About Mary Scroggs Elementary School: Curriculum Overview Balanced Literacy Mary Scroggs Elementary uses a balanced literacy approach at all grade levels (K through Grade 5). This balanced literacy framework takes place during a 120-minute block which includes writing and spelling and the use of fiction and nonfiction literature. The focus is on integration of skills and strategies in meaningful context as well as reading for comprehension. Flexible grouping of students within a classroom allows teachers to cluster groups of students at their instructional level. The language arts curriculum in the general classroom is supported by a Book Room stocked and leveled with books ranging from reading levels 1-44 and instructional levels for Pre-K through grade 8. Mary Scroggs Elementary staff and parents developed the book room. The WRITING TRAITS curriculum has been adopted for use in the Fall of 2000. Using the 6-Trait Based Instruction and Assessment program in our school helps make the characteristics of good writing clear for students -- the first step in helping them become better writers and revisers. It also improves professional communication by providing a common language that helps teachers work together toward measurable writing improvement goals from year to year. Understanding the key characteristics of writing enables students to develop skills in all forms of writing and helps them to succeed on any test of writing performance and to take charge of their own writing process. The Exceptional Education program at MSES utilizes the WILSON READING SYSTEM. This curriculum teaches students the structure of words and language through a carefully sequenced, 12-step program that helps them master decoding and spelling (encoding) in English. Unlike other programs that overwhelm the student with rules, the Wilson Reading System allows the student to learn cumulatively and systematically. Wilson students move forward from success to success, which makes the process work for student and teacher alike. READING RECOVERY is also offered at Mary Scroggs Elementary School. Reading Recovery is an early intervention program designed to help the lowest achieving first grade children learn to use effective reading strategies so that they can make accelerated progress and catch up with their peers. It is an individual tutoring program in which teachers meet with a child for 30 minutes each day outside the child's regular classroom. Although Reading Recovery lessons operate within a clearly defined framework, it is the teacher's decision making, building on what the child knows, and the instructional focus on strategies rather than isolated skills during each lesson that help students make accelerated progress in reading and writing. Lesson components consist of reading familiar stories, taking a running record on an introduced book, letter, activity or word study, writing a short story, putting a cutup back together, and reading a new book. Four types of reading and writing are utilized across all grade levels. These include:   Reading Reading Aloud to Children The teacher reads aloud to the whole class or small groups. A carefully selected body of children's literature is used; the collection contains a variety of genre and represents our diverse society. Favorite texts, selected for special features are reread many times. Involves children in reading for enjoyment Demonstrates reading for a purpose Provides an adult demonstration of phrased, fluent reading Develops sense of story Develops knowledge of how texts are structured Increases vocabulary Expands linguistic repertoire Supports inter textual ties Through enjoyment and shared knowledge, creates a community of readers Makes complex ideas available to children Promotes oral language development Rereading establishes known texts to use as a basis for writing and other activities Shared Reading Using an enlarged text that all children can see, the teacher involves children in reading together following a pointer. The process includes rereading big books, retellings, alternative texts, and the products of interactive writing. Explicitly demonstrates early strategies, such as word-by-word matching Builds sense of story and ability to predict Demonstrates the process of reading extended text Like reading aloud, involves children in an enjoyable and purposeful way Provides social support for the group Provides opportunity to participate, behave like a reader Creates a body of known texts that children can use for independent reading and as resources for writing and word study Guided Reading The teacher works with small groups who are at about the same level in reading ability. The teacher selects and introduces new books and supports children reading the whole text themselves, making teaching points during and after reading. Provides the opportunity to read many texts and a wide variety of texts Provides opportunity to problem solve while reading for meaning ("reading work") Provides opportunity to use strategies on extended text Challenges the reader and creates contexts for successful processing on novel texts Provides opportunity to attend to words in text Teacher selection of text, guidance, demonstration, and explanation is available to the reader. Independent Reading Children read on their own or with partners from a wide range of materials. Some reading is from a special collection at their reading level. Provides opportunity to independently apply reading strategies Provides time to sustain reading behavior Challenges the reader to work on his/her own and to use strategies on a variety of texts Challenges the reader to independently solve words while reading texts well within control Through rereading, promotes fluency Builds confidence through sustained, successful reading Provides the opportunity for children to support each other while reading   Writing Shared Writing and Language Experience Teacher and children work together to compose messages and stories; teacher supports process as scribe Demonstrates how writing works Provides opportunity to draw attention to letters, words, and sounds Enables children's ideas to be recorded Creates written language resources for the classroom Interactive Writing As in shared writing, teacher and children compose messages and stories which are written using a "shared pen" technique that involves children in the writing Demonstrates concepts of print, early strategies, and how words work Provides opportunities to hear sounds in words and connect with letters Helps children understand "building up" and "breaking down" processes in reading and writing Provides opportunities to plan and construct texts Increases spelling knowledge Provides texts that children can read independently Provides written language resources in the classroom Guided Writing Children engage in writing a variety of texts. Teacher guides the process and provides instruction through mini-lessons. Demonstrates the process of writing, including composing, drafting and editing Provides opportunity for explicit teaching of various aspects of writing Provides for lessons in the forms of writing Gives students the guidance they need to learn writing processes and produce high quality products Independent Writing Children write on their own, including (in addition to stories and informational pieces) retellings, labeling, speech balloons, lists, etc. Provides opportunity for the independent production of written text Provides chance to write for different purposes Increases writer's ability to use different forms Builds ability to write words and use punctuation Fosters creativity and the ability to compose	Back to the Curriculum Overview

 

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