Our goal as a district is to ensure that every teacher of reading elementary, middle and high has the knowledge, the skills and the necessary tools for teaching all students to read. Our efforts are focused on ways to prevent early reading failure and to provide timely interventions to struggling readers. Professional development activities include training for our content area teachers at the middle and high levels. Our intent is to make reading everybody’s business.
Click here for K-12 Curriculum and Instruction Contact Information.
| 6th Grade | 7th Grade | 8th Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Course Description | Course Description | Course Description |
| 1008010 M/J Reading 1 | 1008040 M/J Reading 2 | 1008070 M/J Reading 3 |
| M/J Reading 1 Curriculum Maps | M/J Reading 2 Curriculum Maps | M/J Reading 3 Curriculum Maps |
Advanced |
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| 6th Grade | 7th Grade | 8th Grade |
| Course Description | Course Description | Course Description |
| 1008020 M/J Reading 1 Advanced | 1008050 M/J Reading 2 Advanced | 1008080 M/J Reading 3 Advanced |
1000010 Intensive M/J Reading (MC)
Implementation Calendars for Curriculum Maps |
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| 6th Grade Reading Calendar | 7th Grade Reading Calendar | 8th Grade Reading Calendar |
| 9th Grade | 10th Grade | 11th/12th Grades | Multi-grades |
|---|---|---|---|
| Course Description | Course Description | Course Description | Course Description |
| 1008300 Reading I | 1008310 Reading II | 1008330 Reading III | 1008320 Advanced Reading |
| 1008350 Reading for College Success | |||
| Curriculum Maps ELA 09 | Curriculum Maps ELA 10 | Curriculum Maps ELA 11/12 Re-takers |
*Intensive Reading classes follow the grade-appropriate curriculum map above. Teachers use differentiated instruction and appropriate scaffolding to meet the needs of students.
Governor Jeb Bush signed an Executive Order in 2001 establishing the Just Read, Florida! state wide reading initiative. As part of this order spoke to establishing of a pool of highly qualified reading teachers through the acquisition of a reading endorsement, which consists of 300 in-service points or 15 semester hours of college credit.
Click here for more information on Reading Endorsement
New Process for Reading Endorsement Verification
Polk County is one of the state’s Pilot districts for the Reading Coach model, Florida’s springboard for the Reading First initiative.
Two of the most important goals in the district’s Strategic Plan are opportunity to learn and monitoring of student progress. There is strong support in our district for the Just Read, Florida! Comprehensive Research-Based Reading Plan, as the plan provides a clear direction and a focus for enhancing the existing reading initiatives in our elementary, middle, and high schools. Schools are expected to implement a balanced reading program at every grade level in every school in the district. The district will provide training and facilitate the incorporation of the Reading Program. Through appropriate assessment and progress monitoring students will receive rigorous and relevant reading instruction.
Ongoing progress monitoring of student achievement is the focus. Professional development activities will relate to assessments and interpretations of the assessment data to drive instructional decisions at the district, at the classroom and at the school.
Our goal as a district is to ensure that every teacher of reading elementary, middle and high has the knowledge, the skills and the necessary tools for teaching all students to read. Our efforts are focused on ways to prevent early reading failure and to provide timely interventions to struggling readers. Professional development activities include training for our content area teachers at the middle and high levels. Our intent is to make reading everybody’s business.
We do know that our district is becoming more increasingly diverse. This recognized diversity of students requires diverse teaching styles that do not stray from research-based practices. To that end, our teachers need both the knowledge base about how children learn to read and the ability to draw upon a variety of effective scientific research-based reading strategies to provide effective reading instruction for all children—including ESE and LEP.
The Reading Coach Model is implemented at the elementary, middle, and high levels in our district. All of our schools are provided the services of a reading coach. These services have proven to be invaluable in our efforts to improve student achievement and to increase the level of proficient readers.
Our true mission is to ensure rigorous and relevant learning experiences for the students. We believe, as a district, that these learning experiences will result in high student achievement.