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player ready...Changes are officially coming to Indian Prairie District 204’s English Language Arts curriculum for middle school students in the Project Arrow program.
On Monday, the district’s school board approved some previously-discussed curriculum changes, as well as the purchase of some additional class texts and a new vocabulary resource.
Project Arrow is the district’s program for “academically talented students.” It’s offered at the elementary and middle school levels, and is meant to expand educational opportunities for students in the program through “differentiated instruction and learning experiences,” according to the district’s website.
The planned revisions to the program’s middle school English Language Arts, or ELA, classes were discussed at a board meeting last month and on Monday came to the board for final approval. The updated curriculum will make use of existing resources, as well as add some new texts students in the program will read.
Under the revisions, the sixth-grade Project Arrow ELA course will feature a combination of sixth- and seventh-grade-level CommonLit 360 units and a new text — Lois Lowry’s “The Giver.”
The seventh-grade course will include four eighth-grade-level CommonLit 360 units. Students will continue to read Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” but the new curriculum will add “Twelve Angry Men” by Reginald Rose.
The district is also looking to have a whole class novel for the seventh-grade course, but options are still being discussed, officials have said. It may be piloted next year, with plans to implement that part of the curriculum during the 2027-28 school year.
As for the eighth-grade Project Arrow curriculum for ELA, changes include switching the order in which “Animal Farm” by George Orwell and “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare are read and introducing some more recent nonfiction articles for the portion devoted to “Animal Farm.” The district is also looking to add “Antigone” by Sophocles to the unit on “Hamlet.” Eighth-graders in the Project Arrow program will continue to read Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
In addition to the curriculum changes, the district also sought board approval to use CommonLit 360, an existing resource the district has, and to implement the three new class texts and a new vocabulary resource for the revised Project Arrow ELA courses. Those new resources are set to cost the district $115,000.
Both the course revisions and the purchase of the new materials were approved Monday by the Indian Prairie school board.
The changes are set to go into effect starting during the 2026-27 school year.
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