1st Grade English/Language Arts

In 1st grade, students continue a literacy program that involves listening, oral reading, and interpreting stories through creative writing, drama, art projects, and games. Students practice their reading skills with instruction that meets their individual learning needs, styles, and readiness levels. Teachers provide direct instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics, vocabulary, decodable readers, skill development, discussion and analysis, and independent reading. Core resources in our language arts programs are Heggerty phonemic awareness exercises, Fountas and Pinell direct phonics instruction, Orton-Gillingham multisensory reading and spelling programs, Targeted Reading Intervention for students who need additional support, and Handwriting Without Tears. 

Writing: Developing skill in writing is a crucial element of 1st grade. We deliver instruction in various forms of writing, from simple stories and letters to poems, expository writing, and research and informational writing. Creativity, fluency, mechanics of writing, and developmental spelling are the highlights of this program. Skills are practiced in a variety of settings, including one-on-one and in writing centers.

Handwriting: We use the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum, a research-supported, developmentally appropriate, multisensory approach to handwriting instruction. The focus is consistent letter formation to build a foundation where students can concentrate on expressing thought instead of letter formation. To reach this goal, we focus on a kinesthetic component that links the eyes, hands, and brain together to establish consistent and comfortable letter formation.