How we bring learning to life:

Our Vision…

Urbandale Schools will bring English Language Arts learning to life for every student by expanding communication through reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

Our Mindsets…

• Students engage with a variety of complex texts as determined by qualitative, quantitative, and reader-task analysis. 
• Students increase engagement with informational text, specifically literary nonfiction. 
• Students further expand their reading comprehension by engaging in multiple texts around a topic to build knowledge. 
• Students engage regularly in close reading strategies to improve analysis and comprehension. 
• Students’ writing and speaking is grounded in evidence from the texts they engage with. 
• Students write frequently, for a variety of purposes, audiences, and duration. 
• All students, regardless of reading ability, will engage in grade-appropriate high-quality text to ensure rigor and access to all. 
• Appropriate scaffolding is provided to help students understand complex text, based on individual students’ needs. 
• Students apply their knowledge of grammar and academic vocabulary in their reading, writing, and speaking.

High-Quality Instructional Materials

Urbandale Community Schools is committed to providing our students high-quality standards-aligned instructional materials. The central approach to teaching literacy is text-based where students read closely to speak and write about what was read. 

• Kindergarten – 3rd Grade Foundational Skills: Really Great Reading
• 4th-5th Grade Foundational Skills: Word Connections
• Kindergarten – 5th Grade Core Literacy: Wonders
• Kindergarten-1st Grade Writing: Being a Writer
• 2nd-5th Grade Writing: Simplify Writing
• 6th-7th Grade English Language Arts: AmplifyELA
• 8th-11th English: myPerspectives
• 12th English: Odell Education 

UCSD Board-Approved Curriculum

Detailed curriculum information by grade level is provided below. Click on each section to view the associated curriculum PDFs.

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Learn More

Iowa Academic Literacy Standards – The Iowa Academic Literacy Standards were adopted by the Iowa State Board of Education and integrate the work of the  State Standards Initiative with an additional seven standards that apply exclusively to Iowa schools. The standards are broken into the categories of English Language Arts for grades K-12 and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects for grades 6-12.