About the curriculum
Teaching Early Literacy and Language
The TELL curriculum package includes:
- Scope and sequence of instruction for the school year
- Teacher’s guide
- Curriculum-based measures
- Developmentally appropriate lesson plans
- High quality narrative and expository books
- Story retell cards
- Book summary cards
- Low tech literacy boards
- Sign in cards
- Whole group warm up cards
- ABC action cards
- Question jar
- Talk it Out posters and stickers
- Music list
- Vocabulary cards
- Phonological awareness cards
- Social story cards
- Letter cards
- Meal and snack conversation cards
- Fact chat cards
- Dramatic play posters
- Writing cards
- Transition cards
- Parent newsletters in English and Spanish
- Professional development
- Song posters
TELL biweekly themes
TELL is a curriculum for the whole school year. It is organized by biweekly themes with reviews every fifth week. Just before a review week, teachers administer curriculum-based measures to assess children’s progress. The teaching team discusses data from the CBMs to determine how best to differentiate instruction during review weeks. Many teachers share CBM results with families.
- We Love School
- All About Me
- Transportation
- Fairy Tales
- Creepy Creatures
- Harvest Time
- Winter Wonderland
- Space
- Dinosaurs
- Amazing Animals
- Bugs and Blooms
- Pets
- Farm
- Ocean
TELL learning opportunities
| Activity | Learning Goals | TELL Component |
|---|---|---|
| Arrival | Literacy practice | Sign-in cards |
| Whole Group | Music and movement, phonological awareness, letter names and sounds, alphabet practice, vocabulary, social skills | Whole group warm-up cards, song posters, fact chat cards, social stories |
| Small Group Dialogic Reading | Language and literacy practice | Vocabulary cards, books, dialogic reading prompts, literacy boards |
| Small Group | Phonological awareness, language practice | Phonological awareness cards, letter cards |
| Meal/Snack | Language and literacy practice | Conversation cards, fact chat cards, question jar |
| Writing (whole and small group) | Literacy practice | Writing cards |
| Indoor Free Play | Language practice, social/emotional understanding and expression, print concepts, literacy practice | Weekly materials list |
| Outdoor Free Play | Gross motor, language and literacy practice | Dramatic play posters and suggested plans |
| Transitions | Language, phonological awareness, social/emotional understanding and expressions, alphabet practice | Transition cards |