Reading Curriculum Samples

Harbor and Sprout’s comprehensive Langage Arts & Reading curriculum was carefully designed by professionals who understand curriculum in theory and in practical application. We engage an exploratory, active approach for learners and their families, combining play and creativity with academic rigor. Nature is infused in lessons, activities, and beautiful, intentional graphic design. Learners are met where they are with approachable yet robust lessons that are pacing-adjustable for necessary review and extensions for reinforcement and different approaches for many learning styles. In tandem, our Language Arts & Reading curriculum cover phonics, reading, writing, grammar, handwriting (print and cursive), vocabulary, and spelling in a comprehensive and intuitive format. 

Our Language Arts curriculum incorporates the Science of Reading and teaches foundational skills for language and reading mechanics. Our program borrows from some of the most effective components of several educational methods including Montessori, Charlotte Mason, and Orton-Gillingham. Tenets of our curriculum hone in on the essentials of comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, phonics, and phonemic awareness. These foundational skills then grow with the curriculum and with your child.

Key points considered when developing the Harbor and Sprout Langage Arts curriculum include the following:

Intentional Introduction to Literacy

• Letters are introduced from sound to symbol, aiding in phonics instruction. Students are first taught to associate the letter symbol with a sound, and later taught the name of each letter symbol.
• Letters and their sounds are introduced in an intuitive order rather than alphabetical order.
• Focus on foundational vocabulary to help equip learners with the language they need to progress in all areas of development.
• As the curriculum continues through the levels, language and literacy concepts will continue to be introduced systematically with intention. 

Writing Styles

• From inventive spelling in Little Sprouts to practical, academic, and creative writing all throughout the curriculum levels, your child will develop an aptitude for putting their thoughts on paper.

Fostering a Love of Reading

• Our reading books explore what makes a genre a genre and how to understand genres in light of their components. This, in turn, helps students gain an appreciation for reading. 
• Reading passages are carefully selected from excellent literature and included in the book. Narration prompts are incorporated to help learners develop an aptitude for reading comprehension while experiencing many different kinds of literature- some of which may be more challenging and will open them up for discussion and development of confidence. 
• Our extensive reading lists have a wide range of high quality and diverse titles.

Rate of Learning

• We recognize that children learn at different rates. Our curriculum accommodates for those differences. It is written in such a way that the transition from the parent reading lessons to the child to the child helping to read lessons is seamless and natural. We use assessments to understand your child’s current aptitude while providing support, extensions, and reinforcement activities as needed. Our goal is to provide learners with a strong literacy foundation while helping them to progress at a pace that is comfortable and appropriate.
• In the youngest levels, the focus will be on print concepts, phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and listening comprehension. This will aid in buiding a solid foundation to transition smoothly from "learning to read" to "reading to learn".

Meets Your Child Where They Are

• Our curriculum is extremely neurodiversity friendly in its predictability, flexibility, and design. 
• We have assigned levels rather than grades to each book so as to eliminate anxiety around being “caught up” or “behind”. 
• Lessons are written to suit the evidence on attention span at each given developmental level.
• Allows for many opportunities for choice and flexibility in how you engage with lessons and content.

Hands-On 

• We have developed a multifaceted approach to learning in this curriculum, including not only lessons that are engaging, but an active learning component, or AVK Connection, that incorporates audio, visual, and/or kinesthetic learning styles. 
• In addition, each book includes a list of extensions to help further solidify the main themes of the books. 
• While our curriculum is open-and-go, it also includes many opportunities for the unexpected rabbit trails Harbor + Sprout is known for.

Each book in the Language Arts and Reading suite is the result of extensive research and study to make it best suit the H+S approach to education and ensure that it is of utmost quality and highly effective.

Our lessons were designed to be just the right amount- not too little, not too much, with room to expand or simplify as needed. Estimated length of lessons by level are as follows:

Language Arts Curriculum:

• Little Sprouts: 10-20 minutes per day
• Kindergarten: 10-20 minutes per day
• Level 1: 15-20 minutes per day

Reading Curriculum:

• 30-40 minutes per week
• Additional read-aloud time recommended daily

Each Language Arts lesson is comprised of the following components:

• Objective- "I can" statement
• Materials list
• Warmup: spiral review of a previously learned concept
• Instructional lesson
• AVK Connection: audio/visual/kinesthetic active learning component to engage all styles of learning and reinforce concepts in tangible ways
• 2 pages of learner exercises with multifaceted activities to practice the lesson material

Language Arts Curriculum

Harbor + Sprout Language Arts includes 36 weeks of material and 180 days of instruction per level, thus fulfilling the requirements for states with compulsory schooling standards. You have the option to pace these lessons as needed; for example, you may choose to do two lessons a day as best suits your family's schedule.

At the end of each unit, you will have a skills check to gauge progress and understanding. If more practice is needed, you are encouraged to revisit the AVK Connection portions of the lessons or visit the extensions list at the beginning of the curriculum.

After every 3 units, you will find a mastery assessment to evaluate progress and understanding. In addition, there will be a comprehensive mastery assessment at the end of each curriculum.

For a by-level breakdown of lessons and assessments, please preview the scope and sequence of the level you will be using with your child.

Reading Curriculum

Our reading curriculum includes a weekly reading passage from excellent literature and two practice pages to explore a specific concept of literature. Whereas our Language Arts curriculum teaches phonics and the mechanics of reading, our Reading Curriculum focuses on foundational vocabulary and elemental literacy skills to help develop an innate appreciation and affinity for reading.

Additionally, each reading book includes narration prompts and extensions for each week to help you further explore that week's reading concept.

You will also find a book list to guide you through each genre and study focus of the curriculum.

For a by-level breakdown of reading topics, please preview the scope and sequence of the level you will be using with your child. Note that the online version of the scope and sequence does not include the weekly book lists, but the version you will receive with your curriculum does.

The scope and sequence of our language arts and reading program was designed thoughtfully with the needs of every family worldwide in mind. Developed by our resident M.A. in Curriculum and Teaching and based on consultation with skilled curriculum developers with many collective years of experience refining impactful curricula in innovative ways, every aspect of this curriculum has been carefully researched to ensure it meets the standards of top quality curriculum with the unique, lively, and nature-based Harbor + Sprout twist. Click each level below to see the scope and sequence.

Q: Is this curriculum mastery based or spiral based?

A: Harbor + Sprout Language Arts is a mastery-spiral hybrid curriculum. Concepts are taught with a mastery-based approach and you will find a spiraled review concept in each lesson. We have combined the best of both worlds to create a full-bodied and impactful comprehensive math curriculum.

Q: Is the Reading book a learn-to-read program?

A: All mechanics of how to read and phonetic lessons are included in the Language Arts books. The Reeding books are the literature portion of our curriculum.

Q: Is there a separate teacher's manual?

A: All instructional text is combined on-page with the learner exercises. This allows the curriculum to speak to the learner and it eliminates the need for separate pieces and cross referencing.

Use the readiness assessments to determine which level best suits your learner's needs.

Little Sprouts Ready-To-Learn Assessment

Kindergarten Language Arts & Reading Placement Assessment

Level 1 Language Arts & Reading Placement Assessment