A Closer Look at RISE Summer School Curriculum
The RISE curriculum is carefully designed to help students SHINE brighter in literacy and math, setting them up for a successful school year. This high-impact summer curriculum is designed to fit the time constraints of summer and aligns with Common Core, state standards, and the science of reading. Our carefully crafted daily schedule includes 90 minutes of dedicated literacy instruction and 75 minutes of engaging math curriculum.
Rise ELA Curriculum
We provide 90 minutes of engaging, science-of-reading–aligned literacy instruction, structured into two components based on students’ grade levels. Students in Rising 1st–2nd Grade participate in RedThread Foundations, a systematic phonics program, and an Author Study block. Students in Rising 3rd–9th Grade engage in Close Reading for Meaning and a RedThread Knowledge, Author Study, block.
The systematic phonics curriculum, grounded in the science of reading, places a strong emphasis on phonics, ensuring a solid foundation for reading and language development. Lessons are explicit, cumulative, and sequential—building knowledge step by step—while incorporating multisensory activities that engage students through visual aids and manipulatives. To reinforce learning in context, students read paired decodable texts with carefully controlled vocabulary and phonics patterns. These RedThread Readers, designed for summer, offer rich, engaging stories that both captivate young readers and strengthen their decoding skills.
Curious to see how our decodable readers can help your students shine?
Download a sample of our systematic phonics curriculum
The RedThread RISE Close Reading Curriculum develops both foundational and comprehension skills through a structured five-day reading cycle. Students begin by focusing on foundational reading skills such as morphological awareness, decoding, and fluency, before using genre as an entry point to analyze a text’s main idea and the author’s craft. Throughout the cycle, genre-based, transferable questions prompt students to return to the text for evidence, sharpening critical thinking and building confidence in tackling complex texts. After engaging in this process with the teacher, students apply their learning independently to a paired passage, demonstrating their growing proficiency.
Curious to see how our decodable readers can help your students shine?
Download a sample of our systematic phonics curriculum
Building on foundational reading skills, the RedThread RISE Knowledge curriculum, formerly known as Insight Humanities, teaches students to become thoughtful, engaged readers. By focusing on a single author or immersing in a full novel, students deepen comprehension, expand vocabulary, and develop a genuine love of reading. Each workshop features carefully curated texts that reflect diverse backgrounds and authentic experiences, ensuring representation while avoiding bias and stereotypes. The curriculum strategically connects Close Reading topics to Author and Novel Studies, helping students build knowledge networks that strengthen understanding of themes and ideas. Daily text-based writing tasks further reinforce comprehension and analytical skills, giving students meaningful opportunities to express their thinking with grade-appropriate vocabulary and language.
Curious to see how our decodable readers can help your students shine?
Download a sample of our systematic phonics curriculum
Rise math Curriculum
We provide 75 minutes of real-life discourse-driven mathematical curriculum broken into two components for all grade-levels: Story Problems and Math Routines.
Grounded in the belief that all students are mathematicians, the Math Story Problems curriculum engages learners through real-world contexts—such as shopping, sports, or travel—encouraging them to see the relevance of math in everyday life. With a wide variety of grade-level problem types, students develop multiple strategies for solving unknowns, applying flexible thinking while participating in hands-on learning and rich mathematical discourse. By persevering through challenges and sharing their reasoning, students deepen understanding, build confidence, and strengthen precision, equipping them to tackle any mathematical task independently while mastering grade-level standards.
Created specifically for RISE, these short, structured math routines target common gaps in student knowledge while strengthening foundational skills and concepts such as counting, operations, place value, and proportional relationships. Designed for daily use, the routines build both conceptual understanding and fluency, helping students develop speed, accuracy, and confidence with essential math operations. With five consistent routine structures used across grades and content, teachers can easily integrate these targeted activities into instruction, ensuring students are well-prepared for success in the next grade.
Curriculum Alignment
The RISE curriculum is strategically designed so it can be used by any educator in any state.
Adapting to State Standards
View MoreFocusing on Power Standards
View MoreAddressing Unfinished Learning
View MoreAligned to the Science of Reading
View MoreDownload Common Core Standards Alignment
Want to see how RISE aligns with your state standards?
Fill out this form for a customized breakdown of how RISE aligns with your state’s specific standards. Our team will provide the resources you need to ensure RISE fits seamlessly into your local curriculum.
How
RISE
Curriculum
Aligns with Year-Round HQIM
Literacy
Math
Evidence-Based Approach: The curriculum is grounded in the science of reading—including a focus on explicit, systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
Mathematical Reasoning: There are opportunities within every lesson for students to participate in mathematical reasoning, both abstractly and quantitatively.
Knowledge-Building: The materials provide a coherent sequence or collection of connected texts that consistently build vocabulary knowledge and knowledge about themes with connected topics and ideas.
Real-World Application: Students regularly solve problems that connect math to real-world scenarios, using models to explore relationships and variables.
Rich, Engaging Texts: Students work with a mix of controlled and complex texts, enhancing vocabulary and comprehension. Materials also include read-alouds to model fluent reading and build background knowledge.
Skill Development: The curriculum focuses on accuracy, efficiency, and recognizing patterns, helping students build a deep, flexible understanding of math concepts through repeated practice and generalizations.
Writing Integration: The program includes text-based tasks that require students to write about the topic using vocabulary and language appropriate for their grade level.
Teacher Support: Easy-to-navigate teacher guides offer clear connections between resources and guidance on scaffolding and differentiating complex tasks.
Interactive Learning: Every lesson offers opportunities for students to engage in interactive discussions, make conjectures, defend their reasoning, or examine the reasoning of others.
Clear Instructional Design: It provides age-appropriate, structured lessons with regular assessment opportunities to monitor progress.
Building Bright Futures Together
Together with schools, districts, and funders across the nation, we’re helping students shine bright.
Spotlight: Summer Discovery and RISE
Ballmer Group partnered with United Way to launch Summer Discovery to address a clear need in Southeast Michigan–a lack of accessible summer learning options for K-8 students.
This initiative provided free, high-quality summer learning programs big and small, from charter schools to traditional districts and community-based organizations.
But what makes a summer program more than just a checkbox on a to-do list? How do we ensure it leads to meaningful, lasting outcomes for students?
Recognizing the need for impactful summer learning, Summer Discovery partnered with the RISE Summer Learning Program.
Schools receiving funding through Summer Discovery could implement RISE, bringing a structured, engaging curriculum to their students.
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Curious about how the RISE Summer Learning Program can make a difference for your students? Fill out the form below, and our team will contact you.