Educators at the John M. Marshall Elementary School in East Hampton are revamping their English language arts curriculum, bringing in a fresh program with new workbooks, independent reading offerings, and more.
The school is rolling out Into Reading, along with Arriba, a Spanish-language counterpart, all developed by the publishing company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which has been in existence since the mid-19th century under various company names. The same publisher also provides materials for John Marshall Elementary’s math program.
“It’s still considered balanced literacy, and it’s still teaching reading and writing skills through different modalities,” Karen Kuneth, the school’s principal, said. “There’s a shared reading component, a guided reading component, and an independent reading component. It’s all updated materials, so the resources and books are culturally responsive and more up-to-date.”
Key elements of a previous program called Lit Life were discontinued by its own publisher, which led Ms. Kuneth and a committee of educators across every grade level and subject area to examine new options last year. “We knew that our program was becoming slightly antiquated. We said, ‘Let’s just see what’s out there,’ and it was clear very quickly once we started to see the different programs that we wanted to make a change,” she said.
Into Reading, which emphasizes phonics and phonological awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, has been adopted by many districts across the country. In 2019, according to Chalkbeat Newark, a digital publication covering education in metropolitan New Jersey, Into Reading was the preferred choice of more than 90 Newark educators for English language arts at the elementary school level. Educators there felt the curriculum would “prioritize diversity.”
Indeed, one priority for the John Marshall committee was finding a program that mirrors the experiences of all children, including those of different ethnicities and abilities. “They have access to characters and settings that look like themselves and their community,” Ms. Kuneth said.
It’s also “100-percent aligned to our standards” in New York State for English language arts, she said.
In May, with the voter-approved East Hampton School District budget came a $214,687 line item for the new curriculum. The district signed a three-year contract for the program, which also offers training for teachers.
The cost includes “consumables,” such as workbooks that students write in all year long, as well as anthologies of grade-appropriate fiction and nonfiction that they get to keep for themselves. “That was something that was important, for me, for them to have. Some families have libraries at home, and some don’t,” Ms. Kuneth said.
Along with lessons and workbooks comes a new digital system for tracking students’ progress as they move up from grade to grade each year, allowing teachers to adapt lessons to the children’s needs more easily.
Over all, the principal said, Into Reading will support learning in multiple ways.
“If you are an English as a new language teacher, the program will assist English language learners,” Ms. Kuneth said. “It differentiates for special education students, for those who need extra support, and for those who are above their level and need something more challenging. . . . It’s going to connect the dots for them.”