Literacy Goals and Expectations

In order to provide a culture of growth, the Scarsdale Schools currently uses a variety of professional learning structures to support our development and inspire our practice. This professional collaboration includes Scarsdale Teachers Institute (STI) courses, Scarsdale Teachers Collaborative (ST@C), Center for Innovation (CFI), and collaboration with internationally recognized consultants (i.e. Calkins, Hobbes, Richardson, Stockman, Sulla, Ziemke, and many more). We have also partnered extensively with Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (TCRWP) through the use of their developed materials, onsite coaching, offsite workshops, progressions, and guidance. All have proven valuable resources.

The pillars that represent our District beliefs in the teaching of literacy are as follows:

Students benefit from the components of a balanced literacy model. That model includes rich mentor texts, explicit instruction, guided practice, inquiry, and the creative, student-centered meaningful opportunities that a learning workshop structure provides.
Students and teachers benefit from instructional/curricular flexibility that invites and encourages integrative curriculum design, responsive instruction, and authentic student-centered inquiry.
Students and teachers benefit from curriculum articulation that includes shared vocabulary, coordinated content, and common structures with horizontal and vertical alignment in the elementary grades.
Students benefit from worthy and rigorous learning outcomes, which guide our work beyond the State standards.

Our core instructional practices include:

Teachers and students utilizing TCRWP tools and coaching resources.
TCRWP Progressions helping to guide our teachers and students in self-reflection and vertical alignment.
Implementing Next Generation Standards in ELA through the use of the TCRWP Units of Study and through other created and/or adapted means.
Formative assessments, which guide instruction.
Literacy instruction taught across the ten-month school year.
The current TCRWP Units of Study, each of which are to be accomplished within six to eight weeks. Teachers are strongly advised not to stretch out single units beyond the recommended time, because the value is diluted over time.
Teachers collaborating with colleagues in the meaningful integration of science, social studies, and math content into new and existing units, guided by District goals and learning standards.