Literacy Vision Statement

Literacy is one of the cornerstones of student success; it is the foundation upon which all learning is built.  In District 68, we strive to develop independent lifelong readers and writers who comprehend and communicate effectively.  Students need to be challenged to reach their highest level of proficiency.  It is the responsibility of all District stakeholders to provide a literacy‐rich environment.

• We believe that students develop a love of literacy through interactions with authentic and culturally relevant texts. 
• We believe students need many engaging opportunities to read and write every day in cross-content settings.  
• We believe that effective literacy instruction includes modeling, student-led goal setting, responsive flexible groupings, and ongoing assessment to inform decision making. 
• We believe effective, standards-aligned, balanced literacy instruction results in students who are active speakers, listeners, readers, and writers.  

Literacy Instruction in District 68 

District 68 has historically followed a Balanced Literacy approach to literacy instruction.  This has included skill-focused and meaning-focused instruction in reading and writing as well as teacher-led and student-led activities such as guided reading, shared reading, and independent reading and writing.  While this approach is generally followed in District 68 to this day, the District emphasizes more so Responsive Teaching, that is identifying specific skills and strategies to teach based on the reading and writing behaviors of students.  

Teachers use the reading and writing workshop approach to the literacy block.  Elementary classrooms spend 120 - 130 minutes per day in the workshops.  Junior high students spend 80 minutes per day in Reading/Language Arts class. 

Essential components to District 68 Responsive Literacy Instruction includes the following: 

• Establishing a Literacy Rich Environment
  • Purposeful use of classroom libraries
  • Teacher-guided student self-selection of independent reading books
  • Creation of a community of readers and writers
  • Use of a variety of texts and instructional models to develop language
• Developmentally Appropriate Framework
  • Phonological and Phonemic Awareness (spoken words, syllables and sounds)
  • Phonics (sounds, multi-syllabics, word study)
  • Fluency (repeated exposure to language, reading aloud, using expression, intonation and pacing, choral reading, etc.)
  • Vocabulary (word meaning, acquired through reading a range of texts, engaging in discussions, applying context clues to infer meaning, etc.)
  • Comprehension (speaking and listening, reading and writing, complexity of texts and content-related texts)
• Development of Reader and Writer Identities
  • Identification of students’ reading and writing preferences, their attitudes and habits, their confidence in their abilities to be a reader and writer, and their motivations/interests
  • Identification of students’ meta-cognitive processes when they become stuck
  • Use of Reader and Writer’s Notebooks as tools to build identity 
• Fluid Instruction 
  • Use of assessments to monitor progress and make instructional decisions based on the current needs of students
  • Use of whole-group, small-group, partner and individual configurations for teaching and learning as appropriate to the purpose and students’ needs in the moment 
  • Explicit teaching of strategic skills and strategies as indicated for each student
  • Conferring regularly with students to engage them in thinking about their own learning, establishing goals for improvement
• Quality Culturally Relevant Materials and Resources
  • A variety of resources are used by K-8 teachers

Visit the Standards Based GradingPage to see Performance Standards for all content areas.