Students entering kindergarten will be exposed to an abundance of songs, rhymes, and age-appropriate texts to foster a love of and competence in reading.

Through explicit teaching and activity-based literacy centers, classroom teachers ensure that students learn foundational literacy skills such as basic features of print, understanding of rhyming, blending, and segmenting spoken sounds, and understanding letter names and sounds. Students are also taught how to blend sounds together to decode words as well as read common high-frequency words. With support from teachers, students will also read a variety of controlled texts and authentic literature in order to understand a story and/or gather information about a topic.

We teach early literacy skills including phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, mapping high-frequency words and handwriting through Heggerty and Fundations as well as other evidence-based instructional strategies to target specific skill development in foundational reading skills.

Our Writing Program is Empowering Writers, which uses literature and other published examples as a jumping off point for instruction. Children will see high quality writing and hear high quality stories to help them understand what their writing should look and sound like. They will then get opportunities to write their own narrative, informational and opinion pieces through drawing and writing. Empowering Writers also provides opportunities for students to learn about sentence structure and early grammar rules through their Sentence a Day routine. In addition to the lessons in Empowering Writers, students multiple opportunities to write while exploring their experiences with the world around them.

In first grade, students continue to learn foundational reading skills. These include orally isolating, blending, and manipulating sounds as components of words, using phonics rules to decode words following basic patterns, and recognizing irregularly spelled words. These skills work together to develop skills among first graders to read grade-level texts with accuracy and appropriate rate with purpose and understanding.

Our phonics program is Fundations, which builds on the foundation established in K with sound-spelling correspondences, spelling strategy development, and handwriting.

Students continue their writing development through the Empowering Writer's Program, which uses literature and other published examples a jumping off point for instruction. Children will see high quality writing and hear high quality stories to help them understand what their writing should look and sound like. They will then get opportunities to write their own narrative, informational, and opinion pieces. Empowering Writers also provides opportunities for students to learn about sentence structure and early grammar rules through their Sentence a Day routine. In addition to the lessons in Empowering Writers, students have multiple opportunities to write while exploring their experiences with the world around them.

We continue to work with students to participate in collaborative conversations and demonstrate the standard English grammar in speaking and in writing.

Wayland Public Schools believe that literacy is the foundation upon which a child‟s education is built. The ability to read and express one’s thoughts is essential in all curriculum areas. This instruction is characterized by: using on-going assessment to inform instruction; differentiating instruction based on assessment data; explicit teaching of reading and writing strategies; and providing extensive time for students to read and write.

Students will develop proficiency in reading and writing by engaging in rich, frequent, and meaningful literacy tasks. As a result of explicit teaching and experiences with a variety of text genres, students will become more effective readers and writers. Writing experiences provide opportunities for writers to explore different genres to find their voices. Students will regularly complete writing assignments that exhibit clear thinking and organization, good development through appropriate details, creative solutions for rhetorical problems, and awareness of standard grammar and usage. Through individual and group activities, students will build a literate community where readers and writers can take risks, solve problems, and construct shared meaning.

In third grade, students continue to work on reading fluently with appropriate rate, expression, phrasing, and accuracy. They work on reading with purpose and understanding, increasing their stamina for reading independently. Students use their background knowledge and knowledge of literature and informational texts to make inferences about events and characters.

Students continue to learn how to create informational, opinion, and narrative writing through our Empowering Writers Program, which uses literature other published examples as a jumping off point for instruction. Children will see high quality writing and hear high quality stories to help them understand what their writing should look and sound like.

We continue to work with students to participate in collaborative conversations and demonstrate the standard English grammar in speaking and in writing.

In fourth grade, students identify main ideas and details in literature and informational text.  They develop skills to make inferences and follow the growth of characters throughout a novel, recognize themes, and determine authors' purposes.

Students continue to learn how to create informational, opinion, and narrative writing through our Empowering Writers Program, which uses literature other published examples as a jumping off point for instruction. Children will see high quality writing and hear high quality stories to help them understand what their writing should look and sound like.

We continue to work with students to participate in collaborative conversations and demonstrate the standard English grammar in speaking and in writing.

In fifth grade, students begin to synthesize their knowledge of different texts to make comparisons and connections between events and characters. They develop skills to follow the growth of characters throughout a novel, recognize themes, and determine authors' purposes.

Students continue to learn how to create informational, opinion, and narrative writing through our Empowering Writers Program, which uses literature other published examples as a jumping off point for instruction. Children will see high quality writing and hear high quality stories to help them understand what their writing should look and sound like.

We continue to work with students to participate in collaborative conversations and demonstrate the standard English grammar in speaking and in writing.