Learning List recently reviewed The Center for the Collaborative Classroom’s Collaborative Literacy, which was submitted for state adoption in Texas in response to the Texas Education Agency’s Proclamation 2019 call for K-8 English language arts and reading (ELAR) products aligned to the new ELAR Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Collaborative Literacy is a comprehensive reading/language arts product for grades K-5. Resources are available in print and online formats. Instruction emphasizes the social development of upper-elementary students while building reading, writing, and spelling skills.
At each grade level, Collaborative Literacy is made up of three separate resources that, when used together, support 30 weeks of comprehensive instruction in reading and language arts. Each resource is discussed separately below. [Read more…]
- Being a Reader (grades K-2) develops students’ early literacy skills and ability to work independently. Lessons support build reading comprehension, phonics, and decoding skills, as well as students’ ability to recognize high frequency words.
- Making Meaning (grades K-5) develops students’ reading comprehension and vocabulary skills through read-alouds, discussions, and collaborative learning experiences. Read-alouds include a balance of literary and informational texts and provide students with opportunities to listen to, read, and discuss a variety of genres, such as poems, plays, stories, articles, and narrative non-fiction.
- Being a Writer (grades K-5) strives to develop skillful and creative writers using the “6+1 Trait Writing Model” that emphasizes seven traits of quality writing: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation. Across grades, students learn to communicate their ideas logically and with creativity and expression.
- Guided Spelling (grades 3-5) develops “thoughtful spellers” who recognize patterns, can spell by segment and sound, and understand and can apply spelling rules.
About The Center for the Collaborative Classroom*
The Center for the Collaborative Classroom, a nonprofit organization, improves the school experience of children across the globe by providing teachers with engaging curricula and ongoing professional learning that support the academic as well as the social and emotional development of the students we all serve.
Its mission is to provide a sustainable, scalable, and affordable way for schools and districts to grow research-supported teaching practices that support teachers with helping students grow as readers, writers, and thinkers as they develop the social and emotional skills necessary to thrive.
Founded in 1980 as the Developmental Studies Center by the prominent researcher Eric Schaps, the organization has contributed foundational research on social and emotional learning and pioneered the integration of social and academic development into curricula.
*Information in this section is provided by or adapted from The Center for the Collaborative Classroom.