Focus on Literacy

Literacy is the absolute key to accessing an excellent education. It is the foundation from which future knowledge and skill is acquired and on which students can build competency in all other subjects. 
Capitol Collegiate Academy devotes a significant amount of the school day to different forms of literacy instruction. Some of the practices utilized to increase literacy skills include:

• More than 180 minutes of direct literacy instruction for kindergarten through grade two and 120 minutes of literacy in grades three through eight
• Research-based practices for literacy instruction
• Protected time, school-adopted curriculum, and additional staff to focus on foundational skills in the early grades
• Small group literacy instruction in kindergarten through grade two to provide more targeted support for emerging readers
• A schoolwide core curriculum that supports the three shifts required by the Common Core State Standards: regular practice with complex text and its academic language; writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from both literary and informational text; and use of content-rich nonfiction to build knowledge and vocabulary
• Two instructional coaches to provide professional development and support for all ELA and foundational skills teachers
• Use of rigorous, CAASPP-aligned benchmark ELA assessments four times annually

“I am grateful to work alongside such driven and committed teachers, staff and administration. Visit our campus during a typical year and you will see groups of students practicing phonics on the carpet while other students did independent literacy work and still others huddled around a table in a group of 6-8 having discussions about texts in a guided reading group. You would see students eager to take their next reading test to show off how much they have grown.”
Brittany Coghlan, Instructional Coach