Belleville 118 has a new reading curriculum this year. Here’s how it will help students
The school year is underway in Belleville School District 118, and as students return to the classroom, they have new reading and writing materials.
Over the summer, the district bought a new English language arts curriculum after a months-long review and selection by teachers.
With the new curriculum, the district hopes to see continued post-pandemic growth in students’ reading and writing skills, according to Assistant Superintendent Tracy Gray.
“Our goal is always student growth,” she said.
In May, the school board approved the purchase and adoption of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Into Reading for kindergarten through fifth grade and Into Literature for sixth through eighth grade.
District 118 paid about $676,000 for a six-year license for the new curriculum with pandemic relief funds it received from the federal government. The district had been using its previous curriculum for eight years.
The new curriculum will be used alongside a phonics program the district has been using for the past two years for students in kindergarten through second grade and something called TEAM time it started implementing last year to close post-pandemic achievement gaps.
With TEAM time — which stands for Together Everyone Achieves More — every student from kindergarten through sixth grade receives small group or differentiated instruction at least four days a week.
“Our teachers have been really good about using data to drive instruction. I think that’s helped our students as well,” Gray said.
Gray said the district’s curriculum review committee, which consists of two teachers from every grade level, looked at six curricula in total. A representative from each company came in, gave a presentation and provided sample materials for teachers to go through.
Using a rubric, the committee narrowed the list down to two curricula last December: one from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and another from Savvas. Teachers then did a deeper dive on those two with trainers and piloted them through mid-May.
“Both of those companies sent student and teacher materials for the units that (teachers) wanted, so then they could get a true feel of: What is it like teaching this unit? What do the kids have access to? … And then what do I have access to as a teacher?” Gray said.
Teachers not on the committee also received digital curriculum to try out any lessons of their choice and provide feedback.
For months, teachers reviewed, tested and discussed the pros and cons of each curriculum, Gray said, looking especially for: diversity in authors, characters and stories, variety of genres, writing components, user-friendliness of the curriculum for teachers and also on the digital platform, since the district uses Promethean boards in classrooms, and more.
Then in May, the committee came back together, discussed and decided to move forward with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Into Reading and Into Literature.
The process was a good opportunity for teachers to try out both curricula and figure out which one was a better fit for their students, Gray said. “We always think of our student population and what’s going to work best for them,” she said.
The district also did an audit of the curriculum to ensure that it’s culturally responsive, meaning students of all backgrounds can see themselves represented in what they’re reading and the authors they’re reading.
“It’s just a way to motivate and empower our students,” Gray said.
Some of the other reasons the committee went with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s curriculum, according to Gray, were that it has:
Multimedia, like interactive videos
Numerous professional development opportunities for teachers, who already received training on the curriculum over the summer and will have more professional development opportunities in October and January
A component for English language learners with a lot of Spanish resources (there are currently 11 languages spoken by students in the district, but a majority of the English language learners speak Spanish)
Opportunities for small-group instruction to meet students’ different needs
State literacy plan (H3)
The district was also intentional about choosing a curriculum that aligned with the state’s new literacy instruction standards, Gray said.
In February, the Illinois State Board of Education adopted a literacy plan to enhance and standardize literacy instruction statewide with research-backed practices after the legislature passed a law requiring the development of the plan amid low reading proficiency rates statewide.
The plan doesn’t contain any mandates for school districts, but another law enacted in early August requires any vendors or learning partners “approved to support a school’s continuous improvement plan related to English language arts” be aligned with the state’s literacy plan.
Illinois is just one of many states in recent years to re-evaluate literacy instruction and shift away from the “balanced literacy” approach to the “science of reading,” which refers to decades of research and evidence on what works best for teaching children to read.
While “balanced literacy” incorporates some phonics into whole-language instruction, which is based on the idea that reading is a natural process, the science of reading advocates for a “structured literacy” approach that emphasizes the importance of explicit, systematic instruction on foundational reading skills like phonics.
Phonics refers to understanding the relationships between written letters or letter combinations and their sounds. Readers can then use the letter-sound relationships and their patterns to decode, or sound out, written words.
District 118 also started using the Orton-Gillingham phonics program for kindergarten through second grade in recent years, Gray said.
“That is something that we have seen huge growth within our kiddos for those foundational skills,” she said.
One of the reasons the district liked the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s curriculum is that it fits nicely with the Orton-Gillingham approach, she added.
How can parents support their child’s reading growth?
“One of the best things parents can do is read to their children,” Gray said.
Students often don’t have a joy for reading, so instilling that in them and getting them to engage in literature of any kind, from an article to a graphic novel, is critical. “I think just modeling that and sharing that with them is huge,” she said.
Another benefit of the new curriculum is that, rather than using hardback books, it uses “consumables,” which means every year the district will get new books for students.
As a result, students will be able to bring their books home and re-read them with their parents. “They’re going to see the skills that they’re learning. They’re going to see the types of stories that they’re reading,” Gray said.
Another plus of the consumable books is that students will be able to write in them and engage with text on another level by highlighting, underlining and making notes in the margins. One strategy teachers like to use is asking students to circle words they don’t know, for example.
“That was another really, really big thing for us,” Gray said.
