Literacy Program Goals: Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking

In the Goshen School district, the goal of our literacy program is to create students who are highly effective users of oral and written language and apply literacy to real life situations so they can become productive members of a global society.

All of our teachers are teachers of literacy: reading, writing, listening and speaking. In all K-6 classrooms, our teachers present a balanced approach to literacy through their daily instructional practices. It is the expectation of the school district that teachers in grades K-6 will engage students in the following grade appropriate best practices in an informed and systematic manner:

Each day, all students will participate in a Reading Workshop that incorporates the instructional components listed above, as appropriate. Reading instruction will focus on the Twelve Strategic Actions that readers must develop in order to become proficient:

• Thinking Within the Text (solving words, monitoring and correcting, searching for and using information, summarizing, maintaining fluency, adjusting)
   
• Thinking Beyond the Text (predicting, making connections, inferring, and synthesizing)
   
• Thinking About the Text (analyzing and critiquing)

Each day, all students will participate in a Writing Workshop that incorporates the instructional components listed above, as appropriate. Writing instruction will focus on the following elements of writing: process, craft, genre and conventions.

Guiding all of the above is the individual assessment of students whereby teachers monitor, document, and evaluate each student’s reading and writing development. Through formal and informal assessments, ongoing achievement data will help our teachers make informed decisions about next instructional steps so that their students can make continuous progress in reading and writing.