Elementary Curriculum & Instruction

 

Our seven elementary schools serve grade levels kindergarten through fifth grade. Two of our school sites Clayton A. Record Jr. Elementary and also Park Hill Elementary serve transitional kindergarten as well as kindergarten through fifth grade. Currently, our SJUSD elementary sites serve approximately 4,500 students grades transitional kindergarten through fifth grade. 

 

 

As an elementary team our focus is to strive to ensure all students are proficient readers by grade three. Also, there is always a continued emphasis on providing rigorous standards based instruction daily utilizing the Common Core State Standards in both English Language Arts and Mathematics. Our core adopted curriculum for English Language Arts is McGraw Hill-Wonders/Maravillas and Eureka in Mathematics.

 

With this in mind our elementary teams are dedicated to support and motivate families & students to "Ready, Set, Read!" It is important to reiterate that reading occurs across all content areas or subject matter. Reading is all around you! This reading initiative has been established to highlight the importance of reading and becoming a literate student who can read, write, critically think, and communicate at a high levels.

 

Balanced literacy is an important part of becoming a proficient reader. Balanced Literacy encompasses five crucial components like, a Read Aloud, Shared Reading, Word Study, Guided Reading, and Independent Reading. Within these five components are essential elements that can be defined as constrained and unconstrained skills such as phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing development phases. These are all imperative aspects of building reading proficiency. To learn more about these key components of balanced literacy, how you can support your student or child with reading and much more about elementary curriculum and instruction please browse this page. We appreciate your continued support of San Jacinto Unified and we look forward to working alongside you to bring out the "reader" in you and each and every one of our students!  

 

-Dr. Seuss     

 

Developing a proficient readers by third grade is an SJUSD board priority and a goal for the SJUSD team. Our elementary teams are dedicated to teaching these critical components each and every day. This visual identifies the essential components taught to ensure all elementary students become proficient readers. This image incorporates the five essential components of Balanced Literacy and also the "Big Five" core areas of reading. These combined supports a student to become a reader, a writer, a listener, a speaker, and a critical thinker.