Language | Primary School @ NIS

Essentials

At NIS we…

Believe that children learn to read by reading, and learn to write by writing.
Treat all students as readers and writers and instill enthusiasm for and enjoyment of reading and writing.
Explicitly teach comprehension strategies and writing “moves”.
Encourage student engagement by promoting choice in reading and writing.
Differentiate for students through gradual release of responsibility and the use of flexible groupings.
Provide opportunities for students to critically reflected on and improve their work in all areas of Language Arts.
Recognize that students’ languages and cultures are valuable resources to be tapped and incorporated into language learning.
Use the language of the Six Traits to reflect on and assess student writing
Document stand-alone writing units on Atlas planners (ie where writing falls outside the UOI).

Core Practices:

Encourage reading and writing in both English and mother tongue.
Provide daily opportunities for reading by offering The Daily Five choices of Read to Self, Read to Someone and Listening to Reading.
Daily Read Alouds
Flexible, targeted guided reading
Teach students how to find and identify good fit books.
Teach the eight research-based core comprehension strategies
Assess student’s reading through PM Benchmarks and Probe
Use mentor texts to learn about author’s craft
Write for authentic purposes and audiences
Assess student writing at the end of each unit using an agreed upon rubric
Use the language of the Six Traits to reflect on and assess student writing
Teach the genres identified on Grade Level Overviews.
Use Words Their Way is the basis of our Word Study Programme.
Handwriting Without Tears has been adopted as our handwriting programme for K2-G3 in 2017. This is explicitly taught with a focus on writing fluency and correct letter formation.