Innovation’s Reading Specialists, Sara Mehrnama and Lauren Worley, are excited to support teachers and students!
For ideas about how you can support literacy skills at home click here.
Virginia Literacy Partnerships resources for families
The APS English Language Arts Office directs schools to develop students who are strategic readers, effective writers, engaging speakers, and critical thinkers. Innovation’s reading specialists believes all children can learn to read skillfully, write expressively, and engage in higher-level discourse. The focus of classroom instruction in early elementary (grades preK-2) is the development and mastery of foundational literacy skills. Evidence-based instruction that emphasizes phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, fluency, and comprehension is prioritized to meet the needs of students in the early stages of reading and writing acquisition. The focus of classroom instruction in upper elementary (grades 3-5) shifts from learning to read to reading to learn across all content areas. Students build on their foundational reading skills and become increasingly proficient readers and writers.
Reading Specialists at Innovation co-facilitate grade level collaborative learning team (CLT) meetings to support planning, assessment, instructional pedagogy, data analysis, and reporting standards around reading and writing instruction. Innovation’s reading specialists also coach teachers to ensure that instructional practice is in alignment with the science of reading, and occasionally work with small groups of students to provide intensive intervention services.