Scotch Plains-Fanwood Public Schools’ language arts literacy program supports a comprehensive approach to literacy through its use of the Teachers College Units of Study in Reading.  Students consistently participate in both whole class (Shared Reading (grades K-2) and minilessons) and small group (Guided Reading or Strategy Groups) instruction, as well as individual reading conferences.  Through Shared Reading, minilessons, and Interactive Read Alouds students are introduced to key reading strategies and skills that help them utilize specific actions while they read.  This occurs when teachers model the habits, skills, and strategies proficient readers use to understand and enjoy reading. During Guided Reading or Strategy Groups, students receive follow-up instruction targeted to specific developmental stages.  Through reading conferences, teachers can tailor instruction based on each student’s individual strengths and areas for growth. The elementary reading program is designed to foster a love of reading and to develop the skills essential to students becoming effective, lifelong readers.  The program provides opportunities for learning experiences in listening and speaking, phonemic awareness, phonics, word identification, word analysis, vocabulary development, fluency, and comprehension strategies.  As students read a variety of selections, they learn appropriate strategies to optimize their comprehension. These strategies include previewing and predicting, confirming predictions, using prior or background knowledge, self-questioning, adjusting reading rate, using typographic clues, visualizing, rereading, and using text features and illustrations to facilitate comprehension.  As a result of students’ focus on comprehension, students develop into readers who learn how to relate the text to themselves, the world, and other texts.  They learn to be critical and active readers who know that reading equates with getting meaning from text.

Students are offered multiple opportunities for practice and application of these essential skills.   They may engage in independent and partner reading, while graphic organizers, retellings, and group discussions are also used to explore students’ understanding of textual content and ideas. Further, written responses are used to encourage students’ self-reflection and meta-cognition.

Heinemann’s Units of Study in Reading and selected trade books provide the basic materials to support the reading program K-4.  Students are exposed to a variety of genres to enrich their reading experiences.  Teachers also work with the media specialist in the selection and use of additional appropriate print materials and technology to support the program.  

Kindergarten and first grade students will use Wilson’s Fundations program to begin to build phonemic and phonological awareness.  Through a systematic, multisensory approach, students will gain an understanding of foundational reading and writing skills including phonological awareness, fluency, letter formation and automaticity, encoding, and sentence composition, which will lead to increased independence in Reading and Writing Workshops.  Beginning in second grade, students use the Words Their Way program to expand on the phonological awareness skills developed in earlier grades.  Words Their Way is a developmentally driven instructional approach providing an integrated way to teach phonics, vocabulary, and spelling to improve literacy skills. Using a systematic approach to word study, guided by an informed interpretation of spelling errors and other literacy behaviors, Words Their Way offers a teacher-directed, child-centered plan for vocabulary growth and spelling development. The main purpose of word study is to examine words in order to reveal consistencies within our written language system and to help students master the recognition, spelling, and meaning of specific words. Becoming fully literate is absolutely dependent on fast, accurate recognition of words and their meanings in texts, and fast, accurate production of words in writing so that readers and writers can focus their attention on making meaning.

The Heinemann’s Unit of Study in Writing provides students with genre-based, authentic writing instruction.  The writing program relies on real literature to model writing and highlight techniques used by published authors in a workshop setting.  Students are encouraged to see themselves as writers as they begin to develop the skills and knowledge required to be good writers.  Through writing both fiction and nonfiction, students are introduced to the important aspects of writing.  Students are guided through the writing process and deepen their understanding of the process as they continue through the program.   

The writing process includes prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Students learn their responsibilities in each of those areas.  For example, when prewriting, students learn various strategies, which include graphic organizers, outlining, clustering ideas, and note taking.  Students learn that drafts need revision.  As students revise, they focus on specific areas that include content, organization, descriptive words, figurative language, effective beginnings and endings, and appropriate use of language. When editing, students focus on usage, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.  Through the use of models provided by trade books, benchmark papers, sample writing pieces, and teachers’ writings, students develop awareness of the characteristics of good writing.  Student progress is assessed through conferencing, journals, written self-reflections, rubrics, writing samples, benchmarks, and portfolios. 

Specific types of writing in the elementary program are varied and many of them spiral through the grades, thereby fostering skill reinforcement for each type.  Students at each grade level are responsible for writing in five general areas that include: narrative writing, informational writing, persuasive writing, functional writing, and writing in response to literature. The integration of writing across the curriculum areas enables students to write for varied audiences, “publishing” works proudly on the bulletin boards and in class books to share with others.

The oral expression component develops students’ abilities to express information, thoughts, feelings, and ideas.  Activities range from conversation, discussion, and dramatizations to formal oral reports using multimedia.  The listening component refines students’ awareness as they attend to spoken language for various purposes such as gaining information, understanding directions, increasing word meaning and knowledge, determining shades of meaning and feelings, enjoyment, and evaluating the ideas of the text.  The focus of the viewing component is to make students critical viewers, interpreters, and assessors of visual media.