Curriculum Corner

Program Overview

HMH INTO READING – A COMPREHENSIVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS PROGRAM

Foundational Literacy Skills Grounded in science-based reading methods that have proven how students acquire reading skills, HMH Into Reading provides comprehensive, explicit, and systematic instruction in foundational literacy skills, aligned with a research-based scope and sequence that provides students with a foundation to become confident, independent readers and writers. HMH Into Reading supports Grades K–6 teachers as they nurture students on their paths as emerging readers and writers with the flexibility to adapt Foundational Skills instruction to meet all students’ needs, while immersing students in successful reading and writing experiences.

For example, HMH Into Reading’s Foundational Skills whole-group lessons provide daily, explicit, systematic instruction across a full range of foundational literacy skills, including: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Spelling, Word Study, and Fluency. To further develop strong fluency skills, HMH Into Reading’s high-quality decodable texts help children apply knowledge of phonics and high-frequency words in context, feature a connected storyline or topic across the week’s texts, and provide an engaging story to build reading fluency, and help students experience reading success.

Spelling is integrated into the literacy instruction of HMH Into Reading with connections to foundational reading skills and word work strategies. The HMH Into Reading Spelling scope and sequence and word lists were developed with Dr. Shane Templeton and focus on phonemic awareness and phonics in Kindergarten; weekly spelling pattern-based lists in Grades 1–2; and word work with anchor charts and word work strategy lessons and cards in Grades 3–6.

Handwriting is integrated into the foundational skills scope and sequence of HMH Into Reading with connections to the foundational reading skills, including literacy centers and small-group differentiation practice opportunities, and online printables with extensive ready-made resources for instruction and practice.

See the complete HMH Into Reading Scope and Sequence of Foundational Skills Grades K–6 resource for additional details.

Topic Knowledge and Vocabulary

HMH Into Reading’s intentional design, systematically builds students’ understanding of meaningful topics and academic vocabulary. Topics and text sets are thoughtfully sequenced to build knowledge—like pieces of a puzzle—within a module, within a grade, and across the program.

Reading Comprehension

HMH Into Reading provides the tools students need to develop critical and strategic thinking skills for the 21st century. With mastery of foundational literacy skills, including strong decoding skills, students will have the building blocks they need to comprehend what they read. HMH Into Reading students develop a lifelong love of reading through the extensive library of engaging, award winning, culturally relevant texts that span a wide variety of genres. HMH Into Reading instruction teaches students how to recognize genre characteristics, cite text evidence, and draw from their growing bank of skills and strategies helping them make meaning from complex grade-level texts.

Writing and Communication

To support effective writing and communication, HMH Into Reading provides daily opportunities for students to express their understanding and thinking, helping them succeed in today’s world. The program supports the full range of writing modes and forms, scaffolding the steps of the writing process, while also developing students’ ability to have productive, collaborative conversations.

Learning Across Content Areas

HMH Into Reading supports content area connections that are critical to learning. Literacy instruction provides the “how” for what students learn in science, social studies, mathematics and the arts. For example, as students read and talk about text, they will naturally build background and knowledge and grade-level cross-curricular topics and content standards.

Student Choice and Independent Practice

The power of choice can be motivating, and what is interesting to one student may not appeal to another student. Therefore, HMH Into Reading provides access to a wide variety of relevant, rich, authentic texts for independent reading and meaningful opportunities for independent work, allowing students appropriate ownership of the learning.

Teaching Reading with Spiraling Approach to Instruction

The ultimate goal of reading is to comprehend and build knowledge. Therefore, HMH Into Reading’s approach is to focus on skills and strategies that best support the specific text that students are reading. Skills don’t exist in a vacuum. They must be applied to a meaningful activity, in this case, the reading of connected, grade-level appropriate text. Brady (2012), while endorsing the importance of research-based methods of code instruction, advocates connecting that instruction to the reading of connected text. Furthermore, Brady (2012) concludes that engagement with “texts with a high proportion of decodable, familiar words (complemented by high-frequency words) enhance beginners’ reading acquisition” (Brady, p. 21).

By continually spiraling through skills that are in service of texts, rather than texts being in service of a weekly skill, students gradually learn to draw from many skills and strategies to comprehend what they read. Throughout the year, texts increase in complexity, so students are applying the same grade-level appropriate skill to increasingly more complex text.

Social and Emotional Learning

HMH Into Reading instructional design and materials for students and teachers understands that students are multidimensional, and that their social and emotional behaviors have an impact on the academic success. HMH Into Reading supports students’ social and emotional learning (including: social awareness, self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, and relationship skills), throughout the program. Support for positive social and emotional competencies is infused throughout the literacy instruction, including specific guidance in the teacher’s guides, through classroom resources and student activities, and through strategic use of books.

Connected Teaching For Accelerated Growth

HMH Into Reading provides students, teachers, and schools with access to rich content and standards-based instruction, assessments, and actionable data insights, professional learning, and supplemental practice and instruction—all connected on Ed, HMH’s digital learning platform.

Source: HMH Curriculum