Our K-12 English Language Arts Curriculum follows the guidance of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. This document shares each grade level standards, strand, and indicators.

Structured Literacy in SBSD

The South Burlington School District has been transitioning to Structured Literacy in our elementary schools for the past several years. This has replaced the Balanced Literacy approach, which was supported through Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Units of Study program that was authored and edited by Lucy Calkins, with evidence-based Structured Literacy instructional practices that are explicit, sequential, systematic, and cumulative. In Structured Literacy, students are taught decoding strategies that lead to automaticity and comprehension in reading.

In the 2021-2022 school year, our special educators, speech-language pathologists, and literacy specialists spent their Teacher Learning Community (TLC) sessions learning about Structured Literacy with the Stern Center. Additionally, over the last several years, our district has provided opportunities for all of our kindergarten through five special educators to be trained in Orton Gillingham. Currently, our middle school special educators are in their second year of their training.

In the 2022-2023 school year, this professional learning was expanded to kindergarten through fifth grade teachers who spent their TLC sessions learning about Structured Literacy. This professional development series was again developed and delivered by The Stern Center. Key elements of Structured Literacy include oral language development, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, spelling and morphology, fluency, syntax, reading comprehension, and writing, which are all taught explicitly and systematically.

This year, kindergarten through fifth-grade teachers are using their TLC time to learn research-based instructional practices for implementing a Comprehensive Literacy Block. This block includes all aspects of Structured Literacy as well as handwriting and grammar, usage, and mechanics.

In order to support Structured Literacy instruction, a group of teachers, instructional coaches, and literacy specialists developed learning targets and success criteria for the grade-level literacy priority indicators. These clearly define the skills that students are expected to master at each grade level in connection to Structured Literacy. The learning targets are written in student-friendly language and help children to know what they are learning during their Comprehensive Literacy Block.

These indicators and success criteria will help inform a revision of the literacy section of the kindergarten through fifth-grade report cards this year. We have also started a revision of our Local Comprehensive Assessment Plan (LCAP) to align with these Structured Literacy priority indicators. The priority indicators, learning targets, success criteria, Comprehensive Literacy Block, and LCAP can all be found on the South Burlington School District website under the Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment section.

The next steps include a thorough analysis of the LCAP to ensure ongoing progress monitoring of proficiency attainment with Structured Literacy, including the literacy priority indicators. The District Literacy Leadership Team will identify any gaps and ensure that common assessments are selected or developed as needed. This leadership team will also evaluate evidence-based instructional resources and programs to support Structured Literacy that will be piloted by our kindergarten through fifth-grade teachers.

SBSD K-5 Comprehensive Literacy Block

SBSD K-5 Literacy Priority Indicator Map

SBSD Grades K-1 Literacy Learning Targets and Success Criteria

SBSD Grades 2-3 Literacy Learning Targets and Success Criteria

SBSD Grades 4-5 Literacy Learning Targets and Success Criteria

South Burlington School District

PreK-12 Curriculum

Mathematics

Science

Literacy

Health

Physical Education

Social Studies