READING

Holy Family Catholic School has developed an integrated language arts curriculum for all grades, pre-kindergarten through eighth.  The rationale is the belief that the development of reading, writing, speaking and listening is enhanced when the skills for these strands are integrated with each other and throughout other content areas.

In the school’s first year, teachers in grades pre-k through two used this ELA curriculum to develop an Early Childhood Reading Philosophy that emphasizes early exposure to pre-reading and pre-writing skills, immersion in a print- and language- rich environment and a belief that literacy acquisition must include phonics instruction and daily opportunities for each student to read at his/her instructional and independent reading levels.  Kindergarten and first grade begin writing using invented spelling which fosters the interconnection between reading and writing.  The first-grade reading program uses leveled readers so that students may progress in their skill acquisition at their own rate to reach the benchmarks for the grade.  In first grade, an instructional assistant is utilized to ensure that every child reads to an adult every day. Second and third-grade teachers use the framework of a basal series;   at fourth and fifth-grade, novel study is introduced in addition.  Middle school students study the elements of literature, continuing to tie the reading curriculum to writing.  Teachers read aloud to students at all levels.

Most recently, a committee of teachers, administrators, the librarian and a reading teaching assistant articulated the role of the library in reading skill development.  A library philosophy was developed that states, in part, that a Holy Family student’s library experience will include exposure to a wide variety of genre, guidance in selecting books that can be read at an independent level, and access to materials with age- and developmentally-appropriate content.  A similar committee then developed a grade-by-grade progression of the degree to which library reading is guided for each age.

The reading curriculum, as is the case for all curriculum areas at Holy Family, is considered a living document.  Language arts teachers are given the opportunity to suggest revisions for the coming school year based on their past year’s experience with the reading curriculum document.