Literacy Curriculum

Buncombe County has an established literacy curriculum in every K-5 school. The curriculum includes 4 main components. The first component, Heggerty, is for teaching phonological awareness in grades K-2. Fundations, a K-3 component, is used for phonics instruction. A third component is the Wit & Wisdom curriculum for our core literacy instruction in K-5. Geodes, the fourth component, are decodable texts that follow the Fundations phonics sequence and are tied to a theme within Wit & Wisdom. These texts allow for the practice of phonics and build or deepen student's background knowledge of the Wit & Wisdom themes.

Science of Reading

The science of reading is a vast, interdisciplinary body of scientifically-based research about reading and issues related to reading and writing.

This research has been conducted over the last five decades across the world, and it is derived from thousands of studies conducted in multiple languages. The science of reading has culminated in a body of evidence to inform how proficient reading and writing develop; why some have difficulty; and how we can most effectively assess and teach and, therefore, improve student outcomes through prevention of and intervention for reading difficulties. The Reading League

We know that reading instruction, in grades K-2, must include phonological awareness (at Fairview we call it Brain Games and/or Heggerty), explicit teaching of phonics and the use of decodable texts to practice the phonics skill.