Literacy Curriculum
Literacy Curriculum
EL Education, Heggerty Phonemic Awareness, Fundations
EL Education, Heggerty Phonemic Awareness, Fundations
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Overview K-5
Newton Public Schools Elementary Literacy department provides students with excellent, evidence-based and data-driven literacy instruction in reading, writing, communicating, and critical thinking that strives to be culturally responsive, equitable, and representative of all students. Becoming literate is a complex process. To this end, teachers provide systematic, explicit, and multisensory literacy instruction encompassing:Overview K-5
- Foundational skills (phonological awareness, phonics, decoding, encoding)
- Comprehension (vocabulary, cultural and content knowledge, specific strategies, volume reading, and discussion)
- Writing skills (composing and transcribing)
- Bridging processes (fluency, vocabulary, morphology, concepts of print)
- Materials that meet students’ needs and that provide access to complex, grade-level texts
EL Education
EL Education
EL Education: Module 1
EL Education: Module 1
Module Focus
Module Focus
- Building Literacy in a Collaborative Classroom
Module Topic
Module Topic
- Toys and Play
Guiding Questions
Guiding Questions
- What can we do to make playing together fun?
- What makes toys fun?
- Which classroom toy do I prefer? Why do I prefer that classroom toy?
- What toys do others prefer? Why do they prefer them?
Performance Task
Performance Task
Product: Describing a Classmate’s Toy Preference
Format: Informational writing and labeled drawing
Central Student Texts
Central Student Texts
- Have Fun, Molly Lou Mellon
- Llama Llama Time to Share
Learning Targets
Learning Targets
Reading
Reading
- Ask and answer questions about key details in a text
- Describe the relationship between illustrations and stories
- Recall information from experiences and gather information from provided sources to answer a question
Writing
Writing
- Compose opinion pieces telling the topic and an opinion or preference
- Compose informative texts naming the topic and supplying information about it
Speaking & Listening
Speaking & Listening
- Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners
- Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts
- Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide additional detail
- Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood
Language and Foundational Skills
Language and Foundational Skills
- Identify real-life connections between words and their use
- Write letters for most consonant and short vowel sounds
- Spell simple words phonetically
EL Education: Module 2
EL Education: Module 2
Module Focus
Module Focus
- Learning through Science and Story
Module Topic
Module Topic
- Weather Wonders
Guiding Questions
Guiding Questions
- What is weather?
- How can I be prepared for any type of weather?
- How does weather affect people?
- How can I write a story that teaches my reader about weather?
Performance Task
Performance Task
Product: My Weather Story: An Imaginary Weather Narrative
Format: Narrative writing
Central Student Texts
Central Student Texts
- Come On, Rain!
- The Snowy Day
- Weather Words and What They Mean
Learning Targets
Learning Targets
Reading
Reading
- With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story
Writing
Writing
- Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic
- Respond to questions and suggestions from peers and add details to strengthen writing as needed
Speaking & Listening
Speaking & Listening
- Tell about events in order and provide a reaction to what happened
- Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide additional detail
- Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly
- Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts
Language & Foundational Skills
Language & Foundational Skills
- Print many upper and lowercase letters
- Capitalize the first word in a sentence and the pronoun I
- Write a letter or letters for most consonant and short-vowel sounds (phonemes)
- Produce and expand complete sentences in shared language activities
- Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking
EL Education: Module 3
EL Education: Module 3
Module Focus
Module Focus
- Researching to Build Knowledge and Teach Others
Module Topic
Module Topic
- Trees are Alive
Guiding Questions
Guiding Questions
- What do all living things need to live and grow?
- What do researchers do?
- How do we know that something is living?
- How do living things depend on trees to meet their needs?
- What patterns can we observe in how living things meet their needs?
Performance Task
Performance Task
Product: Informational Collage presenting information about students’ researched trees.Format:
- Tree collage
- Informational writing piece describing the tree and an animal that depends on it
- An accurately colored animal puppet that represents the animal from the writing
Central Student Texts
Central Student Texts
- What’s Alive?
- Are Trees Alive?
- Be a Friend to Trees
- The Tree in the Ancient Forest
Learning Targets
Learning Targets
Reading
Reading
- Ask and answer questions about key details and unknown words in a text
- Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text
- Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text
- Name the author and illustrator of a text and define the role of each
- Describe the relationship between illustrations and text
- Confirm understanding of a text by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if needed
Writing
Writing
- Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose
- opinion pieces naming and stating an opinion or about the topic or book
- informative/explanatory texts naming a topic and supplying information about it
- Respond to questions and suggestions from peers and add details to strengthen writing
- Participate in shared research and writing projects
Speaking & Listening
Speaking & Listening
- Recall information from experiences and gather information from provided sources to answer a question
- Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges
- Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions
- Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood
Language & Foundational Skills
Language & Foundational Skills
- Form regular plural nouns orally by adding - s or -es
- Sort common objects into categories to gain a sense of the concepts their categories represent
- Demonstrate understanding of verbs and adjectives by relating them to their opposites
- Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs by acting out the meanings
EL Education: Module 4
EL Education: Module 4
Module Focus
Module Focus
- Contributing to Community
Module Topic
Module Topic
- Enjoying and Appreciating Trees
Guiding Questions
Guiding Questions
- How and why are trees important to us and our communities?
- How can we inspire others to appreciate and enjoy trees?
Performance Task
Performance Task
Product: Tree Appreciation Card
Format: Opinion Writing and High-Quality Art Work
Central Student Texts
Central Student Texts
- A Tree for Emmy
- Gus is a Tree
- Oliver’s Tree
- A Tree is Nice
- Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya
- We Planted a Tree
Learning Targets
Learning Targets
Reading
Reading
- Ask and answer questions about key details in a text
- Identify characters, settings, and major events in a story
- Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories
- Confirm understanding of a text by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if needed
- Identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text
Writing
Writing
- Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose
- opinion pieces naming and stating an opinion or preference about the topic or book
- informative/explanatory texts naming the topic and supplying information about it
- Respond to questions and suggestions from peers and add details to strengthen writing
- Explore a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers
- Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail
Speaking & Listening
Speaking & Listening
- Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide additional detail
Language & Foundational Skills
Language & Foundational Skills
- Capitalize the first word in a sentence and the pronoun I
- Recognize and name end punctuation
- Use the most frequently occurring prepositions
Heggerty Phonemic Awareness
Heggerty Phonemic Awareness
In approximately 12-minute daily lessons, students focus on developing phonological awareness, learning to recognize and manipulate the sounds of language. They learn to isolate and manipulate the individual sounds of words, blend the sounds into words and segment words into individual sounds and add, delete and substitute parts of words, syllables, and sounds.
Lessons include:
Lessons include:
- Rhyming
- Blending Sounds into Words
- Isolating Sounds
- Segmenting Words
- Adding, Deleting, and Substituting Sounds in Words
Fundations Overview
Fundations Overview
During daily 25-minute whole-group lessons, students receive comprehensive instruction in letter names, sounds, and formation. They study print concepts, learning how written language works within the context of texts. Lessons also focus on developing phonological awareness, identifying and manipulating the sounds of language, as well as vocabulary development. Through phonics instruction, students gain skills in decoding and encoding words, culminating in reading and spelling three- and four-letter words by the end of the year.
Learning Targets
Learning Targets
- Recognize and produce rhyming words
- Segment spoken sentences into words and words into syllables and phonemes
- Manipulate phonemes with additions or substitutions in one-syllable words
- Name, sequence, and write all letters of the alphabet in lowercase and uppercase
- Fluently produce sounds of consonants, short vowels, and basic digraphs (wh, sh, ch, th, ck) when given the letters
- Name and write corresponding letter(s) when given sounds for consonants, consonant digraphs, and short vowels
- Distinguish long and short vowel sounds within words
- Read and spell approximately 200 CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words
- Spell other words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships
- Identify 75 high-frequency words, including 25-30 irregular (trick) words
- Identify and name correct punctuation at end of sentence
- Capitalize words at beginning of sentences and names of people
- Echo-read a passage with correct phrasing and expression
- Identify and explain new meanings for familiar words and newly taught words
- Produce and expand complete sentences in shared language activities
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