Restoring the image of God within each student is the ultimate goal of Seventh-day Adventist education, including its reading program. The new Seventh-day Adventist reading program is based on a balanced approach of strategies focusing on individual student needs combined with effective practices. Current research in theories and principles of reading form the basis for these effective practices.

Pathways Goals

Students should not only learn how to read, but also acquire the desire to read, write, and learn. All students deserve to be in a school situation where they have an opportunity to become passionate learners, readers, and writers. Pathways provides students with this opportunity. Pathways rests on the following principles:

Pathways offers a cross-curriculum approach to literacy that gives students an opportunity to become deeply involved in learning.

Pathways leads students to make good choices in reading content.

Pathways develops lifelong readers.

Pathways shows students how to create meaning through writing and conversations with one another.

Pathways provides students with guidance and practice to develop writing skills.

Pathways provides systematic instruction in reading comprehension and learning strategies that students apply to literature and content subjects.

Pathways provides students a systematic, daily practice with phonological processing skills.

Pathways provides a systematic approach to the teaching of spelling that includes high-frequency words as well as words following specific phonological patterns.

Pathways provides a rich variety of tools for assessing individual student development.

Pathways offers a management plan that includes whole-class, small-group, and individual student activities.

Cross-Curricular Themes

Cross-curricular themes serve as the overriding framework for the program. Each theme centers on a theme book. While the same nine themes occur at every grade level, the specific theme content changes to reflect the developmental and interest levels of the students. Spiritual lessons will be drawn from each theme which will relate to the student’s own spiritual journey. The thematic structure offers consistency across grade levels and a framework for the literature units.

Heroes (Content Area: Literature Development)

As students move from one stage of development to the next, the literature stresses heroes who overcome insurmountable odds.

My World and Others (Content Area: Geography)

Students experience how people live in different cultures and political settings.

Living Things (Content Area: Science)

Students learn about God’s creation through literature.

Spiritual Journey (Content Area: Adventist Heritage)

This theme encourages students to grow spiritually through Adventist history and fosters a personal relationship with Jesus by seeking His plan for their lives.

This theme includes literature about interrelationships among family members and friends.

Selections in this theme stress the interrelationship between people and their environment.

Personal Feelings and Growth

The literature for this theme stresses personal issues and struggles as students move from one stage of development to another.

Yesterday

Students explore history through literature.

Readers explore relationships among different groups.

Description of Pathways Components

Books are the driving force behind Pathways. Each of the nine thematic studies is launched by theme books. These books were selected for their content values, high interest and literacy, and to represent a range of topics and genre.

It is through Guided Reading that Pathways can show students how to read and support them while reading various books.

The Writer’s Handbook is a student resource. Students keep this grammar guide on their desks as a handy reference to use throughout the day

The Chall-Popp Phonics Program assists students in learning the major phonological patterns in our language. The student book is a write-in text and is the only consumable component of Pathways.

Projected Time Frame for the Adoption of Pathways

Grades 1 and 2

Kindergarten, Grades 3 and 4

Grades 5 and 6

Grades 7 and 8

Garry Sudds is the Lake Union Conference associate superintendent of education.