The Clover School District ELA program provides students with a comprehensive, student-centered, standards-driven curriculum that develops world-class skills and college/career characteristics as described in the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. In upper elementary through high school, students progress from learning how to read to reading in order to learn. In grades 3-4, students build a core knowledge of language arts concepts, including word study, reading fluency, comprehension skills, grammar, and writing.  In grades 5-8, students move from concrete thinking to analytical reasoning; students will ask and discuss "why?" and "what is the impact of?" questions, compare/contrast genres, structures and themes, and make connections between concepts in multiple contexts. In grades 9-12, students combine foundational knowledge from elementary school with critical thinking skills learned in middle school to articulate reasoned opinions, analysis, and conclusions. The SC Standards for English Language Arts include required instruction in Literary Text, Informational Text, Inquiry, Narrative Writing, Informative Writing, Argumentative Writing, Communication, Grammar/Mechanics, and Word Study. 

 

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Instructional materials are important tools educators use to enhance student learning.  It is critical that resources align to state standards--what students are expected to learn and be able to do at the end of each grade level or course-- and are high quality to ensure meaningful instructional support. The foundation of each 3rd-12th grade ELA class is literature.  In addition to the resources listed below, CSD English teachers use books to foster a love for and curate a habit of deeper learning through reading. Teachers share classic literary works, myths/legends, short stories, poetry, historical speeches, primary documents and plays.  These works build vocabulary, incorporate historical and cultural knowledge, challenge critical thinking, develop an appreciation for author craft and inspire conversations about timeless literary themes. Teachers also share a range of contemporary novels, articles, speeches, short stories and poetry. These works peak student interest, serve as mentor texts for writing, encourage independent reading, provide opportunities to practice comprehension/analysis skills, bridge common themes across works and initiate class or small group discussions. 

 

Literary Selections are listed in the following ELA Curriculum Snapshots.  

 

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CSD has adopted the following curriculum resources for grades 3-12.

 

 

HMH Literacy by Design (State Adopted Resource, 2015).  Literacy by Design lessons link literacy skills across the curriculum with integrated science and social studies content. The textbook and readers provide opportunities for students to listen to and explore different types of text forms and engage in interactive discussion to discover the meaning of the texts.  Students are explicitly taught critical comprehension strategies like finding the main idea, making inferences, retelling and supporting predictions.  Teachers may use the readers to target small group instruction.

Reading Mini-Lessons/Interactive Read Aloud.  The Reading Mini-Lessons Book provides brief, focused and practical whole-class lessons on the topics of Management/Routines, Literary Analysis (genre studies, theme,  style/language, book/print features,characterization, plot, perspective/point of view, writer's craft, and text features/structures),   Strategies/Skills (vocabulary development, fluency, summarizing, monitoring comprehension) and Writing About Reading. Each unit or "umbrella" contains several lessons that are linked to and build on each other. During the mini-lesson, teachers read from high-quality, age-appropriate mentor texts, teach a specific standard and create an anchor chart with students.  This chart becomes a visual representation that states the learning objective and serves as a reference tool for students as they apply the principle to independent and whole-class reading tasks. Teachers incorporate additional lessons to provide students with extra practice on concepts or to fill in gaps this resource may have when it comes to meeting SC standards. High quality assessments are developed by teachers, literacy coaches and instructional specialists within the district. 

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F&P Reading Mini Lesson Overview

 

 

WRITING (GRADES 3-12)

Writing Workshop:  There are standards for writing.  When those standards are not followed, communication gets lost.  In grades 3-8 students learn the skills of writing through direct instruction in grammar, author craft, text structure, organization, and content development. Students also read, analyze, and  imitate the writing found within mentor texts. Students are involved in a minimum of three major writing projects during a school year:  (1) Narrative Writing (fictional narratives, memoirs, personal narratives),(2) Informational Writing (expert books, history or science-based research reports, literary essays), and (3)Argumentative Writing (letters, essays, reviews, debates). Using a workshop model, students brainstorm, write, rewrite, edit and revise their work for an extended period of time (4-6 weeks).  Students also complete smaller compositions including, but not limited to the following:  note-taking/outlining, basic paragraph development, content summaries, poetry, Text-Dependent Analysis responses (TDA), oral presentations, skits, self-directed inquiry projects, literary analysis essays and content-area reports.  To improve writing clarity, students engage in sentence imitation, sentence expansion and grammar lessons throughout the year. Writing units, editing/revision checklists and rubrics are designed by teachers, curriculum specialists, and literacy coaches and are reviewed yearly to ensure lessons are aligned with standards and students build on and extend knowledge from previous grades.

 

LITERATURE (GRADES 6-12)

HMH Collections (State Adopted Resource 2015). Dramatic historical stories, contemporary events, and multi-genre texts ensure that the content is challenging, yet engaging, for students. Online tools help students revise, evaluate and incorporate text evidence into literary analysis projects. Performance tasks and mentor texts offer practice and support in listening, reading, speaking and writing skills. Teachers use the HMH Collections Textbook alongside novel studies, poetry analysis, nonfiction readings, writing projects, grammar instruction, vocabulary development, oral presentations, and class discussions/debates.

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Collections Textbook | 6-12 HMH Language Arts Curriculum