction, as well as small group and independent practice.
INSTRUCTION
Strong core instruction for all students is the foundation of both our reading program and the MTSS framework. To promote this strong foundation, all students K-5 are provided dedicated blocks of time for explicit reading instruction provided by their classroom teacher.
Explicit writing instruction is provided in concert with reading instruction as students learn to write at the sentence level, paragraph level, and essay level. Genre-specific writing instruction focuses on one of three genres: narrative, informational, and opinion writing. Students are provided with whole class, small group, and one-on-one instruction to support the reading and writing connection.
ASSESSMENT
An established assessment schedule provides valuable information to inform reading instruction as part of sound teaching practice within the MTSS framework. Different assessments serve different purposes. Through a collaborative approach, teachers use established benchmarks and nationally-normed cut points to discuss data and develop plans to address students’ needs in the area of reading. Students who fall below grade-level expectations may qualify for interventions at increasingly intensive tiers of support.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Teachers receive ongoing training and support in implementing effective, research-based reading instruction with fidelity, as well as in understanding how to administer and utilize our assessment tools. Elementary Coordinators lead the work around curriculum, instruction, assessment, as well as professional development at the universal core level and work closely with the literacy and math coaches, MTSS Coordinator, and Elementary Coordinator of Special Education to ensure alignment and fidelity of practice.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS:
Phoneme: A phoneme is a combination of articulatory gestures used to create the smallest unit of a speech sound in language. Phonemes are used individually or in combination to represent words.
Phonological Awareness: Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate words and sounds in the spoken language. Phonological awareness can be taught at each level (word, syllable, onset and rime, and phoneme).
Phonemic awareness: Phonemic awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate individual spoken sounds (phonemes). Phonemic awareness is the highest level of phonological awareness. There are 44 phonemes in the English language, meaning 44 different sounds. Even though we have 28 letters, these letters on their own, along with others, make 44 sounds.
Phonics: Phonics is where phonological awareness and phonemic awareness come together with written letters. Phonics is specifically matching phonemes (sounds) to graphemes (letters that represent a sound).
Morpheme: A morpheme is the smallest meaningful linguistic unit. It can consist of a word such as dog, or a word element, such as the -s at the end of dogs, that can't be divided into smaller meaningful parts. Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a language.
Morphology: Word morphology is the study of words and their parts.
Advanced Word Study: In advanced word study instruction, students learn to use complex elements of reading to decode more advanced words (ex. Learning how to identify word parts, such as affixes and root words). Below is a visual from LETRS training with a progression of word study recommendations:
Fluency: A fluent reader can read text with speed, accuracy, and proper expression.
Effective comprehension instruction includes teaching the words that are central to the meaning of a text and topic, regardless of their frequency in written language. Using a variety of techniques to help students understand words assists them in creating networks of association in their mental dictionaries.
Vocabulary: The knowledge of, and memory for, oral word meanings. Vocabulary accounts for approximately 50-60 percent of the variance in reading comprehension (Stahl & Nagy, 2006). The average student entering kindergarten knows 4,000 root words and will learn 800-1,000 new word meanings each year through sixth grade. Receptive vocabulary are the words whose meanings one can recognize when reading or listening to others speak. Expressive vocabulary are the words one uses in speaking and writing.
Listening Comprehension: Listening comprehension is the ability to understand the spoken language. It is a complex process that involves hearing, understanding and responding to what has been said. Read aloud is a powerful teaching tool for developing vocabulary and listening comprehension.
Reading Comprehension: “Reading comprehension is thinking guided by print (Perfetti, 1985). It is the process through which the reader draws meaning from the text (Carlisle & Rice, 2002). It is the “process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language.” (Snow, 2002). Asking comprehension questions is NOT teaching comprehension: it is testing comprehension.
RESOURCES FOR PARENTS
A Child Becomes a Reader: Proven Ideas from Research for Parents (Kindergarten through Grade 3)