Reading and Language Arts Vision

The Literacy Department provides with rich, engaging, literacy centered spaces so that all students will acquire the necessary skills and strategies to be life- long readers.

New Haven Public Schools curriculum has been written to incorporate the "what students need to know" within each grade level. NHPS begins with early literacy in grades K-2. Early literacy refers to the acquisition of foundational literacy skills and strategies in a comprehensive literacy program. The pillars of foundational reading skills are phonemic awareness, phonics, word study, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.  Literacy instruction in grades 3-8 is provided through a balanced literacy approach. Students are explicitly taught reading skills that progress them from learning to read to reading to learn. The scaffolding that needs to exist between making meaning and still acquiring foundational skills creates the balance needed within the classroom. Both the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and a literate environment require students to engage in shared inquiry gradually moving from teacher supported to independence. The bedrock of such a balanced literacy program is the philosophy, "What a child can do today in cooperation [teacher-student and student-student] he can do alone tomorrow" (Vygotsky, 1986).

Just as NHPS has pursued a vision of learning centered on the creation of relevant and authentic experiences for all students, the high school English curriculum encourages students to take intellectual risks and cultivate and expand their thinking, reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. Rooted firmly in the Connecticut Core Standards and 21st Century Skills, this curriculum provides our students with opportunities to take ownership of their learning as they are exposed to civic, information, media, and environmental literacy and are asked to think creatively and innovatively as they work individually or collaboratively with their peers.

Resource: New Haven Public Schools SRBI K-8