East Aurora School District is looking to shake up its elementary language arts and social studies curriculum in the coming years.
On Monday, East Aurora School District 131 staff at a meeting of the school board’s Curriculum Committee presented a planned pilot for next school year in which elementary social studies would be embedded within language arts courses.
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At the meeting, Ami Engel, the district’s associate superintendent for curriculum, instruction and assessment, pitched the approach, saying the change “maximizes … limited instructional minutes” and is a request teachers have made in the past.
And Teresa Vemmer, director for curriculum and instruction, said at the meeting that Illinois encourages integration of language arts and social sciences work. The state expects teachers to integrate, for example, reading informational texts with history and geography and writing with civics and economics, the presentation given at Monday’s Curriculum Committee meeting said.
Vemmer also noted that Savvas MyWorld/MiMundo, the district’s current social studies resource, was adopted in 2014 and is now outdated.
So, next year, the district is looking to embed social studies into the elementary language arts curriculum, Vemmer said, while making use of existing resources the district already has.
“This helps students move beyond learning isolated facts by exploring the people, the events and the perspectives that shape our world,” Vemmer said at the meeting. “When connected with language arts, it provides meaningful content that naturally strengthens students’ reading, writing, discussion and vocabulary development.”
It also “reduces the cognitive load for students” and minimizes “transitions between content areas,” she said.
As for implementation, Vemmer explained that the district is looking to develop the pilot units during the first quarter of next year and implement them in the second quarter, while collecting feedback. Participation in the pilot will be voluntary, she said, and include professional development before it’s implemented.
Engel said the district will be “purposeful” when it comes to balancing the literacy and social studies content and the state requirement to focus on mandated social studies concepts like civics, geography, history and inquiry skills.
Following the pilot, the district intends to bring a recommendation to the school board in early 2027 to formally adopt the curriculum change. The modified curriculum, Engel said, would then be officially rolled out in the 2027-28 school year.