CommonLit Archive Affordable Professional Development to Support an Effective Rollout of CommonLit 360

Learn about the on-demand Professional Development that CommonLit has designed to support your team’s use of our new comprehensive ELA curriculum, CommonLit 360

CommonLit is thrilled to announce the release of the CommonLit 360 Curriculum! This is a free, comprehensive ELA curriculum for grades 6–12. Each unit includes high-quality texts, full lesson plans that support reading comprehension, writing, grammar, vocabulary, and discussion skills, scaffolded supports for all learners, and ready-to-use materials. The entire ELA curriculum is available for teachers to use digitally and in a downloadable format. You can read more about CommonLit 360 here.

To help schools and districts use the 360 Curriculum effectively, CommonLit is offering 10 on-demand Professional Development modules. These modules focus on key instructional moves and best practices that are embedded throughout the curriculum. In completing these modules, teachers will learn how to effectively execute CommonLit’s reading comprehension lessons, writing lessons, foster student discussion, build students’ grammar skills, and more.

Schools and districts can access these modules and the rest of CommonLit’s Professional Development Portal with the purchase of CommonLit School Essentials or School Essentials PRO. These two affordable packages are designed to support an effective implementation of CommonLit’s full digital literacy program.

Continue reading to learn all about the Professional Development modules!

Professional Development for CommonLit 360

Each of the modules that our team is offering is designed to be bite-sized, practical, and include clear takeaways for educators. Some of the modules are designed to help instructional leaders understand the design principles of the ELA curriculum, while the majority of the trainings hone in on critical instructional moves and strategies for struggling readers.

The trainings are also flexibly designed to fit into any professional development plan; they can be facilitated by an instructional leader or completed independently by teachers who are looking to develop their skills.

After a school or district purchases access to these trainings, they’ll be accessible to all educators on the team through their CommonLit account.

The Trainings

Overview of The CommonLit 360 Curriculum

In this training module, we explain the principles behind the design of the curriculum and the research that backs it up, as well as the unique way we tested each part of the curriculum with our pilot-partner schools.

Resources for Instructional Coaches: Supporting Your School’s Rollout

In this training module, we’ll explain best practices for supporting school-wide and district-wide implementation of the CommonLit 360 Curriculum. We’ll dive into the details of our unit pacing guides, data analysis tools, and more!

Getting Started with Your First Unit

In this training module, we’ll show you how to get started with your first CommonLit 360 unit. We’ll cover the basics, such as where to find all the lessons and materials and how to assign lessons digitally or print. Then we’ll offer tips for internalizing the unit and how to make strategic decisions about “essential,” “recommended,” and “optional” assignments.

Reading Lessons: Key Instructional Moves

In this training module, we’ll explain the design features and instructional moves that all CommonLit 360 reading comprehension lessons share, and how this structure makes the reading lessons quick and easy to understand and teach. Then we’ll break down a reading lesson in detail, showing you how to use our unique reading modalities and in-text questioning.

Writing Lessons, Tips for Expert Facilitation

In this training, we’ll explain how each writing lesson comes in three formats: printable, Google doc, and fully digital on CommonLit.org. We’ll explain the key components that you’ll find in all our writing lessons and share some tips for utilizing all of these engaging teaching tools. Then we’ll preview a digital writing lesson to show what teachers and students can expect from this exciting new digital experience.

Teacher reads paper to students.

Formative Assessment within CommonLit 360

In this training, we’ll explain the powerful formative data that students produce when completing reading and writing lessons and how to access it. Then we’ll provide ways to leverage this data to drive instructional decision-making.

Developing Academic Vocabulary within CommonLit 360

In this training, we’ll preview the Vocabulary Activity Sets that are included in every CommonLit 360 unit, as well as the supporting slide decks and Word Walls we provide. We’ll also offer ideas for how to use these sets flexibly, such as for “Do Nows,” classwork, or homework.

Fostering Academic Discussion within CommonLit 360

One goal of CommonLit 360 is to have rich, student-centered conversations at the heart of each lesson. In this training we’ll highlight the embedded opportunities for discussion that are found in all of our comprehensive reading and writing lessons. Then we’ll preview discussion lessons that build specific discussion skills as well as our end-of-unit whole class discussion questions and supporting materials.

Building Grammar Skills with CommonLit 360

In this training, we’ll preview the Grammar Usage Activities that are included in every CommonLit 360 unit. We’ll also offer ideas for how to assign and teach these focused, quick-hitting activities that are sure to strengthen your students’ writing.

In this training, we’ll preview our not-to-be missed related media explorations and provide guidance about how to facilitate these flexible assignments as either whole class, partner, or independent activities.

Next Steps

CommonLit is eager to support your team!

If your team is eager to roll out CommonLit 360 this upcoming year and you’re interested in securing access to CommonLit’s Professional Development Portal, email partnerships@commonlit.org.