Literacy
At University Cooperative School, students develop the tools to explore and share their passions with the world. Literacy is woven into everything we do. It appears in brainstorming sessions, science project posters, poetry, class meetings, Valentine’s compliments, protest signs, and persuasive essays. It means standing fearlessly behind a microphone to express oneself to an audience. It means coming to love and understand stories from other lands and perspectives.
In our Pre-K through fifth grade literacy curriculum, students progress from foundational skills like phonemic awareness and letter recognition, to reading fluency and basic writing, and onto advanced comprehension, critical thinking, and structured writing in upper grades. Students build literacy skills through multi-age reading groups, read-a-louds, oration and storytelling, research projects, creative writing, poetry units, journaling, and more.
Third through fifth grade students complete a research paper and presentation on a topic of the student’s choosing. By the end of fifth grade, students present at an interdisciplinary architecture project that incorporates literacy, science, math, and art. It’s quite a journey!
By building strong foundational skills and encouraging student-led deep dives into their interests and passions, we equip our students with excellent reading, writing and public speaking skills, fostering a lifelong love of literature.
Library
University Cooperative School has two libraries - cozy book lofts located near the K-2 and 3-5 classrooms. All students spend time in our library and are invited to bring books home to read. While in the library, children use print materials for expanding their knowledge and writing research papers, explore different genres for recreational reading, or simply discover the joy of finding a comfy spot and curling up with a good book.