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English Language Arts

Welcome to the Sayville Public Schools Literacy Program! Our goal is to create confident and joyful readers, writers, and communicators. We are committed to an evidence-based approach to instruction, ensuring that all students are equipped with the foundational skills and critical thinking needed for success.

Our program emphasizes explicit and systematic instruction in the core competencies of reading: phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. This layered approach ensures that students not only learn to decode words but also understand what they read and express their ideas effectively.

As a district, we have dedicated ourselves to a strong, Science of Reading-informed approach to instruction, including a full-faculty study of Shifting the Balance. Additionally, our unit and lesson plans are designed with careful attention to the NYSED Best Practices for Literacy Instruction.

 

Curricular Resources

To support this comprehensive approach, we use a variety of high-quality resources across our K-5 classrooms:

  • Fundations: This program is our core resource for phonics and phonological awareness instruction. It provides a structured, multi-sensory approach to teaching letter-sound correspondence, spelling, and decoding.
  • Heggerty: We use this resource to provide explicit, systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, a crucial skill for building a strong foundation for reading.
  • Units of Study: We use Units of Study for Reading and Writing to guide our instruction, providing a framework for teaching reading and writing workshops that fosters independent learners and skilled communicators.
  • High-Leverage Small Groups & Conferences: Our teachers use these resources to provide targeted instruction in small groups and one-on-one sessions, meeting the individual needs of all students.
  • Word Love: This resource is used to develop students' vocabulary and word knowledge.
  • Patterns of Power: This resource helps students develop a deeper understanding of grammar and conventions through an inquiry-based approach.

 

Development of Literacy Learning

Foundational Literacy: Kindergarten and First Grade

In kindergarten and first grade, the focus is on building the foundational skills necessary for reading and writing. Students learn to recognize and understand phonemes, the smallest units of sound, and connect them to letters and words. This includes working with phonological and phonemic awareness, and phonics, using resources like Fundations and Heggerty. As their decoding skills develop, students work on reading with fluency and expression. Writing begins with drawing and using letters and sounds to form words, progressing to crafting simple sentences and eventually short narratives and informational pieces. The emphasis here is on building a strong, systematic foundation.

Expanding Skills: Second and Third Grade

As students move into second and third grade, we expand upon the foundational skills they've built. The focus shifts to reading with purpose and increasing comprehension. Students learn to read for information and pleasure, engaging with more complex texts like chapter books and non-fiction. They practice decoding multi-syllable words and using various strategies to understand new vocabulary. In writing, students begin to develop their voice and style, writing more elaborate narratives and informational pieces. They also refine their use of proper grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure, building a toolkit of writing strategies to express themselves more effectively.

Deeper Comprehension and Application: Fourth and Fifth Grade

By fourth and fifth grade, students are transitioning from learning to read to reading to learn. The curriculum is designed to help them engage in deeper analysis of texts, including making inferences and understanding different perspectives. In reading, students tackle complex literary and informational texts, including poetry, historical fiction, and non-fiction related to topics like space science. The writing curriculum becomes more sophisticated, moving toward a focus on academic and analytical writing. Students learn to write persuasive arguments, literary essays, and research-based papers. This stage is all about applying their reading and writing skills to new contexts, fostering critical thinking and effective communication.

 

What Can Families Do At Home?

We believe that a strong partnership between home and school is essential for student success. Here are a few ways you can support your child's literacy development:

  • Read together every day. This is the single most important thing you can do to help your child become a strong reader. For our youngest learners, this could be pointing out letters and sounds, and for older students, it might be taking turns reading from a chapter book.
  • Talk about what you're reading. After reading, ask questions like, "What was the main idea?" or "Why do you think that character did that?" This helps build their comprehension and critical thinking skills. Discuss new vocabulary words and how they change the meaning of a sentence.
  • Encourage a love of reading. Let your child choose books that interest them, whether they're about dinosaurs, space, or a favorite fictional character. Creating a cozy reading nook or making a weekly trip to the library can make reading feel like a special treat.
  • Listen to your child read aloud. As they progress through the grades, listening to them read helps them build fluency and confidence. You can also offer gentle support by helping them sound out words they are struggling with.
  • Encourage writing. Keep a family journal, write letters to friends, or create a grocery list together. Writing can be a fun, natural part of everyday life. This helps them connect writing to a real purpose and apply the skills they are learning in the classroom.

For more information or resources, please feel free to contact your child's teacher or school principal. We are so excited to partner with you on this journey!