Redthread curriculum incorporates the components of national standards, such as Common Core, integrating reading comprehension, writing, vocabulary development, and critical thinking into engaging and knowledge-rich lessons that prepare students for academic success.

RedThread provides systematic instruction in foundational literacy skills, including phonics and decoding, and advanced skills like analysis, synthesis, and evidence-based writing. This comprehensive approach satisfies many state requirements, particularly those mandating instruction grounded in the science of reading research. 

The curriculum's instructional approach also prepares students for state assessments by integrating complex texts, close reading strategies, and rigorous writing tasks.

RedThread Foundations (K-2):  Emphasizes foundational skills, such as phonics, decoding, and fluency, to teach students how to read. It builds the essential mechanics of literacy, enabling young learners to gain confidence and independence in reading.

The curriculum includes: 

• Phonics Instruction: Systematic and explicit teaching of letter-sound relationships.
• RedThread Readers: Decodable texts aligned with phonics lessons featuring engaging, multicultural narratives.
• Teacher Guides and Resources: Detailed lesson plans and materials to support effective instruction.

RedThread Knowledge (K-8): Prioritizes knowledge-building by going beyond basic literacy skills. It uses integrated thematic learning to connect reading, writing, and comprehension to meaningful, real-world subjects. This approach fosters deeper understanding and critical thinking, helping students engage with their learning in more complex ways.

The curriculum includes:  

• Multicultural Literature: Features diverse texts that reflect various cultures and perspectives.
• Project-Based Learning: Engages students in authentic tasks that apply their learning in real-world contexts.

Teacher Guides and Resources: Provides comprehensive support for implementing thematic units and projects.

RedThread supports teachers with comprehensive guides, professional development, and digital resources to simplify planning and improve instruction. For students, it provides engaging, research-based curricula that build foundational skills, foster critical thinking, and connect learning to real-world themes. Both teachers and students benefit from culturally responsive materials and interactive tools that promote confidence and engagement.

Curriculum Institutes

Immersive sessions designed to introduce educators to RedThread Foundations and RedThread Knowledge. These sessions provide practical strategies for effective implementation and curriculum alignment. In-person and virtual options are available. 

Yearlong Virtual Unit Launches

A series of virtual sessions is held yearly to deepen educators' understanding of each curriculum unit. These sessions focus on enhancing instructional practices and ensuring consistency.

Leader Cohorts

Interactive training for leaders overseeing curriculum implementation. These sessions focus on observation, coaching techniques, and curriculum management to promote effective adoption and execution.

One-Day Workshops

Designed for teachers and leaders, these workshops focus on specific aspects of RedThread Foundations and RedThread Knowledge. They provide actionable insights for successful classroom integration in both in-person and virtual formats.

No, professional development is not required to implement the RedThread curriculum, but it is highly recommended.

These programs help educators maximize the curriculum’s effectiveness and adapt it to meet evolving student and school needs.

No, the cost of the RedThread curriculum does not include extensive professional development. However, a basic training component is included to help educators get started with implementation. Additional professional development opportunities, such as RedThread Institutes, Leader Cohorts, and Yearlong Unit Launches, are available to further support educators. 

Investing in additional professional development can improve implementation effectiveness. By equipping educators with deeper knowledge and strategies, schools can optimize their return on investment to achieve meaningful progress in literacy outcomes.

The Simple View of Reading: RedThread curriculum draws from the Simple View of Reading, a model that explains reading comprehension as combining two key components: Decoding and Linguistic Comprehension. 

Scarborough's Reading Rope: The curriculum is also influenced by Scarborough's Reading Rope, a model that visualizes the multiple strands contributing to skilled reading. 

These strands include:

Word Recognition (Foundational Skills): 

• Phonological Awareness
• Phonics
• Sight Recognition

Language Comprehension (Knowledge and Meaning): 

• Background Knowledge
• Vocabulary
• Language Structures
• Verbal Reasoning 
• Literacy knowledge 

Science of Reading: RedThread curriculum is firmly grounded in the science of reading, which emphasizes: 

• Explicit, systematic instruction in foundational skills such as phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency.
• Development of vocabulary and background knowledge, which are essential for comprehension.

This commitment reflects our focus on research-backed methods that promote meaningful reading growth.

RedThread Foundations is an evidence-based structured literacy program for Kindergarten through second-grade students. It is based on the science of reading and emphasizes systematic and explicit instruction in foundational reading skills, including phonological awareness, decoding, and sight recognition. 

For third through fifth grade, it emphasizes systematic and explicit instruction while extending into more complex word study, vocabulary development, and reading comprehension strategies to ensure students deepen their literacy skills as they advance.

RedThread Foundations combines skill-building and meaningful content, ensuring students develop literacy skills and a passion for learning.

1. Science of Reading Alignment: The program is grounded in proven reading research, emphasizing phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
2. Integrated Knowledge-Building: Yearlong themes weave real-world topics into lessons, decodable books, and activities, creating cohesive learning experiences that build background knowledge and critical thinking.
3. Engaging Decodable Readers: The program includes RedThread Readers—multicultural, phonics-based books with diverse characters and stories that inspire a love of reading while reinforcing foundational skills.
4. Multisensory Approach: Lessons incorporate visual, auditory, and kinesthetic activities to cater to various learning styles and strengthen neural pathways for literacy development.
5. Systematic and Explicit Instruction: Skills are taught logically, ensuring a solid foundation. Lessons build on previous knowledge, enabling steady progress.
6. Comprehensive Support for Educators: Teachers receive robust training and resources, including guides, cards, decodable texts, and ongoing professional development to ensure successful implementation.

For Teachers:

• Teacher Guide
• Keyword Image Cards
• Letter Cards
• Classroom Posters
• Unit Word Cards
• Sight Word Cards
• Approximately 60 Decodable Texts per grade level

For Students:

• Magnetic Board with Letter Tiles
• White Board with Writing Grid
• Student Workbook
• Individual Copies of all Decodable Texts

Lavinia Group provides extensive support for educators through RedThread Institutes. These institutes offer in-person and virtual options for curriculum launch training and ongoing support throughout the year. 

Educators can also benefit from:

Curriculum Launch Workshops: Educators can participate in virtual sessions or in-person that provide an in-depth introduction to the curriculum, ensuring a thorough understanding of its components and effective teaching strategies.

Yearlong Unit Launches: Ongoing virtual sessions deepen educators' understanding of each unit, promoting consistent instructional practices and curriculum delivery throughout the academic year.

Leader Cohorts: Interactive cohorts empower school leaders to explore effective observation and coaching techniques, advanced data analysis strategies, and instructional management methods, fostering a clear vision for high-quality curriculum adoption and execution.

Yes, the RedThread Foundations curriculum is based on proven instructional strategies and components that have demonstrated significant results. 

A 2023 study examined the effectiveness of the RedThread Foundations curriculum, a structured literacy program, in improving decoding, oral reading, and comprehension skills among first-grade students in a high-poverty district who were significantly below grade level. The study included 173 first graders (98 in the treatment group and 85 in the control group), and the research found that after using RedThread Foundations curriculum: 

• Students moved from below average to near average on the TOWRE assessment (phonetic decoding fluency), with meaningful effect sizes.
• About half of the treatment group reached grade-level reading, showing significant and meaningful growth compared to the control group.
• There were gains in both the number of words read correctly and the comprehension scores on the QRI assessment for the treatment group. 

Read the Study 

The RedThread Knowledge curriculum is a comprehensive K-8 literacy program integrating reading, writing, and project-based learning. 

The curriculum offers tailored content for each grade, with age-appropriate themes and materials that build upon previous knowledge, ensuring a coherent progression of skills and concepts.

RedThread Knowledge empowers students to become confident readers, writers, and critical thinkers. The curriculum exposes students to diverse cultures and perspectives through carefully chosen multicultural literature. Thematic units encourage knowledge-building, critical thinking, and synthesis of skills and concepts.

Each grade level explores unique themes that build knowledge progressively, such as community in Kindergarten, problem-solving in first grade, and freedom in fourth grade. These themes are carefully designed to deepen students' understanding as they advance.

• K-2: Focuses on foundational literacy skills, integrated with RedThread Foundations phonics instruction, in daily 75-minute sessions.
• 3-5: Expands literacy skills and critical thinking through thematic and project-based learning in daily 90-minute sessions.
• 6-8: Prepares middle school students for complex literacy tasks with global, thematic, and interdisciplinary approaches in 90-minute sessions.

Each grade level explores a different theme to foster knowledge-building and critical thinking:

• Kindergarten: Growing Together (What does being part of a community mean?)
• First Grade: Making a Difference (How do people solve problems?)
• Second Grade: Traveling Through Time & Space (How do people and communities change over time?)
• Third Grade: Discovering My Voice (What does it mean to be a citizen in a democracy?)
• Fourth Grade: Finding Freedom (What does it mean to be free?)
• Fifth Grade: Cultivating Ingenuity and Resilience (How do people innovate, create, and thrive?)
• Sixth Grade: Identities and Human Development (Who am I, and what does it mean to be human?)
• Seventh Grade: Collaboration, Conflict, and Community Throughout Human History (What is my role in society?)
• Eighth Grade: Changemakers in the Ancient, Modern, and Future World (What is my impact on the world?)

Daily literacy sessions in the RedThread Knowledge curriculum are designed to meet the needs of different grade levels:

• Grades K-2: Daily literacy sessions are 75 minutes long. These sessions focus on building foundational literacy skills and integrating with the RedThread Foundations phonics curriculum.
• Grades 3-8: Daily literacy sessions are 90 minutes long. They emphasize reading, writing, and project-based learning, with thematic and multicultural content designed to deepen literacy and critical thinking skills.

RedThread Readers distinguish themselves through:

• Alignment with research-based scope and sequence: Ensuring grade-level foundational skills practice.
• Authentic multicultural stories: Reflecting diverse cultures and engaging students from various backgrounds.
• Integrated knowledge-building sections: Expanding students' background knowledge beyond just decoding skills.
• Captivating, full-color illustrations: Sparking imagination and sustaining student interest.
• Inspirational stories: Cultivating a love for reading and critical thinking.
• Comprehensive digital guides for teachers: Resources like lesson plans and guidance for maximizing effectiveness.

Yes, RedThread Readers kits are designed for sharing within a grade level, promoting cost-efficiency and wider access to these valuable resources.

Each grade-level set of RedThread Readers is priced at $3,300, plus shipping. This investment provides 25 copies of each decodable book title per grade. 

The benefit of using RedThread Readers for teachers is the comprehensive digital guide accompanying each set. This guide provides valuable resources to streamline planning and instruction, including:

• Lesson planning tips
• Ready-to-use lesson plans
• Book selection guidance
• Sample lessons

These tools save teachers time and effort, enabling them to easily deliver effective phonics instruction while focusing more on student engagement and learning outcomes.

RedThread Readers are integral to the RedThread Foundations Literacy Program, serving as the primary decodable texts that align with the program's structured literacy approach. These readers correspond with the phonics concepts taught in each lesson, enabling students to apply their decoding skills in context. By featuring engaging, multicultural narratives, RedThread Readers reinforce phonics instruction and foster a love for reading.