About the K-2 Language Arts Curriculum

About K-2 Language Arts Curriculum

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Overall Structure

The K-2 curriculum offers three hours of rich literacy instruction per day: Two hours of content-based literacy

One hour of module lessons

One hour of Labs

A third hour of structured phonics:

One hour of the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block (addresses the Foundational Reading standards as well as Language Standards 1 and 2)

These three hours of curriculum are considered comprehensive, explicitly teaching and formally assessing all strands and standards of the Common Core ELA standards for each grade level. Taken as a whole, this rigorous and joyful literacy curriculum is designed to ensure that all children have a genuine opportunity to grow and succeed.

Read the "K-5 Language Arts Guidance Document"

Overall Structure of Module Lessons

Across K-5, students experience four modules over the course of a school year. In K-2, Module 1 is a bit shorter (six weeks rather than eight), so teachers have time to do the other important work of getting classroom routines and culture in place, which often takes more time and deliberate attention for primary-aged students. (Note: For more, see the “Fostering Character in a Collaborative Classroom” section of the Module 1 Appendix.) Each module has a consistent structure of three units, each of which includes one formal assessment.

The curriculum was built using the principles of backward design, meaning that we started by identifying what we wanted students to know and be able to do at the end of each module, and then we built each unit to intentionally get them there. Let’s explore what that means in the first grade classroom introduced in the Snapshot at the beginning of this chapter.

The last unit of each module, Unit 3, culminates with a performance task. This is where students have created their “magnificent thing” and are writing about it, bringing together what they know about tools, collaboration, and perseverance (and magnificent things!).

What students learn in Units 1 and 2 helps them prepare for this performance task. (This is the principle of “backward design” in action.)

In Unit 1 students read, sing, discuss, dramatize, draw, and write to acquire strong content knowledge as well as the literacy skills that they need to do so. Students informational texts, learn how to ask and answer questions about the many texts they work with, and they learn to collaborate and converse with one another, capturing their thinking in pictures and words.

In Unit 2, they begin work with “close reading” of a complex text. In primary grades, this close reading happens through hearing the text read aloud (i.e., a close read-aloud). Teachers use a close read-aloud guide to conduct a series of sessions (across multiple lessons) that invite students to analyze and discuss this rich literary text. During the module lessons in this unit, students also do a series of design challenges that give them hands-on experience with collaborative problem solving..

As the lessons in each unit progress, teachers regularly check in on students’ progress. Each unit has a standards-based assessment built in. Here, students read, write, or speak with increasing independence about the texts they have been working with. These assessments help you in two ways: They allow you to have a clear sense of what your students can do and cannot yet do, and they give you valuable information about how best to use the time in the K-2 Labs for her students’ benefit.

Almost every day, K-2 students share songs and poems. These serve many functions: They give students cues about transitions from activity to activity, help build a positive classroom community, build fluency, give students opportunities to practice specific language standards, and give students a deep schema for rhythm and syntax. And, they are joyful.

This unfolding of the three units means that by Unit 3, when the performance task is introduced students are fully equipped to create their “magnificent things” and to synthesize their understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

K-2 Labs

Labs are an important feature of the K-2 curriculum because they support and extend student learning from the module lessons. They are designed to help teachers ensure that all of their students get the time to play and explore, become immersed in oral language and content knowledge, and practice skills and habits of character that they need—both to live joyfully and to be fully successful and proficient.

The K-2 Labs are one hour long and are complementary to module lessons. These two hours of content-based literacy instruction work together to accelerate the achievement of all students.

The K-2 Labs are designed for six weeks of instruction within an eight- to nine-week module. This design allows teachers to use their discretion to flexibly schedule the Labs to best meet the needs of their students. Teachers may choose to spend that hour during those additional two to three weeks on such things as solidifying structures and routines, providing additional “spill-over” time to support module lessons, providing additional instructional time for ELLs, or for additional explicit language instruction.

Read "Implementing K-2 Labs"

EL Education Curriculum