English Instruction

The English program at International School of Portland develops and extends students’ reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing and presenting skills.

Our program teaches language through inquiry with a focus on the developmental nature of language learning and that each child has their own time frame for successfully transferring literacy skills from one language to another. As neuroscience and educational research shows, learning to read looks different for students, depending on the learning system they each use.

Therefore, our English team uses a variety of strategies and tools to address the varied skills and competencies each student displays. Teachers differentiate instruction based on the data collected from each student, and create targeted learning activities to address those needs. Whole group instruction may be used to cover standards all students need to learn, then teachers work with small groups or individuals to support or extend the learning target. Small class sizes enable our teachers to focus on supporting each student to become strong independent readers and writers.

International School of Portland has four full-time English teachers and one full-time English Learning Support Specialist. First graders attend English classes for one hour daily, while Second through Fifth graders attend for two hours every other day. 

Learning Objectives

Reading

Students in younger grades engage in a variety of activities that build foundational reading skills. Lessons focus on supporting a love for literature through read-alouds, independent reading, and explicit instruction in phonics and fluency to support comprehension. In the upper grades students expand on their foundational skills through independent, guided and shared reading, genre studies, and literature discussions.

Writing

Through the writing process, students draft, revise, and publish informative/explanatory texts, opinion texts, and narratives. Guided by the Units of Inquiry that the English teachers align with the homeroom,  teachers provide authentic purposes for writing and guide students through each relevant step. Spelling, vocabulary, and grammar are explicitly taught through authentic writing experiences. The Words Their Way program is used to assess individual student’s needs and progress and offers resources for building skills in spelling, focused on phonics rules, spelling patterns, and “oddballs” exceptions.  Additionally, Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) is used to teach print and cursive writing.

Listening and Speaking

Students in Elementary English classes are offered varied opportunities to build skills in listening and speaking. As research shows the importance of learning in a social context, English teachers ensure students build confidence and capacity to share their ideas with others in a variety of ways. Peer to peer sharing, small group explorations, collaborative projects, and whole group celebrations of learning are some of the ways students build these skills over the Elementary years. As well, students are encouraged to be active listeners, critical thinkers and peer supporters by learning to give constructive feedback and process information orally and visually. All of these skills are built over time, culminating in the fifth grade Exhibition project which incorporates multiple components of literacy.

Standards

The English curriculum is aligned with the Common Core Standards, as well as the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) approach to language literacy, which incorporates the Approaches to Learning and The Learner’s Profile attributes.

English Performance in a Language Immersion Environment

External research and our internal assessments have historically shown that 1st and 2nd Grade students in immersion settings do initially perform lower in English than their peers in English-only environments. ISP students start English in 1st Grade rather than Kindergarten, and therefore may take longer to reach grade level expectations.  However, most students in immersion settings begin to see significant gains in 3rd Grade, often meeting or exceeding those peers in 5th or 6th Grade. Our own internal data points demonstrate that the vast majority of our students do meet – and generally surpass – their peers from English-only environments.