Literacy

"Literacy not only involves competency in reading and writing but goes beyond this to include the critical and effective use of these in
peoples' lives, and the use of language (oral and written) for all purposes." LDCNL International Literacy Council
Literacy is a key component to success. A strong foundation in literacy puts students on a path to success in academics and beyond.
RCPS is committed to providing that strong foundation to every student we have the privilege to teach. Roanoke County Public Schools’
Literacy Plan is designed to meet the diverse learning needs of all students. We take a developmentally appropriate approach based on the
most current research and best practices including the Science of Reading. The plan includes those elements necessary to provide the best
possible learning outcomes for students in kindergarten through grade twelve.
In order to provide the best possible experience for all students, RCPS uses research-based best practices from leading experts in the
fields of literacy, special education, education, neurology, and psychology. These practices are then made our own by the expert teachers in our
schools.
Students in Roanoke County will experience a system-wide literacy focus that ensures consistency across our twenty-seven schools. This
focus begins with the foundational skills necessary for emerging readers (phonological awareness and the alphabetic principle), and carries the
students through decoding and language comprehension, which enables critical thinking in the advanced stages of literacy. With this focus,
our plan will meet the needs of all students, from struggling readers to those well ahead of their age and grade level.
The plan, as articulated in this guide, is a living, breathing plan that will continue to evolve as the needs of our students change and the
research data inform our direction. A constant reflection to evaluate what is working and what needs adjustment is imperative to ensure we are
doing the best for our students.
It is important that the pace of implementation and change does not exceed our capacity to follow the plan well. What began in 2008
has, with the hard work of the literacy committee, grown to include grades K through 8. Our goal to perpetually evaluate and develop the plan
includes a structure to provide ongoing professional development that supports the components of the literacy plan. By building capacity in our
system within our strong workforce, we continue to refine our ability to deliver the best possible educational practices for our students.
The content of this guide provides the framework, the expectations, and some detailed explanation of our approach to literacy. This
guide is a companion piece to the repository of online resources available to our teachers through our Blackboard content management
system. Sample lesson plans, rubrics, and many other materials are posted in Blackboard. This hub of resources grows constantly, as
additional materials become available. We encourage staff and administrators to check the site on a regular basis.
The RCPS Literacy Plan employs both whole group and small group reading instruction with a wide variety of both strategies and
scheduling options. These options allow differentiation and the latitude to meet the needs of specific students while ensuring access to best
practices. We have a tiered intervention process that uses multiple measures to calibrate needs, and best meet goals for the student.
Additionally, there are many enrichment opportunities in the plan.

The Science of Reading is a comprehensive body of research that consists of decades of research and scientific knowledge that spans across many languages. It entails the research of many experts from relevant disciplines such as literacy, education, special education, psychology, neurology, and more.
The Science of Reading is supported by research that provides us with the information we need to understand how the brain learns to read. It helps us to gain a deeper understanding of the different parts of the brain that are responsible for reading development. Using this research, we can identify and implement evidence-based best practices when it comes to literacy instruction.
It is also important to note that in 2000, the National Reading Panel defined the 5 pillars of reading.

How do these pillars come together to support learning to read?

To best describe how these components come together, one must understand the Simple View of Reading. The Simple View of Reading is a formula demonstrating the widely accepted view that reading has two basic components: word recognition (decoding) and language comprehension. The Simple View formula has been supported and validated by several research studies. Understanding the formula will help educators with assessing reading weaknesses and providing appropriate instruction.

What The Science of Reading is… And What It Isn’t

Dr. Hollis Scarborough created the Reading Rope in the 1990s. She created it as a visual for parents and educators to see how learning to read happens. In this image, she shows how two strands intertwine to help students become successful readers. These two domains are word recognition and language comprehension.
One thing Dr. Scarborough describes is that strands get tighter as reading becomes more skilled. But if the strands get frayed, it can hinder reading development and weaken the entire rope.

Advanced - Readers who have mastered the previous skills and are ready to work on literary analysis and complex word analysis. These readers are typically in the higher grades (6-12). The focus is vocabulary and comprehension.

Alphabetic Principal - The idea that letters and letter patterns represent the sounds of spoken language

Auditory Drill - When the teachers says the sound and the student produces its letter or letter pattern, often done through a multisensory technique such as in a sand tray or shaving cream

Background Knowledge - The knowledge a student brings to the text

Beginning - Readers who have progressed past the emergent stage and are ready to read more complex texts, work on short vowel sounds, blends, and digraphs. The focus is phonics.

Decoding - The ability to apply letter sound knowledge/relationships to read written words.

Decodable Text - Carefully sequenced text to align with letter-sound knowledge and phonics skills that have been taught.

Pre-Emergent - Readers who are just starting to learn the alphabet and names of letters; they are completely unable to read and need to build pre-reading skills. The focus is phonological awareness and recognition.

RTI (Response to Intervention) - A Virginia state-wide initiative designed to clearly articulate levels of intervention for students struggling in all areas of instruction.

Rubric - A scoring tool used to assess student learning based on a set of criteria and standards directly tied to stated objectives. Rubrics help teaches apply grades to student work that may otherwise be considered subjective or arbitrary.

Science of Reading - A comprehensive body of research that consists of decades of research and scientific knowledge that spans across many languages. it entails the research of many experts from relevant disciplines such as literacy, education, special education, psychology, neurology, and more.

Sight Words - Words that you know by sight, not because you memorized the word as a visual unit but because they are mapped to your brain. When a word is orthographically mapped to your brain you know it instantly.

SOL (Standards of Learning) - Virginia’s guiding educational standards designed to ensure that students across the state are being taught the same concepts and skills to the same degree of difficulty in the same grade level across the academic disciplines. Students in grades three and higher are tested on their mastery of these skills.

RI (Reading Inventory) - A Scholastic product designed to screen students to determine their individual reading level. The results are indicated by Lexile. it is computer administered and scored and given whole-class, taking approximately 25-35 minutes per class.

TOPA (Test of Phonological Awareness) - Designed to assess a student’s phonological awareness skills in primary grades.
Transitional - Readers who have moved past the beginning stage and continue to grow as readers. They are ready for more in-depth reading instruction.

Verbal Reasoning/Inference - Refers to understanding when and how words are being figurative (metaphor, analogies, idioms, and other figurative language) and literal.

Vocabulary - Refers to the knowledge of words, including their structure, use, meanings, and links to other words

Visual Drill - When a teacher shows the student a letter or letter pattern and the student must immediately produce the sound it makes.
Whole Group - Reading instruction meant for introducing and modeling concepts for all students at the same time. This time should be used for teaching, modeling, and practicing comprehension, background knowledge, vocabulary, and writing. These skills can be carried over into small group instruction as deemed necessary.

Word Recognition - The act of seeing a word and recognizing its pronunciation immediately and without conscious effort.

GRA and Lexile Levels Performance for Ten Months of the School Year

Teachers in Roanoke County provide differentiated instruction on Virginia’s English Standards of Learning. The curriculum mapping provides a breakdown of these standards over the course of a year to help teachers pace their instruction and ensure all standards are taught. Each grade level literacy teacher receives a week-by-week guide that includes suggested standards in the areas of word analysis, skills/strategies for both fiction and non- fiction texts, writing/research, and oral language. In addition to the specific standards, instructional ideas, suggested materials, and questioning stems are also provided.

Literacy standards in Virginia build in complexity from one grade to another with students revisiting foundational skills year after year with increasing difficulty. The curriculum mapping mirrors that progression by beginning the year with familiar skills students have previously mastered and continue to build upon. This document is intended to be a guide that teachers can utilize based on their students’ needs. For example, teachers are able to spend more instructional time on certain standards if needed and/or speed up when students master standards at a faster pace. Review time is also built in to provide teachers with instructional flexibility.

These curriculum maps are living, breathing documents that will continue to evolve as the needs of our teachers and students change as well as our application of current research and data. Constantly reflecting on our instructional practices, scope and sequence of skills, and pacing is crucial to providing the best for our students. This reflective and evaluative process leads to the identification of what is working and what needs to be adjusted.

Literacy development is on a continuum that finds students varying widely as they grow in reading proficiency. The chart below illustrates the shift in focus from phonological awareness and fluency to vocabulary and comprehension. This shift must be driven by data, thus ensuring the proper focus for any given student. This chart is representative of the shift but is not absolute for each student or group of students. In other words, for a given group the focus may be different than the chart below.

For early-emergent and emergent readers, the focus is phonological awareness and the alphabetic principle. For the beginning-reader stage, the focus is Phonemic awareness, decoding, and automatic word recognition. For transitional learners, while continuing to work on fluency, they begin to receive strong instruction in vocabulary and comprehension. By the time they reach intermediate and advanced-reader stages, the focus has shifted completely to vocabulary and comprehension. Because instruction is based on literacy development and not age, the correlation to grade level is not absolute. There will be students in higher grades who need the focus of earlier readers and, conversely, there will be students in lower grades who are ready for a later stage focus. We must use assessment data to drive our instructional decisions about individual students.

Based on this instructional focus, the charts provide a suggested break down of skills and times for a language block in each grade level. You will also find resources and programs for each area when they are approved by Roanoke County Public Schools.

Suggested Literacy Block Schedules

Kindergarten Language Arts Block

1st Grade Language Arts Block

2nd Grade Language Arts Block

3^rd Grade Language Arts Block

4^th Grade Language Arts Block

5^th Grade Language Arts Block