In our district, elementary students receive explicit instruction in reading, writing, grammar, phonics/word study, and handwriting. All instruction utilizes a science-aligned curricular resource, Benchmark Advance/Adelante and is based on the Wisconsin Standards for English Language Arts. 140 minutes are allocated daily for literacy instruction.

Research has shown the impact of student background knowledge on their reading comprehension. Knowledge is like velcro, new knowledge sticks to old knowledge, so the more you know, the faster you learn. To develop students' reading comprehension from the earliest grades, our curriculum is carefully designed to build background knowledge in science, history, literature, and the arts, alongside solid foundational skills instruction. Benchmark Advance and Adelante is a core ELA program that provides a cohesive structure for the development of literacy skills and content knowledge. Each unit is designed around a topic, theme, and essential question that drives the learning throughout the unit.

Every unit of instruction addresses these science-aligned competencies:

• Foundational Reading Skill Competencies (phonemic awareness, phonics and word study, fluency, sight words, and high-frequency words)

• Knowledge-Based Competencies (vocabulary, language, comprehension, and background knowledge)

Students will experience 9 units in each grade level, each with a knowledge-building topic, Essential Question, and Enduring Understandings. Vertical alignment of the topics and texts across grade levels deepens understanding and expands student vocabulary.

Students participate in daily comprehension lessons that include explicit instruction in a strategy to support the analysis of grade level text. These lessons include modeling of the strategy by the teacher, guided practice with the class, and opportunities to try the strategy with a partner or small group, before trying it independently. This gradual release of responsibility ensures that students understand the application of the strategy, have multiple opportunities to practice, and receive feedback along the way. Students will annotate, write about, and discuss these complex texts throughout each unit. At the end of the unit, the students will bring home their Texts for Close Reading booklet so you will be able to see all of the reading, writing, thinking, and learning they have done.

Throughout each unit, students construct a Knowledge Blueprint as they read and apply strategies to analyze each unit’s texts. These graphic organizers reflect students’ developing text-based knowledge in support of the unit’s Enduring Understandings. In kindergarten and first grade, the Knowledge Blueprint is constructed as a whole class.

Benchmark Advance and Adelante contains a clearly defined K-5 progressions of skills that facilitates student mastery of phonics skills and their transfer into reading and writing. Kindergarten and first grade students focus on the earliest foundation skills, like letter sounds and blending sounds to read words, second grade transitions to multisyllabic words, third grade focuses on syllable types, fourth grade digs into morphology, and fifth grade expands their knowledge of morphology with Greek and Latin roots. Each phonics and word study lesson utilizes explicit and systematic instruction, while also spiraling prior learning to ensure mastery. Lessons include daily application of the skills within reading and writing to ensure transfer.

Writing instruction within Benchmark Advance and Adelante also follows a developmentally appropriate progression, beginning with basic writing strokes at the beginning of kindergarten and progression to writing complete sentences and process writing by the end of the year. First grade students learn the writing process and move through the stages of idea development, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing within each unit. Students in 2nd-5th grade will focus on process writing and responding to text-based prompts. Writing lessons include modeling of the skill or strategy by the teacher, shared writing experiences as a whole class, and guided practice opportunities with a partner, before writing independently.

Grammar instruction occurs daily and is connected to students’ writing instruction. They have explicit instruction in grade level grammar skills and have opportunities to practice those skills in isolation, as well as within their written work.

Students in kindergarten through second grade receive weekly instruction in manuscript handwriting, third graders are taught cursive, and fourth and fifth graders have opportunities to continue to practice and refine their handwriting.

At the conclusion of each 3 week unit, students will take the unit assessment. This assesses each student on the focus skills of the unit. The results of these assessments will inform a teacher’s small group instruction within the next unit as they show which students need more support with a skill and which students are ready for the next steps or an extension.

For more information about literacy instruction, contact or child’s teacher or your building’s literacy coach.