TeachTown’s enCORE curriculum provides equitable, inclusive access to the general education curriculum with a K-12 standards-aligned and evidence-based adapted core curriculum. Read on to learn more about each segment within enCORE’s ELA Lessons.
enCORE is a comprehensive approach to delivering grade-aligned academic instruction for students with moderate to severe disabilities. As a blended learning curriculum, enCORE includes:
The English Language Arts (ELA) domain of enCORE was systematically designed to align with the key tenets of the Science of Reading. Additionally, all literacy instruction is grounded in evidence-based instructional practices, including the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis and systematic, explicit instruction.
ELA lessons are structured to flow through the gradual release of responsibility, guiding students towards greater independence as they show they are ready.
Lesson plans consist of multiple segments that each focus on a different core literacy skill. (See Elementary, Middle, and High School sections below for grade band explanations of each segment). Each segment begins with anchored instruction to help students connect the new learning objective to their existing background knowledge and to make connections to their everyday lives. For example, in Unit 37 in enCORE Middle School, anchored instruction helps students prepare to read White Fang this way:
After activating background knowledge, teachers move through this sequence:
This progression is noted within the print lesson plans as ‘Model, Lead, Test’ for Elementary and ‘Model, Guided Practice, Independent Practice’ for Middle and High School. This framework will likely be familiar to educators as the I Do, We Do, You Do model.
Introducing students to new skills in small, bite-sized pieces supports complex learners by ensuring students receive multiple exposures to the new skill, prompting and regular feedback to avoid practicing incorrectly, and plenty of practice to reinforce new learning.
The adapted reading library is one of the most celebrated components of the entire TeachTown curriculum. With hundreds of titles across K-12, the comprehensive adapted reading library provides students with significant disabilities with equitable, inclusive access to general education curriculum.
enCORE literature selections –
Check out a brief sampling of offerings below:
In enCORE Elementary, each Unit includes one fiction book and one nonfiction book. The nonfiction book always dives deeper into a theme introduced in the fiction book. For example, in Unit I of enCORE Elementary, the fiction book is Peter Rabbit. In this book, Peter goes into Mr. McGregor’s garden and eats his vegetables. This book is strategically paired with the nonfiction book, Food Groups, which teaches students about the different food groups and healthy eating habits.
In enCORE Elementary, each ELA lesson plan includes 5 segments:
Throughout the Interactive Read Aloud Segment, scripted reading instruction provides teachers with instructional strategies to increase engagement and participation during shared reading activities. Prior to reading, target vocabulary and sight words are taught. Students learn and acquire print literacy skills as teachers guide them through an interactive read aloud of the text.
Throughout enCORE Elementary ELA curriculum, students are given opportunities to engage with the text by signaling when it is time to turn the page, finger tracing the text as it is read aloud, engaging in choral reading opportunities, and language development skills. Students practice questioning, predicting, identifying key vocabulary, and answering comprehension questions.
In the Reading Comprehension Segment, students take a ‘picture walk’ of the story to review key elements and details. The teacher systematically leads students through a guided practice activity of sequencing the events or sorting the details from the story. Students are then given differentiated comprehension questions to test their understanding of the story or information presented.
The Foundational Skills Segment targets letter identification, letter sound correspondences, phonological and phonemic awareness, decoding, and more. Special education teachers are provided with explicit scripts using systematic instruction to lead students through the various activities.
The Language Segment promotes deeper understanding of the vocabulary, concepts, and categories that are addressed within the unit. Teachers are provided with an explicit script to build concept knowledge with example and non-example training.
In each Writing Segment, students are asked to recall information and write about literature or experiences. Teachers are provided with differentiated writing tasks to meet the needs of all students. Writing activities include necessary support for those students who require it.
In enCORE Middle School, each Unit includes one chapter book and two companion texts. The companion texts include a variety of genres including poetry, speeches, short biographies, and short expository texts.
In enCORE Middle School, each ELA lesson plan includes 5 segments that are designed to each cover two days of instruction.
This segment focuses on Chapter 1 of the chapter book. It includes activities and instruction for anchoring instruction, vocabulary, reading and reviewing the text, comprehension, and writing. Sight word instruction is also included in this segment.
This segment focuses on the first companion text. It includes activities and instruction for anchoring instruction, vocabulary, reading and reviewing the text, comprehension, and writing. Multiple meaning word instruction is also included in this segment.
This segment focuses on Chapter 2 of the chapter book. It includes activities and instruction for anchoring instruction, vocabulary, reading and reviewing the text, comprehension, and writing. Phonics instruction is also included in this segment.
This segment also focuses on the first companion text. It includes activities and instruction for anchoring instruction, vocabulary, and writing. Connotative meaning instruction is also included in this segment.
This segment focuses on Chapter 3 of the chapter book. It includes activities and instruction for anchoring instruction, vocabulary, reading and reviewing the text, comprehension, and writing. Decoding instruction is also included in this segment.
This segment focuses on the second companion text. It includes activities and instruction for anchoring instruction, vocabulary, reading and reviewing the text, comprehension, and writing. Figurative language instruction is also included in this segment.
This segment focuses on Chapter 4 of the chapter book. It includes activities and instruction for anchoring instruction, vocabulary, reading and reviewing the text, comprehension, and writing. Spelling instruction is also included in this segment.
This segment also focuses on the second companion text. It includes activities and instruction for anchoring instruction, vocabulary, and writing. Spelling instruction is also included in this segment.
This segment focuses on Chapter 5 of the chapter book. It includes activities and instruction for anchoring instruction, vocabulary, reading and reviewing the text, comprehension, and writing. Figurative language instruction is also included in this segment.
This segment focuses on finishing the writing assignment for the lesson plan or unit. Morphological awareness instruction is also included in this segment. Generalization and extension activities are included here as well.
In enCORE High School, each unit includes one chapter book and two companion texts. The companion texts include a variety of genres such as poetry, epics, periodicals, speeches, short biographies, and short expository texts.
In enCORE High School, each ELA lesson plan include 5 segments that are designed to cover 2 days of instruction:
This segment focuses on Chapter 1 of the chapter book. It includes activities and instruction for anchoring instruction, vocabulary, reading and reviewing the text, comprehension, and writing. Context clues instruction is also included in this segment.
This segment focuses on the first companion text. It includes activities and instruction for anchoring instruction, vocabulary, reading and reviewing the text, comprehension, and writing. Decoding instruction is also included in this segment.
This segment focuses on Chapter 2 of the chapter book. It includes activities and instruction for anchoring instruction, vocabulary, reading and reviewing the text, comprehension, and writing. An introduction to the morphological awareness target is also included in this segment.
This segment also focuses on the first companion text. It includes more in-depth activities and instruction for vocabulary, reading and reviewing the text, comprehension, and writing. Spelling instruction is also included in this segment.
This segment focuses on Chapter 3 of the chapter book. It includes activities and instruction for anchoring instruction, vocabulary, reading and reviewing the text, comprehension, and writing. This segment also includes instruction on analyzing the morphological awareness target in the context of that unit’s literature.
This segment focuses on the second companion text. It includes activities and instruction for anchoring instruction, vocabulary, reading and reviewing the text, comprehension, and writing. Connotative meaning instruction is also included in this segment.
This segment focuses on Chapter 4 of the chapter book. It includes activities and instruction for anchoring instruction, vocabulary, reading and reviewing the text, comprehension, and writing. An introduction to the figurative language target is also included in this segment.
This segment also focuses on the second companion text. It includes more in-depth activities and instruction for vocabulary, reading and reviewing the text, comprehension, and writing. Instruction in using reference materials is also included in this segment.
This segment focuses on Chapter 5 of the chapter book. It includes activities and instruction for anchoring instruction, vocabulary, reading and reviewing the text, comprehension, and writing. This segment also includes instruction on analyzing figurative language in the context of that unit’s literature.
This segment focuses on finishing or presenting the writing assignment for the unit. Students also make connections between the texts for the unit. Generalization and extension activities are included here as well.
