English Language Arts

District 65 has a belief that all of its students are readers and writers and, as such, the District has aligned its work to Lucy Calkins and the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. This highly rigorous program focuses on developing the skills of children in the areas of Reading for information, fiction reading, written expression, speaking, listening, and language development. Similar to the way that the Common Core State Standards are structured, the District believes that:

“To build a foundation for college and career readiness, students must read widely and deeply from among a broad range of high-quality, increasingly challenging literary and informational texts.  Through extensive reading of stories, dramas, poems, and myths from diverse cultures and different time periods, students gain literary and cultural knowledge as well as familiarity with various text structures and elements. By reading texts in history/social studies, science, and other disciplines, students build a foundation of knowledge in these fields that will also give them the background to be better readers in all content areas. Students can only gain this foundation when the curriculum is intentionally and coherently structured to develop rich content knowledge within and across grades.”  - Core Standards Note on Range of Text Complexity (link opens in new window)

Students also acquire the habits of reading independently and closely, which are essential to their future success.

To learn more about our core instructional resources and our work with students in the area of English Language Arts please use the links below. (*Links below open in new window.)

Multi-Tiered Systems of Support and Enrichment Programming

For students who need additional support in the area of English Language Arts, there are programs offered through the the District’s Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) program and the District’s special education program both of which utilize curricular materials that supplement classroom learning and that align to the Illinois Learning Standards. In some situations, we use the Lucy Calkins Up the Ladder Series (link opens in new window) and in other situations we use a series of interventions and supports that help to build student understanding in the areas of reading and writing.