The Elementary Reading/Language Arts Program in Anne Arundel
County
Public Schools is designed to accelerate achievement for all
students. To attain this important academic goal, the
Open Court
Reading Program forms the foundation of language arts
instruction in our elementary schools. We invite you to learn more
about our program by exploring this web site and reviewing the
program’s implementation throughout the elementary school years –
kindergarten through grade five.
Open Court Reading is a comprehensive language arts
program based on the five essential components of good reading
instruction as outlined in No Child Left Behind: phonemic
awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension.
Featuring high quality literature, this program enables students to
learn to comprehend, form ideas, and communicate in a highly
effective manner.
The Reading/Language Arts Program of Anne Arundel County Public
Schools:
· develops confident and fluent readers.
· engages students in constructing meaning,
· incorporates writing and language skills.
· develops research and study skills.
· teaches effective listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Middle School Language Arts
The Reading/Language Arts Office designed our county’s Middle School
Reading/Language Arts Curriculum to provide all Grade 6-8 students with
instruction based on the Maryland Voluntary State Curriculum for reading,
writing, speaking, and listening as well as other skills essential and
related to language arts, such as spelling, word study, grammar, and language.
(Maryland curriculum documents are accessible on the
MDK12
website.)
Our goal is to accelerate achievement for all students. To do that,
Anne Arundel County teachers focus on building skills needed for academic
and real world success by using developmentally appropriate approaches
and materials that appeal to a wide range of students. The objective is
to engage and involve students yet provide the rigor needed to challenge
them to reach for higher achievement.
Specifically, instruction is delivered using a variety of texts, including
McDougal-Littell’s Language of Literature, InterActive Reader, and Bridges
to Literature anthologies, as well as selected novels. Teachers and media
specialists involve students in using supplemental informational materials
from current media, as well.
Pacing guide documents, created and refined by teachers and resource
specialists, lead teachers in planning and supplying a high standard of
rich instruction in the literature of stories, poems, essays, novels, drama,
biography, and memoir, as well as media-related forms of reading, such
as newspaper and magazine articles. Students improve their composing skills
with regular assignments in full-scale writing of personal narratives,
research papers, essays, and poems. Students also regularly practice timed,
on-demand formats of writing similar to those demanded by assessments and
courses in high school and college.