MICDS is pleased to continue working with the Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) curriculum in the Lower School, and is happy to report that students are thriving with the program in its second year here. CKLA is a comprehensive English Language Arts program that emphasizes the science of reading and writing. Liz Crowder, Lower School Literacy Coordinator, explains, “It is an integrated approach that focuses on building strong skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening by combining foundational skills with a content-rich literacy experience.”
The CKLA curriculum is built on two main components that work together to develop students’ literacy:
- Knowledge Component: This part of the curriculum builds students’ background knowledge and vocabulary through content-focused units, interactive read-alouds, and decodable readers. Exposing students to complex texts on a variety of subjects, like history, science, literature, and the arts, helps them make connections across disciplines, which is crucial for reading comprehension.
- Skills Component: This component provides systematic and explicit instruction in foundational skills. It focuses on essential skills such as phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, encoding, and grammar. This structured approach helps students develop reading automaticity and fluency, which are necessary for becoming proficient readers.
“CKLA’s integrated approach links reading and writing through daily instruction,” said Crowder. “Writing activities, including prewriting, sentence-level combining, and expanding, are directly connected to the texts and topics students are exploring. This integration strengthens students’ ability to not only understand what they read but also to effectively communicate their own ideas, leading to overall improved comprehension and communication skills.”
Over the course of this school year, Weekly News will be sharing stories about how each grade level is using CKLA and the progress our students are making. Crowder, along with support from our homeroom teachers, teaching assistants, and librarians, is committed to supporting each child through their literacy journey.
“Reading development is the foundation of every child’s future success in school,” says Amy Scheer, Head of Lower School. “We are fortunate to have a high-quality, research-based curriculum and so many dedicated adults intentionally fostering a love of reading and building strong literacy skills that will support students in every subject, at every stage of their learning.”
