The Byram Hills literacy curriculum is carefully designed and implemented to align with research-based strategies for student learning, and is continuously reviewed and revised to meet every student's learning needs. The curriculum is aligned to the NYS learning standards and to the Scarborough's reading rope as well as other literacy frameworks. 

Central to our literacy program is attention to the needs of each student. We recognize that young readers and writers have a wide range of skills, and therefore, teachers are responsive to where students are in their learning pathway as they monitor student progress. As a result, teachers may make modifications to the scope and sequence noted below to ensure students are advancing in their skill level and knowledge.

 

Overview: 

Fundations is an explicit and systematic multisensory literacy program, based upon the Orton-Gillingham principles, to teach the foundational reading and writing skills in kindergarten through grade 3. It is a supplement to the core literacy curriculum, Wonders. Fundations addresses the following:

• Print concepts
• Phonological and phonemic awareness
• Phonics and word study
• High frequency words
• Accuracy, automaticity, and fluency
• Spelling
• Handwriting
• Reinforces vocabulary and comprehension in conjunction with other literacy curricula.

Fundations is informed by an extensive research base and designed to achieve success with a wide variety of learners. At each grade level, the program provides a comprehensive approach to reading, spelling, and handwriting and is taught alongside the core language arts curriculum that includes a wide variety of text experiences for students, including poetry, narrative, and informational texts. 

Students receive direct, systematic instruction in the five research-based components of literacy: phonemic awareness; phonics and word study; vocabulary; fluency; and comprehension.

Concepts and Skills Include: 

• Reading/beginning reading skills and strategies
  • Phonological awareness and phonemic awareness skills
  • Print awareness skills
  • Phonics and decoding

  • Word attack

• Vocabulary development
  • Introduction of new words
  • Word-learning strategies
  • Academic vocabulary
     
• Fluency
  • Accurate, fluent reading
  • Appropriate phrasing and expression
  • Rate
    
    
• Comprehension (listening and written) strategies
  • Analyzing text and drawing conclusions/making inferences
  • Connecting text to personal experience and other texts
     
• Writing skills and conventions
  • Spelling skills and conventions (rules and patterns)
  • Use of writing conventions such as use of capital and lowercase letters
  • Grammatical conventions in the use of tense (present tense, past tense, etc.)
  • Use of punctuation at the end of sentences

Instructional Design for Mastery:

• Is sequential, systematic, and cumulative.
• Integrates skill instruction so that a daily lesson teaches and then reinforces corresponding skills.
• Scaffolds learning while teaching all skills explicitly, sequentially, and systematically.
• Actively engages students in learning through the use of multisensory techniques.
• Provides multiple opportunities for skills practice and application to build mastery.
• Monitors student learning through formative assessment tools built into the program.
• Meets individual student needs by differentiating instruction.

Literacy is the key to understanding and will help students recognize and embrace the role they play in the world they are creating. The Wonders literacy program builds student knowledge by exploring the world through literacy. Wonders is our literacy curriculum that sits alongside the Fundations (in grades K-3) multisensory approach to reading and writing and locally developed curriculum. Science and social studies informational texts are integrated throughout the Wonders program, and additional locally written literacy units are integrated throughout the program as well. 

Wonders is grounded in the science and research base for reading. Drawing upon decades of literacy research, Wonders was designed to deliver high-quality literacy instruction backed by the science of reading literature. The program is underpinned by the findings of preeminent reading researchers, and authors include Dr. Timothy Shanahan, Dr. Douglas Fisher, and Dr. Jan Hasbrouck.

The Wonders curriculum is organized through genre. Each unit engages students through a theme or big idea, and students read widely through connected texts that require listening, speaking, and writing in various genres across content areas. By mastering the structure of genres, students will read more broadly and deeply as they become independent readers and writers. Genres included throughout the K-5 program are realistic fiction, personal narrative, poetry, fables, folktales, nursery rhymes, informational text, biography, fantasy, fairytale, and drama. 

The Wonders program supports six student habits for learning which help students to master thinking skills about their reading, writing, speaking, and listening. These habits, integrated throughout the curriculum, teach students to:

1. Use a variety of strategies to understand. Examples include:
   - make predictions
   - take notes
   - think about the organization of the text
   - visualize

2. Think critically about what they read, such as:
   - ask questions
   - use text evidence
   - think across domains
   - make inferences

3. Write to communicate. Specifically, students:
   - think about the message
   - think about the audience
   - talk with peers
   - use rubrics

4. Be a problem-solver, by:
   - analyzing the problem
   - considering different approaches
   - testing ideas

5. Believe they can succeed, such as:
   - challenge themselves
   - stay on task

6. Be part of a community of learners. Examples include:
   - listen actively
   - build on other's thoughts
   - share what they know
   - use the right words
   - gather information before acting or speaking

Specific instructional approaches vary based on students’ developmental needs and readiness. 

Please note that teachers and grade-level teams may adjust the curriculum based on the needs of their class or individual students; teachers are certain that all curricular revisions align with the NYS standards to ensure students are meeting grade-level expectations. 

The District utilized Investigations 3, published by the Savvas Learning Company, as its core mathematics curriculum in grades K-5.

Investigations 3 is a focused, coherent, and rigorous K-5 mathematics curriculum that develops understanding and fluency in a student-centered approach. Fully aligned to the NYS content and practice standards, deep and careful attention is paid to mathematics content and to student thinking and understanding. Making sense of mathematics is the heart of the work for students.

The Structure of the Curriculum

Review and practice are built into the sequence and structure of the units within and across grades. The units in each strand build on work from previous grades and prepare students for subsequent grades.

Features of a Unit

Every unit includes practice of the content of that unit, as well as a review of content from previous units. This work takes place in the whole class setting, independently, and in pairs and small groups, in the following ways:

Mathematical Discussions
Talking about math is a central component of students building knowledge and understanding of mathematics. Discussions about the mathematical content, strategies, and skills occur throughout all parts of the math lessons.  

Games
Students engage in a variety of “games,” which take place in pairs or small groups. The games provide review, practice, and exploration of mathematical knowledge and ideas. 

Homework and Practice
Students will practice their math skills through homework assignments and practice within the classroom. These assignments reinforce the work done in class and will often prepare students for upcoming activities. 

Math Words and Ideas
This digital resource summarizes and illustrates important math words and concepts at each grade, and allows students to revisit and review the important mathematics they are working on throughout the year.

Mathematical Practices
The Standards for Mathematical Practice, embedded throughout the lessons, describe ways in which students increasingly engage with the subject matter as they grow in mathematical maturity and expertise throughout the elementary, middle, and high school years. The eight mathematical practices include:

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. 

3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

4. Model with mathematics. 

5. Use appropriate tools strategically.

6. Attend to precision.

7. Look for and make use of structure.

8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. 

Details about the mathematical practices can be viewed here. 

Meeting the Needs of All Learners

Engaging and supporting all learners in making sense of and understanding mathematics are two goals of the Investigations curriculum, supported by a guiding principle that all students have mathematical ideas and can be mathematical thinkers. The curriculum is explicitly designed to create a positive and inclusive learning environment that is responsive to the needs of each learner and it supports students in developing a strong mathematical identity. 

In addition to supporting all learners in the classroom, the District utilizes various assessment data and uses a multi-tiered system of support (called, MTSS) framework for evaluating student progress in meeting the grade-level standards. Students are provided academic intervention services based on their individual learning needs through the MTSS process. 

Furthermore, some students may need a modified curriculum based on the Committee on Special Education’s recommendations and outlined in a student’s individualized education plan. Students in a special class in mathematics may receive an adapted curriculum based on their learning needs.

Below are the content topics by grade level. Teachers respond to the needs of students, and some content may be taught at different times or be emphasized and modified in different ways. Certain topics spiral throughout the school year and more complex, multi-step problems are introduced. 

A scope and sequence of the content taught at each grade level includes:  

• Kindergarten:
  Counting; measurement; 2-dimensional geometry; 3-dimensional geometry; addition; subtraction; the number system; and modeling with data.

• Grade 1:
  Addition; subtraction; the number system; 2-dimensional geometry and measurement; fractions; modeling with data; and 3-dimensional geometry.

• Grade 2:  
  Addition; subtraction; the number system; geometry; fractions; modeling with data; linear measurement; and multiplication.

• Grade 3:
  Multiplication; division; modeling with data; addition; subtraction; the number system; 2-dimensional geometry and measurement; and fractions. 

• Grade 4:
  Multiplication; division; modeling with data; 2-dimensional geometry and measurement; addition; subtraction; the number system; fractions; decimals; and analyzing patterns and rules. 

• Grade 5:
  Multiplication; division; 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional geometry and measurement; addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of rational numbers; and analyzing patterns and rules.

Teachers utilize various assessments to monitor student progress in order to meet students’ needs, including the daily observation of student engagement with the content. Each grade level follows an assessment framework that utilizes a variety of assessment types and teachers use this information to guide further whole class, small group, and individual instruction.

Additional digital resources for skill practice and assessments may be used to support students.

The Investigations 3 curriculum is aligned with the NYS Next Generation Learning Standards. Information about the NYS standards can be found on the nysed.gov website and this document provides the mathematics learning standards for Pre-K through grade 12.

The District is in the process of adopting a new science program. The steps in our process include:

1. In 2019, a K-5 science committee convened to study the new NYS science standards. Prior to this, the District had engaged in work with an expert science consultant to study the NextGen science standards upon which the NYS science standards were based. The pandemic interrupted the work. 
2. During the 2022-2023 school year, a science committee reviewed 13 science programs and conducted several visit to neighboring districts to observe science instruction. 
3. The committee selected the KnowAtom program, and teachers in grades 1-5 engaged in a pilot implementation during the 2023-2024 school year. The pilot has been expanded to more classrooms and continues through the 2024-2025 school year. 

This page will be updated when the pilot study is completed and the District adopts a science program. 

The District integrates social studies through the Wonders literacy curriculum. 

Additionally, teachers may supplement the social studies curriculum utilizing a regional curriculum developed through the Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES and use locally developed lessons. 

• You can see an overview of the Integrated Social Studies/ELA Curriculum on the BOCES website where teachers may select relevant units as appropriate. 
• The themes of the BOCES curriculum for each grade level include the following topics:
  • Kindergarten: Getting to know myself and others
  • Grade 1: My family and other families now and long ago
  • Grade 2: My community and other United States Communities
  • Grade 3: Communities around the world
  • Grade 4: NYS history and government
  • Grade 5: The western hemisphere

From 2021-2024, the District engaged in a pilot study of a character education program, PurposeFull People from Character Strong, in grades 1 through 5.

On September 17, 2024, the Board of Education adopted the program. These slides provide a brief summary of the program, and more information can be found in past Board meetings. This page will be updated later this year with an overview of the curriculum.

For more information about the District's character education principles and their link to academic success, please visit the character education webpage.

OVERVIEW

During the 2024-2025 school year, the District is piloting a new universal screener assessment in grades K-5. Universal screening is a process to determine the degree to which students are meeting grade level standards and to identify areas in which students may need additional support.

The assessment, Renaissance Star, is administered in reading and math three times per year (fall, winter, and spring.) Teachers use the information to support students in the classroom, and additional support may be provided to students to target areas in need.

It’s important to note that the universal screener is just one of many data points used to understand a child’s learning journey.

PARENT REPORT

The District will provide parents with a score report after each administration to provide insight in their child's current performance in reading and math. Below is information to help parents understand the report.

Scaled Score: This number reflects a child’s performance on the screener and is based on the total points scored. The scaled score is calculated from the difficulty of the questions and the number of correct responses. It enables us to measure a child’s growth over time as we administer the screener three times per year.

Percentile Ranking: This percentage indicates how a student performed compared to a national sample of students in the same grade. The 25th to 75th percentile range includes the majority of students’ scaled scores nationally and is considered the “average” range.

Instructional Reading Level (IRL) (Star Reading only): The IRL indicates the level at which a child can read and comprehend texts with appropriate support. This level guides our selection of reading materials that will challenge and engage students without causing frustration. This is just one metric to understand reading abilities. The child’s teacher will share more detailed information about the specific skills and strategies based on additional assessments and classroom observations.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) (Star Reading only): This concept refers to the range of reading levels at which a child can work with some assistance. The ZPD helps us identify texts that are both challenging and achievable, promoting growth while keeping the students motivated. This range is approximate, as success at any reading level also depends on a child's interest and prior knowledge of the book's content.