District Curriculum

We are constantly looking at how are students are progressing in the curriculum to best meet their academic needs. Take some time to review the information below to familiarize yourself with our curriculum.

STATE STANDARDS

State Kindergarten Standards

State 1st Grade Standards

State 2nd Grade Standards

State 3rd Grade Standards

State 4th Grade Standards

State 5th Grade Standards

While these standards are a list of the content and skills that we want your students to have by the end of the year, many families ask the question, is my child ready for the next grade-level. Learning during a pandemic was certainly a challenge and we asked a lot of our families at home. We assure you that we work to make sure our students receive a quality education in the classroom,. However, we will always need you to partner with us to ensure your child is excelling to his or her greatest potential. If you are looking for some additional guidance as to where your kids should be at the end of their current grade-level, take a look at some of these grade level guides: https://seekcommonground.org/family-guides. Another great resource is from National PTA: A Parent's Guide to Success. You can find more information about our district curriculum on our district website.

DISTRICT CURRICULUM

(Reading and Math)

Foundational Skills - Reading

This school year, one of our building-wide goals focuses on improving student reading. Each classroom has two reading blocks that focus on two different areas of reading: Decoding and Language Comprehension. To help our families understand this model, we would like to share the following videos:

Our Primary Grade levels (K-2) have a Foundational Block that focuses on decoding, phonics work, word work and spelling patterns and a second block that incorporates our EL Curriculum that focuses on language comprehension, building background knowledge, vocabulary, language structure and verbal reasoning. When these two areas come together, we are building readers.

In our Intermediate Grades, we also have two blocks, an "ALL Block", similar to the Foundational Block and our Language Block using EL curriculum and supplemental resources supporting the student needs. The biggest change for our intermediate grades is that spelling grades will be a reflection of “word work” and studying various patterns in the English language. This includes morphology, syllable division rules and spelling patterns. Students will be working on different types of words depending on their individual needs. When applicable, teachers will communicate the pattern your student is working on and how to support them at home. This means your child may not be receiving a traditional spelling list for study each week. While Reading is a focus, it is only one of the many pieces that we have going on at Mt. Pleasant.

Check out this additional support for reading support at home: Reading Buddies

Check out this additional support for games you can play with your child at home to encourage reading practice: Games to support Early Literacy Skills

Also check out this video to explain why we teach reading using a structured literacy approach:

EL Curriculum - Reading

EL Education is the provider of the ELA curriculum that is has been adopted by LCS for grades K-8. The curriculum is standards-based, and relies heavily on fiction and nonfiction trade books.

Each grade level includes 4 modules, which span a full school year. Within each module there are 3 units, and and within those units are 5-20 hour-long lessons. LCS follows the Ohio Learning Standards for science and social studies and many of theses standards are embedded within the EL modules.

In addition, curriculum for grades K-2 features labs that correspond to the module lessons.

Module Lessons (60 minutes of daily instruction): Explicitly teach and formally assess all reading comprehension, writing, speaking and listening, and language standards of the Ohio Learning Standards for English Language Arts.
Labs (60 minutes of daily instruction): Build students’ oral language, content knowledge, and habits of character through inquiry and hands-on exploration. The Labs reinforce literacy skills, content knowledge, and habits of character taught in the module lessons and provide teachers with additional time to document students’ progress toward particular standards.

Curriculum for grades 3-5 features ALL (Additional Language and Literacy) Blocks to complement module lessons.

Module lessons (one hour of daily instruction) explicitly teach and formally assess all reading comprehension, writing, speaking and listening, and language standards and strands of the Ohio Learning Standards for English Language Arts.
The ALL Block (Additional Language and Literacy Block) is one hour long and is complementary to module lessons. The ALL Block is an important component of the 3-5 curriculum because it supports and extends student learning from the module lessons. The block is designed to help teachers ensure that all students have extra practice and support with these five components of literacy: Independent Reading, Additional Work with Complex Text, Reading and Speaking Fluency/GUM (grammar, usage, mechanics), Writing Practice, Word Study and Vocabulary.

Eureka - Math

Eureka Math was adopted by our Board of Education in the 2019-2020 School Year. In past years various curriculums were used, but by going to one curriculum, we are able to use common vocabulary and use common strategies to help our students master standards. Please check out these videos to help you have a better understanding as to why we are using Eureka Math at Lancaster City Schools.

Looking to help at home - click on the link below (Parent Tip Sheets, then your Grade Level, Module and Student math topic) to check out some of the parent resource pages. We know that this math is 'different' from what you may have seen growing up, but the video above (news clip) gives you some background knowledge as to why.