English Language Arts (ELA)

The Connecticut State Board of Education believes a high-quality, comprehensive prekindergarten-12 English language arts program is essential for students to develop the skills needed to comprehend and communicate effectively.

Discovery Magnet's ELA curriculum is aligned with State's Common Core State Standards. The development of language, upon which all learning is built, plays a critical role in students' ability to acquire strong literacy skills, which include reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing and presenting. Explicit instruction in oral language development provides students with the foundation for comprehending text and communicating effectively. Teachers here at Discovery, have expectations of high achievement for all students and provide challenging and rigorous instruction based on state standards as delineated in the English language arts curriculum documents which can be found at Connecticut Department of Education website http://www.sde.ct.gov .

Quality language arts education is part of the core curriculum for all students. Our hope is that by the end of high school, all graduates should be able to develop and communicate ideas and opinions through reading, interpreting and evaluating texts in various content areas. Students should be able to recognize the influences of individual, social, cultural and historical contexts on readers and writers. To that end, students will be able to use language to think critically, solve problems in everyday life and prepare to enter a diverse, global workforce.

Discovery Magnet ensures that students have access to intellectually and emotionally engaging, and culturally relevant curriculum that fosters students' natural curiosity about the world. Students have meaningful opportunities to integrate 21st Century Skills (e.g., technology, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, innovation, creativity) and literacy skills within all content areas.

We implement high-quality, comprehensive Prekindergarten-8 English language arts curriculum, instruction and assessments aligned with state expectations.

Our Expectations:

 1. Ensure instructional time for ELA is at least 120 minutes daily as recommended by the Report of the National Reading Panel.

2. Maintain class sizes to support instructional excellence.

3. Provide multiple and varied opportunities every day to engage with varied, culturally responsive fiction and nonfiction texts.

4. Provide a language-rich environment in all classrooms.

5. Provide district-sponsored English language arts competitions and enrichment activities.

6. Provide and require, teachers and staff to use scientifically-based methods to gather information about how learners develop literacy skills.

Families and Community Member Support:

1. Stimulate children's oral language skills by involving them in a variety of language-rich activities (e.g., conversations, songs, stories, response to questions).

2. Encourage children's interests in English Language Arts by engaging them in speaking about what they are learning at school and how it relates to daily life, especially promoting reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing and presenting skills.

3. Use community resources to support children's literacy development.

4. Work with teachers to support children's literacy learning in ELA and across content areas.