READING COMMUNICATION TALKING POINTS

As a District We have moved to using the ELA standards as our base/curriculum and our new resource (Benchmark Literacy) will provide a scope and sequence for all teachers to follow with a balanced approach to literacy. We are no longer going to use Treasures to teach reading because it is not aligned to the ELA standards and the level of rigor to which our students must be learning is not high enough. Additionally, the assessments within Treasures are not rigorous enough and do not measure students progress toward meeting the standard. Most importantly, we attempted to use Treasures with a Balanced approach to Literacy and what we learned is that it does not meet a different set of standards. We are moving from a Basal approach to a Balanced Literacy approach. Balanced literacy is our framework for teaching English Language Arts, and Benchmark Literacy is our new resource to help students achieve mastery of the benchmarks of the ELA standards. We are moving to Benchmark Literacy for grades K-5, 6th grade will not be using Benchmark Literacy because of the shift to the Middle School in 2015 for Garfield and 2016 for Franklin. We recognize that a key component to a balanced literacy approach is the inclusion of writing with reading. We recognize that professional development is vital to the success of our students and staff. As a result, we will not only be providing professional development on the resource (Benchmark Literacy) but also in reading and writing practices in-general. The Balanced Literacy framework supports Core instruction as part of the RtI model. Benchmark Literacy was selected as our Districts newest resource because of its alignment to the ELA standards and what was identified by our large group as must haves for instruction of reading by staff as well as the must haves for engaging students in reading. Bridges will not be using Benchmark Literacy.