CommonLit CommonLit 360 CommonLit 360: A Free Curriculum with Affordable Wraparound Services

Wraparound services include professional development, school and districtwide data reports, and benchmark assessments

I am so excited to share that after three years of work, CommonLit has published its brand new curriculum, CommonLit 360! It’s a free curriculum — the first of its kind available on an interactive digital platform. To facilitate smooth utilization of CommonLit 360, we offer a series of affordable wraparound services explained below.

Wait, it’s free? Are you serious?

The CommonLit 360 Curriculum is an open educational resource (OER), which means that CommonLit’s new 360 Curriculum is free for teachers to access, just like the rest of CommonLit. There’s no catch. It is comprehensive, and it is free. All you need is your regular CommonLit teacher account to get started.

Here’s what teachers will find in the free CommonLit 360 Curriculum materials:

  • 6 units per grade for grades 6–10 (5–7 weeks of instruction per unit),
  • High-quality short stories and literature worthy of students’ time and attention,
  • Fully built-out lessons covering reading, writing, speaking and listening, vocabulary, and grammar,
  • Ready-to-use lesson materials including teacher copies and student handouts,
  • Supportive resources for English Language Learners, struggling readers, and students with disabilities including scaffolded questions, graphic organizers, review lessons, and more,
  • Unit Guides to help teachers internalize the scope of instruction,
  • Cutting edge digital features for vocabulary and writing instruction — including many that are completely new to CommonLit.

To learn more about what’s included, check out this CommonLit 360 Curriculum Overview.

Why did you publish a free curriculum?

We often get asked why we published a free curriculum in the first place. The answer is simple; we’re a nonprofit organization on a mission to close persistent opportunity gaps in literacy education. Offering a completely free curriculum means that more students will have access to our transformative, research-backed reading program. That’s the goal of our charitable work! To learn more about our commitment to equitable access, check out my blog post, “Why CommonLit Will Always Be Free.”

The openly-licensed aspect of these materials also helps to advance our nonprofit mission. Under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license, educators are free to remix the content, share it, and localize it to fit their needs.

How does CommonLit sustain its charitable work?

CommonLit is sustained through a combination of philanthropy and the sales of affordable paid services to schools and districts. These paid services are designed to work hand-in-hand with the free CommonLit 360 Curriculum, and help facilitate an effective roll out.

It’s a purchase that your school and district can feel good about. CommonLit doesn’t have any shareholders; 100 percent of the proceeds from our paid services go toward advancing our nonprofit work.

How is this model innovative?

Together, CommonLit’s paid and free services offer schools and districts a comprehensive and coherent literacy program that includes all of the essential elements of a strong academic program for English Language Arts. CommonLit’s curriculum, assessments, and teacher professional learning are part of a highly effective and affordable program that advances reading and writing achievement nationally.

A pyramid graphic with levels for the 360 curriculum, assessments, data tracking, and professional development.

What are the services for schools and districts?

CommonLit offers two paid packages: School Essentials and School Essentials PRO. These include:

  • The CommonLit Assessment Series: Three digital benchmark assessments (Pre-, Mid-, and Post-) with actionable reports to drive instructional decision-making,
  • CommonLit’s Professional Development Portal: A comprehensive resource with dozens of on-demand training modules for teachers and coaches that help schools use CommonLit 360 with best practices,
  • Administrator Data: Dashboards for school and district coaches and administrators filled with data points to help make the best use of CommonLit 360,
  • Onboarding Support: Clever rostering, live webinar training, and access to a dedicated CommonLit account manager to support your team’s needs.
A student and teacher sitting at a table. The teacher is smiling and the student is working on CommonLit.org.

This sounds great. Where can I learn more?

Excited about the new CommonLit 360 Curriculum? We are too! This blog post is filled with resources to walk you through the curriculum and our rollout package. You can also sign up to attend an upcoming webinar get deeper look at CommonLit 360.

To learn more about pricing for CommonLit School Essentials PRO, our affordable package crafted to support schools and districts implementing CommonLit 360:

If you would like to talk with a CommonLit 360 specialist about our paid packages, schedule a quick call, here.