This list includes all the materials needed to effectively implement K-2 Labs. Note that many of the items on this list (e.g., cardboard, feathers) may already be available in a school building, and also are easy to purchase at local crafts or hobby stores.
A single comprehensive resource that includes many of the documents needed to understand the design and to effectively implement the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block, including assessment overview, assessment conversion chart, Benchmark Assessments (teacher and student materials), Activity Bank, information on independent and small group work, syllabification guidance, handwriting guidance, and a glossary.
An outline of all of the Reading Foundations Standards and Language Standards (related to spelling) are taught and assessed in the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block. This document identifies which standards are covered in modules 1 to 4 of grade 2.
An outline of all of the Reading Foundations Standards and Language Standards (related to spelling) are taught and assessed in the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block. This document identifies which standards are covered in modules 1 to 4 of grade 2.
An outline of all of the Reading Foundations Standards and Language Standards (related to spelling) are taught and assessed in the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block. This document identifies which standards are covered in modules 1 to 4 of grade 2.
The K-2 Sample Schedules are sample schedules that outline advantages and considerations, to give leaders ideas about how to incorporate EL Education's K-2 Language Arts Curriculum (3 hours daily for Grades K-2) into a school schedule. Shows options for school days with 7, 6.5, and 6 hours of daily instruction. Also addresses significant modifications for a half-day kindergarten context.
This video shows primary students using Chaining, an instructional practice found in the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block. This instruction practice gives students targeted instruction for analyzing and decoding words with particular spelling patterns. One grapheme is changed in each successive word, and students analyze the first word to determine how it has changed as they decode the next word. The teacher gives and students decode the first word. After decoding each of the words in the chain, the teacher has students spell the words from memory, which reinforces letter-sound connections and lets the teacher check for understanding. There are optional extensions. This instructional practice is used in Kindergarten and 1st grade.
This video shows 1st graders participating in the end of cycle reading and spelling assessment with their teacher in our K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block. It specifically shows the spelling portion. The teacher administers the assessment with a small group, evaluates their responses, and confers with each student to set an individual goal. End of cycle assessments are used throughout Kindergarten-2nd grade, typically weekly.
This video shows 1st graders experiencing "Engagement Text to Decodables," an instructional practice found in the K- Reading Foundations Skills Block, that engages students in a read-aloud of an engaging complex text before they work with a decodable text on the same topic. First the teacher reads the engagement text aloud, and may ask optional comprehension questions. Then students analyze high frequency words in the engagement text they likely would not be able to decode. Next students work with a partner to search for those same high frequency words in the decodable text. They then read the entire text with a partner to develop automaticity with the new high frequency words and to apply the letter-sound patterns they have already learned. Students then add the new high frequency words to the Word Wall. Finally, students reflect on their learning. This instructional practice is used in Kindergarten (starting in Cycle 13) and throughout 1st and 2nd grades.
This video shows 1st graders using Interactive Writing, an instructional practice in the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block that helps students apply their growing knowledge of letter-sound connections to write sentences using familiar spelling patterns and high frequency words in a shared sentence. First, the teacher reads aloud an intentionally designed sentence. Students tap out each word. Then students analyze the sounds in each word. Finally they reread the completed sentence. This instructional practice is used (with slight variations) in kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grades.
This video shows 1st graders using Phonemic Blending and Segmentation, an instructional practice in the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block that helps them understand letter-sound combinations and how that helps them read and spell words. Students first tap out the sounds in a word on their fingers, then blend the sounds together. Next, they review what each sound looks and feels like in the mouth (“articulatory gestures”). Finally, they analyze the oral and auditory connections in the word they began with. This instructional practice is used in both Kindergarten and 1st grade.
This video shows 1st graders using Spelling to Complement Reading, an instructional practice in the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block, that helps students examine the reciprocal relationship between spelling and reading words. First students listen to a word read aloud, repeat the word, and segment the word into the phonemes they hear. Next they use sound boxes to analyze each word for the number of phonemes and graphemes. Finally students hear the words read aloud again, and write them from memory. This instructional practice is used in 1st and 2nd grades.
This document provides a high-level overview of the Common Core State Standards, substandards, and associated EL-created learning targets explicitly taught and formally assessed in each of the four modules for a given grade level of the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block.
Young children live in a world of activity, exploration, creation, singing, talk and play. As they move, sing, explore new ideas, make stuff, talk endlessly about what they are doing, and repeat songs and poems over and over again, primary children are learning. EL Education has created a rich and academically challenging curriculum with these needs of primary learners at its core. The K-2 curriculum offers two hours per day of content-based literacy (module lessons and K-2 Labs) plus one hour of structured phonics (K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block). All together, these three hours of curriculum are considered comprehensive, meaning that they explicitly teach and formally assess all strands and standards of the Common Core English language arts (ELA) standards for each grade level.
This is the formal introduction to EL Education Language Arts Curriculum. It explains the structure of our program and lays out the principles behind our design. It includes our approach to addressing the Common Core ELA and literacy standards, and specifics about the key features of our comprehensive literacy curriculum (3 hours/day for K-2, 2 hours/day for Grades 3-5), as well as a description of the 3-5 Life Science Modules.
The K-5 Recommended Texts & Other Resources list contains books and other resources that have been selected by our experts to support research or read-alouds for each module.
Please download this list to view the required trade books.
Sixth-grade students at the Springfield Renaissance School in Springfield, MA describe why they think checking for understanding using cold call and no opt out is a good idea.
The process of learning shouldn’t be a mystery. Learning targets provide students with tangible goals that they can understand and work toward. Rather than the teacher taking on all of the responsibility for meeting a lesson’s objective, learning targets, written in student-friendly language and frequently reflected on, transfer ownership for meeting objectives from the teacher to the student.
Checking for understanding during daily lessons encompasses a wide range of techniques—formal and informal, oral and written, verbal and nonverbal—used by teachers and students to track what students understand and can do throughout a lesson. As a result of this ongoing assessment, teachers and students make adjustments to what they are doing to ensure that gaps in understanding are addressed and that students who have mastered concepts are ready to move on to another learning task.