By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
The Burlington Area School District has the go-ahead to begin overhauling its reading curriculum.
With preliminary approval from the BASD School Board Curriculum Committee Monday night – with full approval likely from the board, as most were in attendance at the committee meeting – the district will begin implementing Units of Study by Lucy Calkins.
Calkins, who Zinnen said is an expert in the field of writing and reading curriculums, has her work in use throughout the state. Zinnen said more than 100 district are using the reading program that BASD is implementing, and 200-plus district are using Calkin’s writing curriculum.
The Units of Study program is designed to give students more choice in what they read, and structure to the curriculum so teachers can work together outside of the classroom in a collaborative approach.
Right now, Calkins is putting together what are called “classroom libraries,” collections of about 600 books so students can choose what books interest them and still expand their reading knowledge.
“I think this is the best out there right now,” Zinnen said of the program. “It’s sound practice.”
The new curriculum will be put into place for kindergarten through fourth grade this coming school year, with reading through fifth grade and writing for kindergarten through eighth grade coming in 2017-18 school year.
Zinnen said she is looking at adopting the reading program in sixth through eighth grades for the 2018-19 school year.
The initial training for the new reading curriculum will start June 10. The two training sessions will be covered by a $17,000 grant from Runzheimer International – through Project CAPE, a program geared toward improving education.
The money not used for the training will be used to offset some of the costs of materials. Zinnen has not yet received a quote on the cost of the classroom libraries, but assured the board Monday night it will fit into her current budget.
“The program is predicated on providing time for reading, student choice, goal setting and personalizing learning,” Zinnen explained in an email Tuesday.
BASD will continue to use its current program called Treasures to teach specific lessons in phonics, grammar and spelling. The Calkins’ program doesn’t teach those skills directly, though students practice and use those skills within the context of reading and writing, Zinnen said.
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