Indian Prairie School District 204 is piloting a new middle school English curriculum that officials say is focusing more on writing, aligning better with state testing and standardizing teaching across schools.
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The curriculum is being built around an instructional resource called CommonLit 360, according to a presentation by Barbi Chisholm, director of middle school core curriculum, at the Indian Prairie School District Board of Education meeting on Monday. That resource contains nearly everything teachers need, including readings, exercises and tests, CommonLit’s webpage about the resource says.
Chisholm said that, currently, middle school English instruction has no common resource that is used across the district, which makes it difficult for the district to develop a curriculum that is equitable across all of its middle schools.
If the new curriculum is adopted after the pilot, teachers will still have some flexibility in matching the materials provided by CommonLit 360 to their students’ unique learning needs and styles, but with all teachers working from the same materials, the district can make sure students are getting the same skills regardless of what school they attend, she told board members.
The pilot began in the spring semester and will be expanding in the fall semester, according to Chisholm’s presentation. She said 39 teachers have participated in the pilot so far and that the goal is to have at least 50 teachers testing the curriculum in the fall.
If the fall pilot goes well, the plan is to bring the curriculum in front of the Indian Prairie School District Board of Education for final approval in January 2025, Chisholm said. At Monday’s meeting, board members appeared in favor of the new curriculum, especially because of its emphasis on writing.
The spring semester pilot cost the district only $14,000 because it was given a test license for CommonLit 360, so only additional, supplemental materials needed to be purchased. The fall semester pilot is expected to cost the district $80,000, according to the presentation.
During the fall semester pilot, each middle school grade level will get a different book to read as a class over the course of the semester. These books are built into the CommonLit 360 curriculum, Chisholm said.
Sixth grade will be reading “The Giver” by Lois Lowry, which is currently read in the seventh grade.
Seventh grade will be reading “Brown Girl Dreaming” by Jacqueline Woodson, which is a new book to the district’s middle school English curriculum.
Eighth grade will be reading “Twelve Angry Men” by Reginald Rose, which was included in the spring semester pilot.
CommonLit is a nonprofit that was founded by a middle school English teacher to provide school districts with complete curriculums, according to the organization’s website. In her presentation, Chisholm said the resources provided by the company are also evidence-based.
While CommonLit 360 claims on its website to be a “complete curriculum,” Chisholm said that the district will need to supplement the resource with additional resources to fit what district officials expect it to accomplish.
For example, she said that additional resources will need to be added to help students regardless of how they learn best.