Elementary

K - 5 LITERACY

Guiding the literacy work in the Arlington Public Schools is a deep commitment to the Principles and Standards of the Massachusetts English Language Arts and Literacy Curriculum Frameworks.  

We use a comprehensive approach to teaching literacy that stems from current, best practice, and evidence-based research.  Strong phonemic awareness and phonics instruction are crucial to supporting early reading development.  Students in our K-3 classrooms participate in a systematic study of phonemic awareness, phonics, and spelling through our Heggerty (K-2) and FUNdations programs.  Additionally, in 2024-2025, we fully adopted the EL Education Curriculum K-5, which combines systematic, explicit instruction focused on the five components of reading, with engrossing content, texts, and knowledge building.

At the heart of our work is a profound responsibility to build a strong language and literacy foundation leading to passionate, engaged, lifelong readers and writers.

ELA Curriculum Night!

Thank you for those of you who were able to attend our K-5 ELA Curriculum Night on Tuesday, April 29th!  We recorded the session and you can access it below.