Ridgefield Public Schools' curriculum aligns with state or national standards. These standards act as a guide for what students need to know and be able to do by the end of each grade level. Our curriculum is developed by teachers, for teachers, and it is this curriculum that acts as a roadmap to reaching the standards.  Curricular Resources such as instructional materials, digital tools, and textbooks, support the implementation of the curriculum. They can also be used as a primary or secondary resource for day to day instruction. In Ridgefield Public Schools, a variety of teacher and student materials are implemented. The anchor resources in which the primary and secondary lesson materials are derived have been selected by representative groups of teachers and administrators.  The Curriculum team continues to review existing curricular resources.

Preschool Level

Literacy:

-Heggerty Phonemic Awareness

-Wilson Fundations 

Mathematics:

-Everyday Counts

Elementary  Level

Literacy:

Primary Resources:

-Heggerty Phonemic Awareness (Grades Kindergarten & 1)

-Wilson Fundations (Grades Kindergarten-3)

-Bookworms (Grades K-2)

-Building Vocabulary (Grades 4&5)

Secondary Resources:

-Reading and Writing Units of Study from Heinemann Publishers

-Lexia Core 5

-Fun Hub from Wilson Fundations

-Geodes from Great Minds (Grades Kindergarten-2)

Mathematics:

Primary Resources:

-Developing Roots (Kindergarten)

-think!Mathematics (Grades 1-5)

Secondary Resources:

-Dreambox

Secondary

At the 6-12 level, RPS Curriculum is designed by course. Each course has anchor resources to support the implementation of the RPS Curriculum. For more information by unit, please visit the RPS Curriculum Site for Middle School and High School.

Middle School  Level

Mathematics: 

• Big Ideas Math and other teacher-created lessons and materials

Science: 

• Due to the inquiry and investigative nature of NGSS, teachers use a variety of resources including Science World (Grade 6), Gizmos, NewsELA, BrainPop, and other teacher-created lessons and materials

Social Studies: Due to the nature of inquiry-based instruction, teachers use a variety of resources that include primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. Teachers also work closely with our LMS teachers to conduct student-led research projects. Our anchor textbooks and resources are: 

• Grade 6&7 National Geographic: World Cultures and Geography

• Grade 8: National Geographic U.S. History American Stories Beginnings to 1877

• NewsELA 

• Witness Stones Project 

English Language Arts: The ELA curriculum for grades 6-8 is aligned to CT Common Core State Standards for Literacy in the areas of Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language (Conventions and Vocabulary).  Due to the cyclical nature of literacy standards and increasing complexity over time, RPS students are engaged in reading through a variety of texts across multiple genres and range of instruction (e.g. independent book projects, book clubs, and whole class novels). Writing instruction engages students in multiple writing genres, such as narrative, informational, and expository.  Curriculum resources to support the implementation of the RPS curriculum are RPS Selected Texts, Reading and Writing Units of Study, Teacher Created Materials, and NoRedInk. For a more detailed view: 

• Grade 6 ELA Curriculum at a Glance 

• Grade 7 ELA Curriculum at a Glance 

• Grade 8 ELA Curriculum at a Glance 

High School  Level

Resources vary by course: See course syllabus provided by your student’s teacher or visit the High School curriculum page on the RPS Curriculum site.