Early reading is an important time in your child's learning journey. Our goal is to ensure we set them on a strong footing and a love of reading. In the K-3 or 4th grade ELA program, we have found have brought in a researched-backed program developed by Dr. Sharon Walpole from the University of Delaware.
This comprehensive English program aligns with the Classical Model and includes deep, rich literature, whole word, and phonetic learning, integrated writing, use of jingles and nursery rhymes to anchor concepts, spelling words derived from the novels, and a scaffolded approach for emergent readers. The program is available open-source from Open Up Resources. OpenUpResources is an Open Educational Resource (OER) publisher that provides much of the framework. These curriculum resources are free of charge to you or you can purchase a detailed day-by-day instructional plan. We provide you with a list of available reading books called out in the English scope and sequence. You can purchase these books or check them out at your local library.
How We Help
Customization - Integration - Simplification
Under the Bookworms platform, we support your instruction by:
If you would like a more detailed, daily, lesson option, we have taken the Bookworms plan and built out digital supports for Kinder to 3rd grade (4th and 5th grade coming soon). We provide you with a day-by-day plan, broken down into 9-week segments. This daily roadmap will move your child through the reading experience. Our teachers give you specific benchmark targets and continually provide you with landmarks of where your child should be at a snapshot at these early grades.
We also have embedded assessment tools that help you diagnose gaps in your scholar's English learning, allowing you to slow down or speed up based on your child’s skill level.
English courses in our model are extremely important and have a number of aspects which we'll break down below. The Ethos Logos Classical English scope, sequence, and alignment took years of classroom teachers back and forth to develop. We looked at top Classical schools around the country and interviewed teachers to find out which novels worked and which didn't. We added and subtracted and continue to do so. As you explore our selections realize that you have complete flexibility in what to teach in English but if you follow our unit (monthly) sequence, the benefits of thematic units and cross-connections which make Classical education so impactful will be seamless.
We are firmly anchored in the classics, but we've incorporated abridged versions of classic novels for some of our lower grades and full versions for upper grades. The abridged versions introduce students to famous English, American, European, and World literature. Our curriculum supports are built around novels, plays, poetry, short stories, speeches, and quotations from the great works of literary history.
Since many of these books have been in print for decades, many can be found online for no charge, used, or easily available from online booksellers.
We chose Bookworm because it is a system that lines up with Classical Education and is research-backed and has demonstrated effectiveness in teaching emergent readers. Here are the top 10 reasons that we like and recommend Bookworms to all our schools:
1. Balanced Literacy - fiction and non-fiction.
2. Heavy focus on real books that are leveled and readily available. These are NOT proprietary books from a large publishing house. The classroom library is made up of classical and time-tested books that align with what the scholars are learning about in history and science.
3. Use of songs, jingles, and chants to anchor concepts
4. Incorporation of read-alouds into the ELA block. (Oh so very Charlotte Mason!)
5. Vocabulary expansion through reading. Spelling lists are based on the content being covered in the core ELA classes.
6. Phonetic Incorporated in early grades in addition to Whole Word.
7. Group discussions and Socratic prompts.
8. Prompts for values and virtues themes included in the program.
9. Shared Reading, with a small group or between you and your student.
10. Kids need routines. Bookworm is built around three, daily blocks of English instruction.
In the early grades, the additional support includes narration materials, grade-appropriate poetry for recitations, and additional classical literature selections.
Novel-Based English Instruction
For families that would like more independence in their English instruction, we have suggested novels that align with our history scope and sequence. In most grades, we offer curriculum lesson outline cards and accompanying workbooks that align with our suggested novels. These workbooks include, reading comprehension questions, essay or Socratic writing prompts and spelling words aligned to the monthly novel. Add our digital platform and find even more resources, teacher trainings, and detailed assignments to support you with the Bookworms platform or the novel study course of instruction.
This option comes with a workbook, grade-level curriculum lesson cards, and a set of recitation poems that align to our history scope and sequence. We currently have novel-based instruction for the 2nd to 12th grade.
Intervention (Early Reading) and Dyslexia Scholar Adaptations in ELA
Included in our digital platform we have built in a number of diagnostic assessments, teacher training modules, and specific resources to address early reader diagnostics. Many of these resources are found in public schools and help our homeschool families look for and address many common reading challenges that may occur in the K3 to K5 grades.
