"Great Expectations...
The Best Is Yet To Come!"
In 2001, the North Allegheny School Board approved twelve recommendations for the Communication Arts/English Curriculum grades K-12. After more than three years of study and research, involving more than fifty teachers, the curriculum was developed in alignment with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s eight Academic Standards for Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. Included within the recommendations was the adoption of a balanced framework for consistent literacy instruction in grades K-5.
Teachers use curriculum to ensure that all students learn the skills needed for academic success, and attain literacy goals at every grade level, through effective, explicit instruction. Additionally, the curriculum should build the motivation and love for lifelong reading by exposing children to a full range of literary genre, from poetry to historical fiction!
Our Primary Resource is the Houghton Mifflin reading program, A Legacy of Literacy which is constructed on a strong research base for balanced literacy, including phonics instruction. The instructional materials provide structures that assist with learning to read as well as strategies that help with reading to learn. A strong balance between fiction and non-fiction is featured in the multicultural anthologies that are organized around themes. Students also have opportunities to use authentic literature and read leveled books at their appropriate instructional levels to help build confidence, and increase fluency as a prerequisite to comprehension.
A Reading Specialist is available in each elementary building to support any identified kindergarten through fifth grade students. Teachers and/or parents may seek an assessment of individual children, and the data collected would include classroom performance, curriculum based assessments, standardized testing results and diagnostic inventories. Such services are scheduled with the classroom teacher and may be push-in, pull-out, consultative or collaborative. Our primary focus is on early intervention, with younger students receiving more frequent, intensive delivery of support services.
For more information about the Houghton Mifflin themes, visit http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/hmr/index.html and select your child’s grade level.
Additional reading resources, including the First Grade Theme Words for Houghton Mifflin, can be found with this link below:
