Our daily schedule and our instruction is centered around the following goals: 

• Students should acquire the skills to be able to read and write with fluency.

• Students should be able to comprehend grade level texts independently.

• Students should have confidence in who they are as readers and writers.

• Students should be able to think critically about and discuss grade level texts then use that understanding to impact their community.

• Students should be able to write argumentative, informative and narrative pieces with clear organization and evidence for their grade level.

In order to accomplish our goals we have a very intentional approach to literacy instruction.  At the primary level, students need to have the skills to ‘crack the code’ of written language. We help students to crack the code through a period called Skills Block. In Skills Block, students undertake systematic phonics-based instruction for 70 minutes a day on their level so that they acquire strong and automatic knowledge of how letters and sounds work together to form words.  In third through 8th grade we shift our instruction to more heavily focus on deep comprehension and writing skills. This happens through our module block. At Lead you will also see the craft of writing, researching, and thinking critically occur across all subject areas, not just English Language Arts class. 

In addition to our focused literacy instruction, we also want students to develop their own personal love for reading. With this in mind, all students have at least ten minutes per day to simply free read a book of their choice. We invest heavily in having great books to read in both our school library and in all of our classrooms.

The primary vehicle for literacy instruction at Lead comes from EL Education’s curriculum.  We choose to use this curriculum knowing that it is fundamentally different from most published curriculum.  Lead was founded to truly try to impact students’ lives: help them grow into leaders, engage students' minds and interests, and help students to develop their own thoughts and passions.  EdReports.org, a national nonprofit that independently reviews instructional materials, rated EL Education’s curriculum with a nearly perfect “all green” score in every category. To view the curriculum or learn more, please visit www.eleducation.org.

We invest in maintaining a rich collection of high-quality books in both our school library and classrooms, ensuring there's something for every student from K5 through 8th grade.