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Reading/Literacy

21st Century Curriculum Design in ACPS Content and Program Areas: Reading/Literacy

Teachers preparing for class The demands of the 21st century will require students to develop new literacy competencies. Literacy in the 21st century involves students' becoming active and intelligent users of print and non-print text, including using critical, creative, and self-regulated thinking processes to understand and contribute to their world. Our students will need to develop strong skill sets to navigate, critically analyze, synthesize and communicate in the exponentially growing information networks surrounding them. Literacy is the thread that will empower them as contributing members of our local and global community. Perhaps most importantly, literacy is not an isolated content area in itself: it is what connects all content areas together into meaningful learning and development.

Key Curriculum Design and Learning Principles for Reading/Literacy:

  • Literacy in the 21st century involves students becoming active and intelligent users of print and non-print text, including using critical, creative, and self-regulated thinking processes to understand and contribute to their world. By the conclusion of this next phase of curriculum development and implementation, students in ACPS will be proficient, life-long readers, writers, and speakers who communicate effectively in all aspects of their lives.
  • The literacy program will equip all learners to gain proficiency in 21st century skills and habits of mind, including creativity, innovation, questioning, and responding with wonderment and awe. Literacy should be viewed as a critical tool to ensure student success in all content areas.
  • Our new curriculum frameworks will build upon the Standards of Learning as a starting point or baseline — but will move toward promoting higher-order reasoning and self-regulation competencies for all learners. Specific target areas within the curriculum will be assessment and teaching strategies related to improving student performance in the following areas: word analysis, fluency, comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, writing as a tool for analysis and self-expression, and active listening as well as effective oral communication.

Exemplary Literacy Programs Reflecting These Principles:

  • Professional Development (Including On-Site Graduate Courses): It is a district policy for teachers in the first three years of joining the district to complete a Literacy course. This course reinforces the value of helping students to become active critical thinkers who use literacy skills in all content areas.
  • Integration of Literacy into Content Area Instruction: This initiative emphasizes the value of an integrated approach to reading, writing, speaking, and listening as a fundamental design principle for all curriculum areas.
  • Comprehensive Balanced Literacy Frameworks: On a daily basis, elementary students experience a full spectrum of reading/ writing experiences as they move along a continuum from initial teacher dependence toward growing levels of independent use and transfer.
  • Strategic and Evidence-Based Literacy Interventions: Students who require additional support participate in targeted interventions provided both during the school day and after school. These interventions focus upon diagnosed literacy gaps and areas of need, with students provided one-on-one and small group support and coaching in all key literacy areas.