Curriculum

READING and LANGUAGE ARTS

SPELLING

PHONICS

WRITING

HANDWRITING

READING and LANGUAGE ARTS

Harcourt Brace Series – Grades K-4

READ 180 – Grades 5-12

Quality Literature (Fiction and Nonfiction) – Grades 5-12

Basal reading series in grades K-4 help to develop successful readers by providing systematic skill instruction through reading high quality literature.  In additions, Options “Best Practices in Reading” is used to compare fiction and nonfiction literature for grades 2-3-4.

Guided Reading is also used with our students.  With this, teachers use leveled books and instruct students with reading strategies in a small group setting at their instructional level.

READ 180 is a “pull-out” program for grades 5-12.  It uses leveled books and involves student rotations between three stations (computer, reading, and teacher instruction).  Students make reading choices based on their current lexile reading level, and it involves spelling, vocabulary, and reading instruction.

Quality fiction and nonfiction literature is used in grade 5-12.  Students work with literature circle book groups, writer’s workshop, independent book choices with project presentation, author studies, reader’s theater, picture books, test taking strategies, and real life reading strategies to enhance “thinking while reading.”  Many of the books are connected to social studies content and read aloud books are also used to model strategies.  The variety of literature is extremely motivating, and students are assessed in with a variety of activities, including daily observation.

SPELLING

Grades K-4 use Signs for Sounds program and Sadlier Phonics for teaching letter sounds and word families.

Grades 5-6 use Great Source spelling program.  Students work with word families, phonics, and vocabulary development.

Grades 7-12 incorporate spelling instruction throughout the curriculum.

PHONICS

Phonics skills are taught through our reading, writing, and spelling programs across the curriculum.

WRITING

Collin’s writing program is used at all levels and in all subject areas to encourage writing across the curriculum.  Focus Correction Areas are listed on each assignment with point values to determine scores for writing assignments.  Students in the early grades work with a language experience approach for learning to write, whereby they talk, and use inventive spelling, to put ideas onto paper.

Students progress from sentence formation to paragraph formation, and then they work with multiple paragraph essays.

Both narrative and expository writing is used throughout all grade levels.

HANDWRITING

D’Nealian is the handwriting program used in K-4.  Students learn to write in cursive in grade three, and this is used and practiced thereafter.