Literacy/Language Arts
The South Windsor Public Schools literacy program adheres to the beliefs articulated by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the International Literacy Association (ILA):
“All students must have the opportunities and resources to develop the language skills they need to pursue life’s goals and to participate fully as informed, productive members of society. …Curriculum and instruction must provide ample room for the innovation and creativity essential to teaching and learning.”
The primary goal of the literacy program is to produce reflective, critical and creative thinkers through the language experiences of reading, writing, speaking and listening. Teachers meet the needs of learners by creating an interpretive community in which students are engaged in transforming information and experiences into knowledge and understanding.
Thoughtfully selected shared and mentor texts provide students with a wide variety of models for reading and writing. All students work with meaningful, grade-level fiction and nonfiction texts, in addition to practicing and applying literacy skills and concepts to other authentic texts, chosen based on interest, reading level, and/or thematic relevance. Strategic guided and small group reading pairs students with texts at their instructional level and provides a ladder for continuous literacy progress. Students construct and share meaning derived from texts through discourse and written response. Extended written pieces develop through a process, including prewriting, rehearsing, composing, conferring, revising, editing and sharing. Teachers incorporate varied and strategic instructional strategies to support the individual needs of students, continually scaffolding learning to involve reading and producing increasingly complex texts.
The Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts outline seven critical “capacities” or “habits of mind” of a “literate individual.”
Helping students to exhibit these capacities and “increasing fullness and regularity as they advance through the grades” is central to our literacy program.
Demonstrate independence
Build strong content knowledge
Respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline
Comprehend as well as critique
Value evidence
Use technology and digital media strategically and capably
Learn to understand other perspectives and cultures
Skills and Student Outcomes
What students should know and be expected to do by the end of the unit
Literature and Informational Text
Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text
Determine a theme or main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details in the text
Compare and contrast two ore more characters, settings or events in a text, drawing on specific details in the text.
Determine the meaning of words and phrases including figurative language such as metaphors and similes and/or determine the meaning of general academic and domain specific words and phrases as they are used in a text.
Compare and contrast or explain the overall structure of two or more texts.
Describe how a narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences how events are described, or analyze multiple accounts of the same event or topic.
Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text, or draw on information from multiple print or digital sources.
Integrate information from several texts in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
Read and comprehend literature and informational text at the high end of the grade 5 text complexity band, independently and proficiently
Writing and Language
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose and audience
Demonstrate a command of the grade-level conventions of standard English grammar and mechanics when writing or speaking
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation and spelling when writing
Speaking and Listening
Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions
Additional Resources
Where to go for additional information and support
