K-5 Language Arts Curriculum: Overview

Learning Targets

1. I can describe the principles and research that underlie the EL Education K-5 Language Arts Curriculum.
2. I can describe how the EL Education K-5 Language Arts Curriculum elevates student achievement.

Review: K-2 and 3-5 Comprehensive Literacy Curriculum

Our K-5 curriculum offers either two or three hours of literacy instruction per day, depending on the grade level. The Grades K-2 curriculum offers two hours per day of content-based literacy (module lessons and K-2 Labs) plus one hour of structured phonics (K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block). All together, these three hours of curriculum are considered comprehensive, meaning that they explicitly teach and formally assess all strands and standards of the Common Core English language arts (ELA) standards for each grade level.

The Grades 3-5 curriculum offers two hours of content-based literacy instruction per day (module lessons and the Additional Language and Literacy [ALL] Block), with an additional optional companion Life Science Module, which accompanies Module 2 for a third hour of instruction lasting eight to nine weeks. With or without the Life Science module, the two hours of content-based literacy are considered comprehensive.

At the heart of the curriculum, at all grade levels, are the hour-long module lessons. Each grade level includes four modules, which span a full school year. The four modules allow students to build important content knowledge based on a compelling topic related to science, social studies, or literature. Each module uses rich, authentic text throughout. 

Please review the diagram of the EL Education Language Arts Curriculum below and note the structure and components for grades K-2 and grades 3-5.

Watch: Curriculum Design: The 4 Ts

In creating standards-aligned content-based literacy curriculum, EL Education used the framework of the 4 Ts: topic, task, target, and text. The video below features members of EL Education’s curriculum design team and teachers working together to design curriculum.  As you watch the video, consider the following questions: 

1. How would you explain each of the 4 Ts to someone unfamiliar with this framework?
2. How do the 4 Ts interact to create a strong curriculum?

Read: Principles Underlying the EL Education K-5 Language Arts Curriculum

Read the section “What principles underlie the K-5 Language Arts Curriculum?” on pages 2-5 of the K-5 Language Arts Guidance document.  As you read, reflect:

1. How does the curriculum focus on equity and supporting all learners?
2. How does the curriculum empower students, teachers, and families?

Read: Elevating Student Achievement

Grades K–5 teachers have a crucial role, particularly when it comes to building the literacy skills upon which students’ entire academic lives will rest. New, more rigorous college- and career-ready standards are an opportunity, and a provocation, to think more expansively about the capacities of all of our students. Students can and should be reading more challenging texts, presenting opinions and arguments with evidence, challenging ideas, and promoting divergent perspectives. They should be engaged in high-level thinking and discourse, analysis, and synthesis. This shouldn’t be the aim of education only for elite scholars; all students deserve an education that gives them a chance to reach their full potential. Our curriculum is designed to provide all students, from all backgrounds, with the skills and knowledge they need to be literate and confident students. Our curriculum is comprehensive, and includes content-based and phonics for grades K-2. (Woodfin, L. & Plaut, S. N., page 9) 

At the bottom of this page, locate the excerpt of pages 11-14 of Your Curriculum Companion: The Essential Guide to Teaching the EL Education K-5 Language Arts Curriculum, a text from EL Education written to provide you with an orientation to the curriculum, to be a guide to the instructional practices embedded in the curriculum, and to act as a coach. As you read, consider these questions:

1. How does EL’s Dimensions of Student Achievement resonate with your experience in education?
2. How does content-based literacy drive student learning of both content and skills?

Review: Research and Strategies to Close the Literacy Achievement Gap

The EL Education K-5 Language Arts Curriculum is grounded in research to provide a strong foundation for students. Lower on this page, locate the excerpt of pages 20-23 of Your Curriculum Companion. Please review the table and consider:

1. How does EL Education’s curriculum address the five elements of literacy instruction most critical for addressing the literacy achievement gap; vocabulary, knowledge-building, syntax, fluency, and decoding?
2. How does EL Education’s curriculum combine a structured phonics program with content-based literacy?

Dig Deeper

• Your Curriculum Companion: The Essential Guide to Teaching the EL Education K-5 Language Arts Curriculum: This text from EL Education is designed to support you as you implement the curriculum in the way that best serves your students.  
• EL Education K-5 Language Arts Curriculum: Instructional Videos: This collection of videos from EL Education highlights components of the curriculum and strategies and protocols incorporated in the curriculum.
• Curriculum Tools: This section of the EL Education’s K-5 Language Arts Curriculum website provides links to curriculum overview documents, supporting materials, and more.

Synthesize:

For Teachers: 

1. After reviewing the 4 Ts, the principles underlying the curriculum, the dimensions of student achievement, and the research behind the curriculum, what do you think makes the EL Education curriculum fundamentally different?

For School Leaders:

1. How will you communicate to teachers, parents, and students about what makes the EL Education curriculum fundamentally different?  What resources will you share?
2. How will you begin create the conditions of success for implementing the curriculum at your school?