Dewey first graders sample new stories with “book tasting”

Ifrah Mohamed’s first grade class is preparing to start a new unit in English Language Arts — and what better way to do so than to sample what’s to come? She hosted a “book tasting” where her Dewey Elementary students walked around with a “menu” of upcoming books. “They mark if they are excited for this book, don't know it, or aren't interested,” Mohamed says. “They are so excited for this next Creature Feature unit!”

The class does this for each module of Wit and Wisdom, one of District 65’s literacy curriculum resources. Curious what your child might be learning at any given time in the school year? View the district’s Curriculum-at-a-Glance document and navigate to your student’s grade; for example, you can see that first graders in ELA across the district will be working on reading and writing skills centered around the question, “What can we discover about animals' unique features?”

In this year’s Illinois Report Card, 54% of District 65 students are meeting/exceeding standards in ELA, which is the highest we’ve seen since at least 2019. Read more about student growth!