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Vision for ELA Education

In the Ladue School District, we promote a curriculum of evidence-based best practices within a comprehensive literacy framework for all students. We believe children must acquire the level of literacy that allows them full participation in our democratic society. Our core beliefs to achieve this vision are:

A Classroom Culture that Fosters Literacy Motivation

  • Students have the skill and the will to become competent and motivated readers by understanding themselves as a reader and writer through goal-setting and reflection.
  • Teachers will foster a class culture that promotes motivation through collaboration, relevance, choice, and feedback for success.

Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking for Wide, Authentic, and Varied Purposes

  • Students are provided with scaffolded instruction in reading and writing to promote independence through the gradual-release-of-responsibility model.
  • Teachers provide explicit instruction by modeling through mentor texts.
  • Students are given time for self-selected independent reading for pleasure, as well as to practice and apply skills and comprehension strategies.
  • Teachers act as facilitators while students engage in collaborative, problem-solving, authentic, meaning-making activities that encourage student inquiry and collaboration.
  • Students are provided with high-quality literature across a variety of genres that reflect their identities and experiences and of those identities they are not familiar with.

Differentiated Assessment to Guide Instruction

  • Teachers will differentiate instruction using a variety of instructionally relevant, authentic assessments that help students by monitoring their learning.
  • Optimal learning occurs when teachers analyze common formative and summative assessments to determine students’ current level of understanding and then teach new ideas, skills, and strategies that are at an appropriate level of rigor.
  • Teachers will provide specific, timely feedback to students to support growth.

Teachers as Visionary Decision Makers

  • Successful classrooms are led by teachers who motivate and support individual students in ways that cannot be prescribed by any one program, method, or practice.
  • Effective teachers are supported within a context of strong school and district commitment to improving student achievement.
  • Teachers receive professional development and support in order to remain abreast of current research in literacy instruction.