Phonological Awareness: the ability to recognize and distinguish between the sounds used in spoken language, including syllables, rhymes, and phonemes (American Psychological Association, 2023). Students will practice these skills using the Heggerty program daily.
Phonics: a method of teaching reading, popularly known as sounding out, that concentrates on the sounds of the letters or letter combinations in a word rather than on the word as a unit. The speaker or reader thus tries to match graphemes and phonemes. (American Psychological Association, 2023). Students will practice these skills using the Phonics Dance program daily.
Fountas and Pinnell Classroom: a cohesive, multi-text approach to literacy instruction for all students in grades PreK–6. The System is designed to support whole-group, small-group and independent learning opportunities including: interactive read-aloud, reading minilessons, writing minilessons, shared reading, phonics/spelling/word study lessons, guided reading, book clubs, and independent reading collections. Fountas & Pinnell Classroom™ is rich with authentic texts, lessons or conferring cards, minilessons and professional tools & learning for a systematic, transformative approach to literacy instruction (Fountas & Pinnell, 2017).
Language Composition and Writing: Students will craft a variety of genres for different purposes and audiences. Students will develop an understanding of a writing process to generate ideas, drafting and revising texts to clarify their ideas and to improve their writing for an audience. Teachers will model ways of developing various texts through demonstrations, quality mentor texts, and multiple opportunities for students to experiment with various genres. Teachers will also provide students with practice to apply their knowledge of grammar and conventions as part of being a clear, effective communicator (Regional School District 21, 2023).