The Heart of Craig's Literacy Program
Structured Literacy is at the heart of Craig's literacy program. Students develop the interconnected skills needed to become confident, capable readers and writers through explicit, systematic, and multisensory instruction.
Craig does not use a one-size-fits-all approach to literacy instruction. Students receive the combination and amount of instruction that best matches their individual learning needs.
Structured Literacy encompasses:
- Phonology
- Phonics & sound-symbol association
- Syllable instruction
- Morphology
- Syntax
- Semantics
- Fluency
- Reading comprehension
- Oral language
- Written expression
The Orton-Gillingham and Reading Comprehension programs work in close partnership, allowing students to receive instruction that addresses both foundational reading development and higher-level comprehension skills.
Structured Literacy
Orton-Gillingham
Orton-Gillingham is the foundation of Craig's structured literacy instruction. Students receive individualized, explicit, systematic, multisensory instruction that follows the logical structure of the English language.
Instruction builds systematically from previously learned concepts and is guided by ongoing formal and informal assessment. Students work toward mastery and develop increasing automaticity, fluency, understanding, and expression.
Structured Literacy
Reading Comprehension
Reading Comprehension instruction helps students move beyond decoding to develop the knowledge, vocabulary, strategies, and critical-thinking skills needed to understand and analyze text.
Students read whole books together and engage in discussion, hands-on activities, writing, debate, and deliberate practice. Rather than relying exclusively on isolated passages, students develop comprehension through meaningful engagement with complete texts.
Instruction is informed by research-based approaches including The Reading Comprehension Blueprint and LETRS.
Structured Literacy
Language Arts
Language Arts instruction develops students' ability to communicate their ideas clearly and effectively in writing. Students move systematically from sentence construction to paragraphs and multi-paragraph essays.
Students are explicitly taught the writing process, including:
- Brainstorming
- Organizing ideas
- Developing main ideas and supporting details
- Sentence construction
- Drafting
- Revising
- Editing
- Publishing
Writing instruction develops informational and narrative writing, including compare/contrast, descriptive, informative, procedural, persuasive, and narrative forms.
Multisensory, Sequential & Explicit
Craig's mathematics program is multisensory, sequential, and explicit. Students develop conceptual understanding, problem-solving skills, and mathematical independence through concrete materials, visual models, guided practice, and clearly defined strategies.
In Grades 2–5, Orton-Gillingham Math provides clearly defined problem-solving steps, practice materials, concept guides, and concrete and visual representations of mathematical concepts.
Explore, Create, Collaborate & Solve
STEM at Craig inspires students to explore, create, collaborate, and solve problems. Through hands-on challenges and real-world applications, students develop communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.
STEM experiences include hands-on science and engineering challenges as well as school-wide traditions such as:
Knowledge, Curiosity & Critical Thinking
Science and Social Studies provide opportunities for students to build knowledge, vocabulary, critical-thinking skills, and confidence through multisensory, hands-on learning.
Science
Science instruction is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards and emphasizes inquiry, exploration, and hands-on learning.
Students investigate physical, life, and earth sciences while developing:
Experiments, engineering challenges, and real-world connections help students apply what they learn.
Social Studies
Social Studies develops students' understanding of history, geography, civics, cultures, and their place in the world.
Students learn through guided inquiry, hands-on activities, structured note-taking, discussion, and project-based learning.
Instruction is intentionally scaffolded to support language processing, reading comprehension, written expression, and the development of background knowledge.