Curriculum Adoption

You will soon notice some changes in instruction for reading and writing at Vinton Shellsburg elementary centers. In the fall of 2025, we are adopting a new reading and writing curriculum called Amplify CKLA to build a strong phonics foundation in addition to building concrete foundational knowledge. Our core adoption team has spent many hours since October deciding on which is the most appropriate curriculum to meet the needs of our students while staying up to date with the most effective practices in teaching reading and writing. There will be some slight shifts and we are excited to tell you about them! 

Research

Decades of research shows that reading doesn’t come naturally like speaking does. Instead, it must be taught clearly so the brain can connect speech sounds to written letters. These letter combinations are linked to meanings and stored in the brain’s “letterbox” for quick and easy recall.

This process is called orthographic mapping. Our goal is to help students grow a large “letterbox” of words they can recognize instantly. This leads to fluent reading and better understanding. Guessing words from pictures or context doesn’t help with this process—sounding out words (phonics) does.

The Science of Reading

“The body of work referred to as the “science of reading” is not an ideology, a philosophy, a political agenda, a one-size-fits-all approach, a program of instruction, nor a specific component of instruction. It is the emerging consensus from many related disciplines, based on literally thousands of studies, supported by hundreds of millions of research dollars, conducted across the world in many languages. These studies have revealed a great deal about how we learn to read, what goes wrong when students don’t learn, and what kind of instruction is most likely to work the best for the most students.” – Dr. Louisa Moats

Code Emphasis in Primary Grades

We will have an emphasis on code, which means that in grades K–2, we will focus on learning how to connect letters to speech sounds in English. Did you know that there are 44 sounds and about 150 ways to read and spell them? Before students can understand what they read, they need to learn how to sound out words. So, in K–2 and beyond, we will focus on teaching students how to “crack the code” of reading.

Explicit and systematic phonics instruction

We will teach phonics in a specific order, starting with simple skills and then moving to more complex ones. Students will move forward to more challenging skills as they master each step.

In grades 3–5, students will keep learning about words, focusing more on grammar and word parts like Greek and Latin roots (morphology).

Early Intervention

If we see any signs that your child may be struggling with the foundational skills of reading, we will not take a ‘wait and see’ approach; we will immediately implement interventions and monitor their progress. The best solution to the problem of reading failure is early identification and intervention.

Phonemic Awareness

This is the ability to get to the individual sounds in words by listening and to identify and manipulate those sounds orally. While this skill will be emphasized in grades K-2, we will make sure all students have this necessary foundation. Students in the intermediate grades may need to practice these skills until they have firmed up this foundation of reading. Don’t be surprised if you have a 3rd – 5th grader who will be working on phonemic awareness. This is an area that the research has indicated is hugely important!

Decodable Readers

Our early readers will be working with decodable readers. These are books or passages that only include words that the students can ‘decode’ (sound-out) according to the skills they have been taught thus far. Our kids need practice with the phonics skills they are learning and these books and passages provide that practice. So be aware that at times, your primary students may be bringing home a sheet of paper with a passage for practice rather than a book.

Assessments

Your child will no longer get an Accelerated Reader level like 1.6 or 3.7. Instead, we will check their Oral Reading Fluency—the number of words they can read correctly in one minute—based on national grade-level standards. This helps us understand how easy or hard reading is for them.

We will also give other assessments to find out which phonics skills they need help with, including tests on word reading, nonsense word reading, and phonemic awareness (the ability to hear and work with sounds in words). A phonics screener will show which patterns they can use in their writing.

As students get better at reading words, their understanding (comprehension) improves naturally. We’ll also check comprehension with regular assessments. If your child struggles in any area, we will monitor their progress and provide extra support to help them improve.

Knowledge Building and Vocabulary

Research shows that good reading comprehension depends on having background knowledge about the topic and understanding the vocabulary in the text. To support this, we are using a new language arts program called Amplify CKLA (Core Knowledge Language Arts) for PreK through 5th grade. We are excited about the opportunity to have a systematic approach to literacy from our littlest learners and beyond (preschool through fifth grade)!

This program helps students build knowledge in history, science, and the arts. They will also hear and read complex texts and learn more advanced vocabulary. Studies show that building knowledge and vocabulary from an early age is key to becoming strong readers.

Comprehension

The main goal of reading instruction is for students to understand what they read. According to The Simple View of Reading, this happens when students can both sound out words (decoding) and understand language (comprehension).

To understand what they read, children need to be able to read the words and also have strong vocabulary, background knowledge, and an understanding of how language works. Our teaching will focus on helping students build both of these important skills.

Guided Reading

We have a very effective structure in place allowing us to work with small groups of students in our 30 minute daily lessons called WIN (What I Need) time. This is where students will get the majority of their ‘small group’, or targeted instruction, based on their individual needs. Similar to previous years, students will be grouped according to various indicators – needs in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, writing projects, or knowledge building/interest, but they will not be grouped based solely by a reading level.

Three Cueing System

Over the last few years, we’ve drifted away from this practice in most classrooms. This outdated practice teaches kids to identify words by using strategies such as identifying a word by deciding if it makes sense, if it would grammatically ‘fit’ in a sentence, if it looks right, or just by looking at the first letter. This is a practice that the research has indicated that we must abandon. Your child will not be taught to check pictures to identify words or make guesses based on the first letter they see.

Instead: Students will be closely examining the phonics patterns in the word and sounding it out. We want our students to look at every letter in the words, apply phonics knowledge, and sound words out! We will share some tips as we begin the school year.

Leveled Readers

Your child will not be assigned a reading level that corresponds to a letter or a number. They will work with a variety of text.

This variety of text serves multiple purposes addressing specific needs:

• Some text may be grade level text to build knowledge that is pertinent to their grade level content
• Some text may be interest-based
• Some text will be at a determined level for fluency or phonics practice

Students will not be limited or confined to books within a certain ‘level.’

Early readers also will not bring home books with patterned sentences that are easily memorized.

Instead: Students will read books of high interest, listen to read alouds, and discuss rich-content text focused on science and social studies content and fictional text which intentionally connects to the rich topics being covered.