COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS STANDARDS:

   Reading Literature and Informational Texts

1. Key Ideas and Details
2. Craft and Structure
3. Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
4. Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

   Writing     

1. Text Types and Purposes
2. Production and Distribution of Writing
3. Research to Build and Present Knowledge
4. Range of Writing

   Speaking and Listening

1. Comprehension and Collaboration
2. Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

   Language

1. Conventions of Standard English
2. Knowledge of Language
3. Vocabulary Acquisition and Use

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS:

1. Knowing how to apply phonetic principles, context clues, structural analysis and spelling patterns can help readers figure out unfamiliar words while reading.
2. Successful readers comprehend texts by reading fluently, strategically, accurately and critically.
3. Accomplished readers read from a wide range of literature/text, constructing meaning and responding in personal, interpretive, and critical ways.
4. The larger the reader’s vocabulary, the easier it is to make sense of different kinds of texts.
5. Reading is a way to explore personal interests, answer important questions, satisfy one’s need for information, entertain and be entertained, and build understanding of the many dimensions of human experience.
6. Literature can reflect, clarify, criticize, and satirize the time, ideas, and cultures it depicts. Writing is a deliberate process of prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. This process is essential to effective writing.
7. Writers use a wide range of forms, genres and techniques to convey meaning effectively.
8. Writing is a way to clarify or express thinking and knowledge in all content areas.
9. Effective writing uses standard grammar, correct usage, spelling, punctuation and capitalization to make meaning clear to the reader.
10. Speaking, listening, and viewing are fundamental processes which people use to express, explore, and learn.

CORE BELIEFS ABOUT INSTRUCTION:

1. Effective instruction actively engages in a learning process that promotes higher order thinking.
2. Students learn best when objectives are clear, achievable and meaningful to their lives.
3. Effective instruction must meet the needs and interests of students through a variety of differentiated strategies.
4. Effective instruction is driven by continual assessment, teacher and student reflection and modification to improve student achievement.
5. A consistently positive, safe and respectful learning environment is integral for effective instruction.
6. Effective instruction builds shared accountability for learning.

BEST PRACTICES IN INSTRUCTION:

1. In a student-centered environment, teachers model various formats using “think alouds” to develop effective reading and writing strategies.
2. Reading and writing, particularly nonfiction, should be embedded and integrated throughout the curriculum.
3. A community of readers and writers should exist in each classroom to provide students with a risk-free environment for sharing their work.
4. Teachers should make available multiple or single copies of a variety of authentic, high-interest books from which students can choose.
5. Daily reading, discussion and writing should be at the students’ instructional and independent levels.
6. Teachers should read aloud quality literature to model the reading process.
7. Quality phonics instruction should occur in grades K-2 to allow all students to gain effective decoding skills.
8. Comprehension instruction should focus on teaching students strategies including visualizing, connecting, questioning, predicting, inferring, evaluating, monitoring, synthesizing and activating prior knowledge.
9. Students should experience a variety of writing to encourage reflection and higher level thinking skills.
10. The teacher should model writing as a fellow writer and as a demonstrator of the writing process.
11. Teachers should increase ownership of writing by using teacher-student conferences, helping students pick their own topics and goals, and teaching students to monitor their own progress.
12. Teachers should teach grammar and mechanics in context through a series of focus lessons.
13. Peer revision serves to promote communication between writers, provide immediate feedback and enhances thinking skills as part of the writing process.
14. Published pieces, both graded and ungraded, need to be shared in a variety of formats.

PHILOSOPHY:

"To cultivate an exceptional, innovative learning community that enables all students to succeed in a changing world"

The Boyertown Area School District’s philosophy is to equip students for our changing world by providing daily exposure to 21st Century skills, knowledge and tools.