Journeys is a research-based English Language Arts program with proven results. Focused, comprehensive instruction helps to engage and meet the needs of all learners, ensuring that every reader is empowered, inspired and confident.

Close Reading Routine

A practical three-step routine paces students, allowing them more time to dig deeper analyzing the text which, in turn, empowers them to read more complex text.

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Anchor Text

All instruction is tied together by an anchor text—authentic, complex text that anchors all instruction. These are the texts that teachers love to teach and inspire students to love to read.

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Leveled Readers

Journeys Leveled Readers offer multiple titles in a variety of genres at each level. Precisely leveled texts and lesson plans build reading success while also building confident readers.

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• Student Resources

  The Journeys Student Book is a comprehensive resource that provides instruction and practice for all strands of ELA instruction: close reading of authentic, complex text; writing to sources; process writing; speaking and listening activities; academic vocabulary development; and grammar lessons. Journeys offers rich and engaging reading experiences through a wealth of authentic award-winning texts for all learners. The Table of Contents identifies the literary and informational selections, many of them exemplar and award-winning texts—the texts students love to read.

  

  Beginning in Kindergarten with read alouds, all instruction is tied together by an anchor text—a core piece of authentic, complex text that does exactly what the name implies . . . it anchors all instruction. These are the texts that teachers love to teach and inspire students to love to read. Why does HMH^® anchor instruction to authentic, complex text? Because only authentic, complex text is worthy of reading and rereading and only authentic, complex text mirrors what students will encounter on next generation assessments. This means seamless, daily practice and preparation for high stakes assessments.

  

  To develop the habit of close reading, students need practice analyzing complex texts. The Close Readers at grades 1-6 feature the high-quality paired text from each Student Book lesson in an interactive, read/reread format. To facilitate active analysis, students are guided to annotate and mark up complete texts. To strengthen student's understanding of the lesson topic, each close reading culminates in a written response tied to the lesson's Essential Question.

  

  The Reader’s Notebook provides prompts and questions for text analysis as well as practice with reading comprehension, writing, and language skills.

  

• Digital Resources

  The Student eBook provides tools that promote close reading of complex texts. Students can respond to questions at point-of-use, record spoken responses, highlight text, and take notes online.

  

  Create a learning environment that inspires all learners with digital resources that launch from the Student eBook unit openers. Much like movie trailers, Stream to Start™ Videos pique student interest, introduce the topic, and create a framework for thinking about the unit texts as a whole. For encouraging students to talk and write about today's issues and events, the FYI site provides fresh, curated informational texts related to the unit, while Channel One News^® provides award-winning daily news to spark conversation.

  

  Providing instruction and guidance for purposefully rereading specific parts of the complex Anchor Text, Be a Reading Detective inspires students to read closely and to analyze the use of language.

  

  The Student Dashboard gives learners access to a wealth of resources, including the Student eBook, myWriteSmart, interactive digital lessons, and up-to-date informational articles related to unit topics.

  

  myNotebook allows students to collect and organize their notes in preparation for writing and discussions.

  

  Extend and enrich learning through engaging, student-directed Interactive Lessons in writing and listening and speaking.

  

  Stream to Start™ and Channel One News® are trademarks or registered trademarks of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

• Word Study

  Help students build their vocabulary knowledge through weekly lessons on academic and domain-specific vocabulary tied to the Anchor Texts.

  

  Vocabulary in Context Cards help students deepen their vocabulary knowledge by engaging with the photograph, context sentence, and definition for each Target Vocabulary word. In the Student eBook, students can click on a highlighted vocabulary word to see and hear the definition in English and Spanish, providing student-directed point-of-use scaffolds for vocabulary development.

  

  Vocabulary Strategy lessons give students the morphological and contextual tools they need to determine and confirm the meaning of unfamiliar words and to generate new vocabulary.

  

  An informational Vocabulary Reader for each lesson provides additional practice with the vocabulary introduced in the Anchor Text.

  

• Foundational Skills

  Building confidence in young readers begins with strong foundational skills. Journeys provides all the resources needed for Foundational Skills instruction, appropriate pacing, and a sequence of skills to help empower even the youngest learners. Fluency skills are taught explicitly once each week and are practiced and applied daily. In every lesson, students practice recognizing decoding elements and applying them to reading fluency. Decoding skills tie directly to spelling patterns and principles to ensure word knowledge growth across students’ reading and writing tasks.

  

  Alphafriend Cards and activities provide letter-sound practice through research-based characters and songs.

  

  Sound/Spelling Cards are used for modeling and explicit instruction in sound-spelling correspondences.

  

  Decodable Readers and Blend-It Books provide opportunities to apply every sound-spelling correspondence in multiple contexts, building mastery.

  

• Leveled Readers and Vocabulary Readers

  

  Build confident readers. Differentiated instruction in small groups helps teachers focus instruction and provide immediate feedback. Journeys Leveled Readers allow teachers to confidently meet the needs of students through multiple titles in a variety of genres at each level. With precisely leveled texts and lesson plans designed by Irene Fountas, Journeys Special Consultant and leader in Guided Reading, teachers can be assured they are systematically building reading success.

  

  In every lesson, Journeys includes a Vocabulary Reader, an additional leveled text that provides more contextualized practice with the vocabulary introduced in the Anchor Text. To build students' domain knowledge, each Vocabulary Reader is an informational text. And like the other Leveled Readers in Journeys, the Vocabulary Readers are supported by an eight-page lesson plan designed by Irene Fountas.

• Extend Reading

  

  Engage and extend reading to inspire students to want to read more. Students in Grades 1–6 have opportunities three times per year to immerse themselves in a full-length trade book, drawing on their close reading experiences with selections in the Student Book. Each trade book has a title-specific lesson plan that contains the 3-part close reading routine that students are familiar using to analyze the Student Book Anchor Texts. To support 21st century learning, each trade book is available digitally with audio and each lesson features two weeks of project-based learning tied to the topic of the trade book.

  Reading Adventures Magazines for students in Grades 3–6 include texts and activities on a variety of engaging topics that motivate students to finish the school year strong.

• Lesson Plans

  The Journeys weekly lesson plan for both whole-class and small-group instruction provides a clean overview and realistic pacing of instruction.

  

  mySmartPlanner, a powerful planning tool, and a few clicks allow you to spend less time planning and more time teaching the art of reading.

  

  Journeys fully searchable Dashboard resources are right at teachers’ fingertips to customize lessons to meet the instructional needs of all students.

  

  With HMH Player™, teachers can pull favorite lessons from their own collections along with open-source content and videos to customize Journeys’ lessons. HMH Player provides anytime/anywhere access to Journeys – work offline then sync work when online. It’s that easy.

  

  HMH Player™ is a trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

• Support Close Reading

  Journeys empowers teachers with the support needed for preparing for close reading of complex text including “Why This Text?” — an explanation of what makes a specific text complex. A Text Complexity Rubric provides more than a level range; it also assists teachers in understanding the Qualitative measures as well as Reader and Task considerations. The Text X-Ray feature illuminates the key ideas and academic language features in the text and provides scaffolding recommendations so that teachers are prepared to support students where they are most likely to struggle.

  

  To provide flexible close reading instruction, the Close Readers are built into the instructional plan of the core Teacher's Edition and supported by Close Reader Teacher's Editions.

  

• 3-Step Close Reading Routine

  Journeys weaves the skills of close reading into a practical 3-step routine that is realistically paced to give students more time to dig deeper analyzing the text.

  Through this 3-step close reading routine, students are taken back into the same text for different purposes and further engage with that text using online tools to organize their thinking. Time and support to read closely empowers students to read rigorous text.

  The Journeys 3-step routine to build close reading habits includes the following sequence:

  During the first read on day 1 of the lesson plan, students read the complete text and teachers provide the modeling and instruction to gain an understanding of the author’s big ideas.

  

  During the second read, students apply the close reading “Dig Deeper” skills they were taught as they analyze short sections of the same text, citing evidence and responding at high depth of knowledge levels.

  

  The close reading routine culminates with an independent close reading of the anchor text, providing a gradual release that builds independence and empowers readers.

  

• Interactive Whiteboard Lessons

  Engage students in the learning process through hands-on lessons in phonics, vocabulary strategies, grammar, text analysis, and writing and research skills.

  

• Support for Intervention

  To enable students to successfully access on-grade level instruction, intervention is closely tied back to the core program. The print Write-in Reader or online Interactive Worktext provide targeted Tier II intervention to help students develop close reading habits that support analytic thinking. The text in the Write-in Reader is related in topic to the grade level Anchor Text and provides scaffolded support. Following the related text, the Reading Detective feature always connects back to the complex Anchor Text with step-by-step scaffolding to ensure all students have a path to access on-grade level text.

  

  For Tier III intervention, HMH Decoding Power: Intensive Reading Instruction provides support in foundational skills to bring struggling students up to grade level through explicit, sequential, and systematic instruction of skills from entry to exit.

  

• Writing and Grammar

  Writing instruction in Journeys empowers students and teachers. myWriteSmart—a dynamic, award-winning writing tool—offers an intuitive online writing environment linked to reading that guides students through the process of collecting compelling text evidence to write skilled analyses of two or more texts according to specific prompts, just like they’ll encounter on next generation assessments. The Journeys online writing program seamlessly connects all learning tasks, including process writing in all genres, writing to sources, analytic writing, and performance tasks. myWriteSmart enables teachers to effectively evaluate students’ writing with eRater, as well as provides a way to communicate with students on their writing from start to finish. Thus creating a truly collaborative environment that empowers students and teachers to be successful.

  

  Writing Traits Scoring Rubric for each mode of writing guides teachers in accurately scoring students’ work each week.

  

  Performance Tasks in each unit of the Student Book provide step-by-step guidance in analyzing and synthesizing complex texts before writing a critical response.

  

  Research and Media Performance Tasks at the start of each unit in the Teacher’s Edition provide students with multiple opportunities to develop and publish collaborative research projects of varying lengths.

  

  The Common Core Writing Handbook complements the writing instruction in Journeys. It provides students with a model for each writing form, scaffolded practice, and a handbook resource. The Teacher’s Guide provides mini-lessons for every handbook topic.

  

  Core Grammar instruction connected to writing develops students’ abilities to convey meaning effectively using conventional grammatical structures. GrammarSnap Videos demonstrate grammar concepts through short, high-energy videos.

  

• Speaking And Listening

  Journeys instruction helps students develop speaking and listening skills—key 21^st Century competencies. Classroom Conversation features prompt rich, collaborative peer exchanges. Speaking and Listening lessons in the Teacher’s Edition provide detailed guidelines for effective classroom discussions designed for all learners. Think/Pair/Share activities are ideal for engaging all students in academic conversations. Think/Pair/Share activities provide a variation in which students write their ideas before collaborating with a partner.

  

• English Learner Support

  Journeys provides research-based support to meet the needs of today's diverse classrooms. Support for learners at all stages of English proficiency ensures that every student receives a world-class 21st-century education. Support for English learners' linguistic and academic progress is integrated into the core instruction. Throughout each lesson, the Student Book and Teacher's Edition provide instructional support that English learners need to read complex texts and meet high standards.

  

  Language Support Cards preteach concepts in each lesson, build background, promote oral language, and develop high-utility vocabulary and academic language that enable students to contribute more fully to core activities.

  

  Language Workshop is designed to provide additional instructional time for English learners to develop the English language knowledge and abilities needed to successfully engage with core content. Language Workshop lessons and materials support students in developing collaborative, interpretive, and productive skills, as well as in understanding how English works. Vocabulary Network lessons aid students in quickly expanding their bank of vocabulary by mapping the relationships among related words.

  

  The ELL Teacher’s Handbook is a comprehensive guide to EL instruction including Professional Development, Best Practices guidelines, and classroom resources.

  

  The ELL Newcomer Teacher’s Guide offers twelve focused, efficient lessons plus corresponding posters and videos that emphasize survival vocabulary and high-utility language functions for students needing the basics of English.

  

• Assessment System

  The comprehensive assessment system in Journeys provides the data needed to make informed instructional decisions.

  

  Entry-level assessments include: Universal Screening and the Language Workshop Assessment Handbook, which measures the progress of English learners across proficiency levels.

  Formative and Progress Monitoring assessments include: Benchmark Assessments, Unit Tests, and the Common Core Reading Practice and Assessment App. The Standards-Based Assessment Resource includes rigorous tasks and questions, complex text passages, and tech-enhanced item formats (online only) for valuable student practice. Intervention Assessments measure progress of students receiving intervention instruction. Performance Assessment provides performance tasks with guided instruction and practice.

  

  Weekly Tests

  The Weekly Tests, available at Grades 1-6, help teachers monitor and report student progress on key skills and vocabulary. To provide students with ongoing practice with rigorous assessment items, the online Standards-Based Weekly Tests in Journeys assess lesson-level mastery of standards with new passages and technology-enhanced items that mirror SBAC* and PARCC^™*.

  

  Running Records

  Also available for each Leveled Reader, record students’ key reading behaviors and understanding.

  

  Cold Reads

  The passages in Cold Reads increase gradually in Lexile^® measures throughout the year, from below grade level to above grade level. Each passage is accompanied by selected-response questions and constructed-response prompts, requiring students to read closely, answer questions at substantial depth of knowledge levels, and cite text evidence. Perfect for practice in reading increasingly complex texts, Cold Reads support fluent reading and assessing students' progress.

  

  * This product is not endorsed by nor affiliated with PARCC or Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium.

  PARCC^™ is a trademark of PARCC, Inc.

Scope and Sequence

The Scope and Sequence provides an overview of the concepts to be covered in a given period of time, as well as how those concepts are addressed over the series as whole. Download a PDF to see the progression and order of topic introduction.

Journeys Common Core © 2014 Scope and Sequence

Journeys © 2011/2012 Scope and Sequence

Correlations

Correlation guides indicate how the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts are addressed in the Journeys program. Download a PDF to see specifics at a particular level.

Journeys Common Core © 2014

Journeys © 2011/2012

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