The primary goal of the Westborough Public Schools' Literacy program is to foster our students' literacy development, so they become independent readers, writers, and communicators. The "Essentials" tab offer the essentials, anchored in best practices and current research, for developing consistent, balanced literacy instruction. The guidelines address recommendations as well as non-negotiable for planning, grouping, instructing, assessing, and documenting student progress. This will help to ensure consistency in literacy instruction throughout grades k-6
A balanced literacy framework involves students in a range of reading, writing, listening, and speaking experiences that can be differentiated to meet individual needs and interests. The list of instructional essentials for ELA and literacy learning is based upon a close study of the Massachusetts Frameworks for ELA & Literacy (2011)
WHAT WE BELIEVE: THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF READING ACHIEVEMENT...
The Reading Principle
Readers must read extensively in text they can and want to read.
Our classrooms need to have texts on wide range of topics and on many levels readily accessible for all students
The Response Principle
The best way to better understand what we read is simply to talk about it.
Purposeful student-to-student talk in classrooms (Book Clubs, Literature Circles, Read, Write, and Talk) all provide opportunities for readers to talk and write about their reading.
The Explicit Instruction Principle
Readers need explicit instruction in the strategies to decode text as needed.
Students need explicit instruction in the strategies to comprehend text.
Teachers need to make their thinking visible by modeling how they use a strategy and then give students time to practice collaboratively and independently.