If you love CommonLit, you’re going to really love this: We have launched a free, comprehensive, ELA curriculum for grades 6–12! CL360 includes: reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, and discussion lessons.
Let’s get started — you can join an intro webinar to learn more!
In June 2021, CommonLit launched a comprehensive, English Language Arts curriculum for grades 6–12. It is the first of its kind available for free, and you can able to access it just like you would access anything else on CommonLit.org — through your teacher account.
Register for a Sneak Peek Webinar to learn more about the new CommonLit 360 Curriculum
Our team is so excited to share more about the curriculum on our new CommonLit 360 webinar. You can register for a webinar here to learn all about the new lessons types, new content, and new features that are coming in June!
Excited? Here is a sneak peek of what you can expect with CommonLit 360 Curriculum:
- Comprehensive ELA units: 6 per grade for grades 6-12;
- High-Quality Texts: Carefully selected authentic texts that are high-interest, representative, diverse, and relevant to students;
- Full coverage: Reading, writing, discussion, vocabulary, and grammar standards covered in every unit;
- Direct instruction: Direct instruction is targeted on specific skills and woven throughout the units,
- Scaffolded supports: In-text questions, optional lessons and supplemental texts, optional outlining materials, graphic organizers, texts in Spanish, and accessibility tools to support struggling readers;
- Ready-to-use materials: Teacher copies, student writing exemplars, ready-made student handouts, editable slide decks, daily quizzes, interactive material, and more;
- Supportive teacher tools: Unit guides, help videos, and on-demand technical support.
- Integrations: Integrations with ClassLink rostering, Clever rostering, Google Classroom, and other platforms;
- All available for free with your CommonLit teacher account.
Curriculum overview for school and district administrators
The CommonLit 360 Curriculum Edition 1.0 will be released in June 2021. To help teams prepare, we’ve created this comprehensive guide to the ELA curriculum. This guide contains information about:
- Curriculum design and key elements of a CommonLit 360 lesson,
- Scope and sequence for all grade levels complete with essential questions, focus skills & standards, and text lists, and
- Implementation tools and key resources for a seamless rollout with our school and district packages.
Vertical and horizontal alignment
One of the best features of the CommonLit 360 Curriculum is its thoughtful design. The structure is simple and comprehensive. There are 6 units per grade level, each spanning 5–7 weeks of instruction. Across a grade level, the units build on one another in terms of complexity, skill focus, and demands for reading and writing. However, a single unit could be used flexibly in a supplementary capacity or intervention capacity depending on the needs of students.
Vertical alignment of the curriculum is also another big selling point. Unit 1s are always short story units; Unit 3s are always full-length novels, and so on (see image below). From grade to grade, texts become more sophisticated, and the demands for analysis become more complex. This coherent design has two major benefits: 1) instructional coaches serving teachers at multiple grade levels can deliver more targeted professional learning opportunities, and 2) ELA department teams can work collaboratively on a specific genre or skill focus.
Access for all teachers on CommonLit
When can you access the unit materials? In June 2021, the first four units of each grade level will be available, with units 5–6 releasing throughout the summer and fall of 2021. We will also be announcing additional digital tools and features and improving cross-platform interoperability. In short, this is Edition 1.0; you can expect that CommonLit 360 will become more and more robust over time as we get feedback from teachers and administrators like you.
Quick sneak peek of unit topics
For a quick overview of unit topics, teachers can use this resource.
Stay in the know and get ready for June 2021 release
The CommonLit 360 Curriculum was designed through pilots in 50 schools nationally. In order to build the units, we worked alongside both novice and veteran classroom teachers and administrators. We observed nearly 300 hours of classroom instruction and collected thousands of surveys from stakeholders.
In advance of the June release, here are a few opportunities to get to know CommonLit 360:
- Sneak Peek Webinars: We will be running Sneak Peek webinars throughout the spring. Invite a colleague to attend an upcoming webinar by sharing this registration link.
- Review the CommonLit 360 Curriculum Overview Guide with your team: We will be releasing more and more information about CommonLit 360 over the next few months, but a great place to start with your team is the comprehensive guide to the curriculum. It answers all of the questions you might have and provides ways to get in touch with our team about a full school or district rollout.
- Plan CommonLit 360 Rollout with the School Partnerships team: CommonLit’s School Essentials and School Essentials PRO packages support the seamless and effective rollout of CommonLit 360. You can learn more about getting in touch with our School Partnerships team about our school and district packages here.
- Participate in a CommonLit 360 Focus Group: We are looking for a group of teachers to participate in a focus group and explore our CommonLit 360 Curriculum in May. If you’re interested, please fill out our interest form here.
For all inquiries related to CommonLit 360, please direct them to help@commonlit.org.
