- Grand Prairie Independent School District
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- Elementary Literacy Framework
Teaching and Learning
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Elementary Literacy Framework
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Mission
We will ensure student success through engaging learning experiences, collaborative leadership, and a focus on maximizing student achievement.
Vision
GPISD is a learning community committed to student academic growth, innovation, and equity for all.
Literacy Vision
GPISD is where each child has the capacity and curiosity to become an analytical reader, skilled writer, and thoughtful communicator through exposure to rigorous texts and thought-provoking academic tasks. Using research and best practices to ground our work, we will prepare all stakeholders: scholars, educators, leaders, instructional coaches, and families to work together to support our students’ growth in literacy.
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The Instructional Core
The Instructional Core (Elmore, 2009; Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2023) provides three elements for quality instruction: Effective Teaching, Rigorous Content, and Student Engagement. The elements of the Instructional Core work together to improve student learning and provide a structure to continuously improve literacy practices.
Effective Teaching
Daily instruction is systematic and explicit and includes rigorous, on-grade level content. Small groups, student goals, and conferencing offer differentiated support based on student needs to accelerate grade-level content and/or intervene to close gaps. The foundation skills for literacy (print concepts, phonological awareness, phonics/word recognition, fluency, and encoding/writing) are explicitly taught. Instructional decisions are based on data. Literacy instruction is diverse and language-rich, including reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
Rigorous Content
All students will experience rigorous, on-grade-level literacy content. Reading includes authentic texts that are relevant, relatable, cross-curricular, and multi-genre (fiction, drama, poetry, literary nonfiction, informational, argumentative, persuasive, and correspondence). Teachers cultivate background knowledge and an understanding of content across genres. Common assessments are designed to measure student performance and growth on the TEKS using higher-level questioning. Independent reading and writing are practiced daily, with teacher feedback.
Student Engagement
Teachers create literacy communities through diverse classroom libraries that promote a love and passion for reading–including the cultures and communities of children in the classroom and school. Teachers provide students with choice, motivation, encouragement, and time to apply literacy practices independently.
Authentic reading and writing opportunities maintain student interest. Students are challenged to lead conversations, work in groups, and respond to open-ended questions.
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Instructional Principles
The Instructional Principles for Literacy at Grand Prairie ISD are grounded in the Science of Reading and are used daily in service of supporting all students in becoming skilled readers and writers.
Foundational Skills
Students in Grades K-3 will be taught Foundational Skills through an explicit and systematic approach, including print concepts, phonological awareness, phonics/word recognition, fluency, and encoding/writing. Teachers will provide students with the skill-aligned practice that is both in and out of context. Students in Grades 4-5 will continue this work through purposeful vocabulary development and differentiated supports to become fluent readers and writers.
Text Complexity
Students will engage with grade-level texts that are appropriately complex, rigorous, and culturally relevant. Complex texts are those that provide students with worthy opportunities to work with new language, knowledge, and ways of thinking. They are worth the time spent reading, writing, talking, and thinking about.
Knowledge Coherence
Content matters! Background knowledge is essential for success as learners and critical thinkers, and it plays a critical role in reading comprehension. Students will be given multiple opportunities to learn the context and background knowledge to support their meaningful understanding of the text they are reading.
Text-Based Responses
Writing about what you read and speaking about what you heard strengthens comprehension. Students will receive explicit writing instruction embedded within the curriculum and grounded in their learning content. By grounding discussion in the text, all students can engage and actively participate. Students are consistently given feedback on their writing by their peers and teachers.
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Stakeholder Commitments
Our students’ literacy learning experiences do not start and end at the school doors. Working together as a community, all Grand Prairie stakeholders (scholars, educators, leaders, instructional coaches, and families) will support our learners to become strong and confident readers. These are the commitments that we will hold each other accountable to:
Scholars
- Persevere in reading complex, grade-level texts
- Ground their thinking and discussions in evidence from the text
- Master the foundational skills needed to be a skilled reader and writer
- Develop deep knowledge of texts and topics they are studying
- Engage in daily reading and writing experiences
- Demonstrate ownership of their growth and learning
Educators
- Have a shared vision of high-quality instruction grounded in research
- Build and sustain a literacy community where all students feel safe and welcome and can contribute to academic conversations
- Proactively support and nurture diverse learners to close gaps, accelerate learning, and build a love of reading and writing
- Center instruction around high-quality, complex, grade-level texts
- Differentiate instruction with assorted texts to provide acceleration or scaffolds based on student need
- Collaborate with peers, leaders, and instructional coaches to ensure they are preparing and facilitating high-quality lessons for their students
Leaders - Have a shared vision of high-quality instruction grounded in research
- Provide guidance and support to build a school-wide literacy community that meets the social, cultural, and linguistic needs of all students
- Work to streamline systems and structures so that teachers have dedicated time to plan, teach, reflect on data, and prepare lessons
- Analyze data and prioritize actions to guide needed to guide campus literacy development
- Provide support through formal and informal feedback to grow instructional coach and teacher capacity
- Partner with teachers, students, families, and instructional coaches to empower literacy connections across home, school, and the community
Instructional Coaches
- Have a shared vision of high-quality instruction, grounded in research
- Provide ongoing, timely professional development to engage and empower teachers to grow students’ literacy skills
- Are experts in the curriculum and research-based instructional strategies that teachers use in their classrooms
- Analyze data and prioritize actions needed to guide campus literacy development
- Provide consistent support through observations, co-teaching, planning, and coaching cycles to grow teachers’ capacity
- Collaborate with school leaders to ensure support is aligned with all stakeholder needs
Families
- Encourage and support students’ literacy growth and development by reading with their children at home
- Access classroom, school, and district parent resources to provide support at home
- Contribute to the literacy community by providing experiences and conversations that promote each family’s distinct cultural/linguistic background
- Feel empowered to reach out to teachers and leaders at the school to learn about what students are working on and how they can support
