Literacy

At Cove, we provide a comprehensive literacy program that includes:

phonemic awareness
sight word instruction
word study
fluency
comprehension

Muti-sensory instruction and strategy building are incorporated in ALL literacy programs. Each student's literacy program is unique to match his or her learning needs. We will be using the following curriculum in class:

Decoding and Fluency

Orton Gillingham

Orton-Gillingham is a multi-sensory approach that includes sight, hearing, touch, and movement. It is highly-structured and teaches the connection between sounds and letters.

Many reading programs are influenced by the Orton-Gillingham approach. Some examples include the Wilson Reading System and S.P.I.R.E. Even though the sequence of concepts may vary, these programs are all highly structured, systematic, and cumulative.

Phonics Books

Phonic Books’ series for beginner readers introduce only a few sounds and letters at a time to build reading confidence and fluency. Catch-up series for older readers ages 8–14+ are for students with gaps in their phonics skills and reading knowledge. They have action-packed storylines and age-appropriate illustrations to engage older readers. This program aligns with the Science of Reading and about 90% of the words are decodable. This design lets students sound out words using skills they already learned.

Comprehension Programs

Best Practices in Reading

Best Practices in Reading provides targeted instruction, in-depth text analysis, and open-ended questions that will help your students improve their reading comprehension. Students make meaning from texts and grow their skills through modeled and guided practice.

S.P.I.R.E. (Specialized Program Individualizing Reading Excellence) is an intensive, multisensory reading intervention program designed for non-readers, striving readers, and students with dyslexia. Developed by Sheila Clark-Edmands, it is published by EPS Learning and is grounded in the Orton-Gillingham approach.

Program Structure

10-Step Lessons: Each structured, teacher-led lesson takes about 50 minutes and uses a consistent 10-step sequence.
Multisensory Approach: Integrates auditory, visual, and kinesthetic activities using hands-on manipulatives to reinforce learning pathways.
Core Literacy Pillars: Explicitly covers phonological awareness, phonics, spelling, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
Spiraling Curriculum: Continuously reviews and builds upon previously mastered concepts as students move through progressive levels.

Into Literature

HMH Into Literature is a 6–12 literacy curriculum designed to inspire students to love reading, hone their speaking and writing voices, and communicate with the world.

Written Expression

Self-Regulated Strategy Development

Our literacy classes also be use the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) approach to writing. It is an instructional approach designed to help students learn, use, and adopt the strategies used by skilled writers; one that adds the element of self-regulation to strategy instruction for writing. As with other types of strategy instruction, SRSD is explicit, direct, and guided so that strategies become integrated into the overall learning process. Instruction begins as teacher-directed but with a goal of empowering students to be self-directed. The self-regulation element addresses negative self-talk or perceptions of self-as-learner through replacement with positive self-talk, self-instructions, and new habits with which to approach learning tasks.

SRSD-based Graphic Organizer

SRSD writing rubric (Grade 7-8)

FRAMING YOUR THOUGHTS – Sentence Structure

DEVELOPING ACTIVE, THOUGHTFUL, PURPOSEFUL WRITERS

Framing Your Thoughts Sentence Structure is a sequential and systematic method of instruction that teaches sentence structure from simple to complex. Using graphic symbols to represent the sentence parts and how they function, students learn to construct compound and complex sentences with accuracy and creativity.

CURRICULUM FOCUS:

Graphic Sentence Symbols
Graphic Sentence Frame
Punctuation and Capitalization
Sentence Mobility
Subject-Predicate Agreement
Editing Process

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