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CURRICULUM CORNER MBSD Adopts New Reading Curriculum |
Curriculum Corner
Trina Hall, Curriculum Director
September, 2004
The start of the school year brings exciting changes to our elementary schools as teachers begin using new reading curriculum materials to teach reading across the grade levels. Our new program will provide your child with high-interest reading materials, non-fiction and fiction texts, engaging novel selections, and student texts that focus on learning and applying comprehension strategies while reading. Students will take part in whole class lessons, literature circles, guided reading groups, phonics and word study instruction, as well as content area and independent reading. Literacy time will be full of great learning as students and teacher interact with these new materials.
The adoption, approved by the School Board in July, includes not only new materials, but new learning targets (standards), common teaching practices, and the support of Instructional Coaches. We have hired three teachers – Kim Sutherland, Julie Sargent-O’Connell, and Lisa Ridenhour – to take the role of Instructional Coaches, focused on literacy, for our elementary schools. These coaches will work with staff at each school to support them with the new materials, standards, and teaching practices. The coaching model is an effective form of staff development that is becoming a growing practice throughout our state and nation. It allows teachers to work side by side as they continuously improve their teaching skills, focusing on student learning needs and how to best meet those needs through high-quality instruction. These efforts are geared toward assisting our staff in becoming the best literacy teachers they can be ~ all with the goal of helping our students become proficient readers and writers!
