Now, more than ever, school systems across the nation are looking at how we are preparing our students for the demands of a 21st Century workforce. Today’s students need critical thinking and problem-solving skills not just to solve the problems of the jobs that are currently available to them, but to meet the challenges of adapting to our constantly changing workforce.

The Maryland College and Career Ready Standards (MCCRS) for English Language Arts have standards for literacy under reading-literature and informational text, foundational skills, writing, speaking and listening, and language. Worcester County Public Schools has aligned our instruction and evidence-based materials with the MCCRS Curriculum in primary and secondary grade levels.

At the primary level, students are building basic skills in reading, language, and writing that will be the foundation of their literacy in secondary school. At the secondary level, students are approaching college and career readiness. Some of the traits of literate students at the secondary level are demonstrating independence in their work, building strong content knowledge, responding to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline, and the use of technology and digital media strategically.

Acknowledgement of the developmental nature of literacy is a key premise of the guiding principles of literacy for Worcester County Public Schools. An effective district-wide comprehensive literacy program is a powerful tool that enables students to become successful with 21st century literacy skills and successful, independent readers and writers.

With our guiding principles in mind, we have instituted some changes to the way we look at curriculum development. In prior years we planned utilizing curriculum maps that provided a scope and sequence for teachers to use when completing daily planning. In the summer of 2014, we began organizing our curriculum into the Understanding by Design frameworks (UbD) or units of study. This type of knowledge building curriculum development, which focuses on teaching and assessing for understanding and learning transfer, offers our teachers a planning process and structure to guide curriculum, assessment, and instruction.

At the primary level we have also initiated a structured literacy approach to instruction for students in grades Pre-K through 5 aligned to the science of reading. Our adopted programs and resources support teachers with planning and providing highly explicit and systematic teaching of all important components of literacy. These components include both foundational skills (e.g., decoding, spelling) and higher-level literacy skills (e.g., reading comprehension, written expression).

Exemplary primary and secondary teachers in our county provide meaningful instruction in reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language. Their meaningful use of assessment data ensures that each student is supported as they progress toward mastery of grade level standards. As teachers in grades Pre-K through 12 model literacy skills using a gradual release model of instructional delivery, they connect skills and strategy development across the literacy continuum thus ever preparing our students for their futures.