The Downers Grove Grade School District 58 English-Language Arts (ELA) Committee shared exciting progress updates regarding new ELA resources and instruction during the Board of Education’s Feb. 13 regular business meeting.
The ELA Committee comprises about 40 teachers, administrators and staff representing all District 58 schools and positions. The committee leads the complex task of refining ELA learning to align with the Common Core Standards while still meeting the needs of all students. In the past 12 months, they made significant progress toward reaching these goals.
"The K-5 teacher team has selected two sets of publisher materials to begin piloting in March, with the 6-8 teachers soon to follow,” said Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Matt Rich. “The committee expects to make a recommendation of the selected set of curriculum resources to the Board by October 2017. Teachers will then receive professional development beginning in November 2017 and throughout the 2017-18 school year.”
In addition, the committee began developing the ELA blueprint, and they aim to fully implement it by the 2018-19 school year. The ELA blueprint, similar to the existing Math blueprint, will provide an ELA roadmap for teachers, organizing ELA skills and lesson plans with aligned resources and a flexible timeline.
This fall, the ELA Committee deeply analyzed ELA products from eight publishers. Through conversations, the committee recognized that elementary and middle school needs differ.
“Middle school teachers decided to focus on building the middle school blueprint first, while elementary teachers decided to evaluate resources first,” said O’Neill Assistant Principal Mel Sawisch, who serves on the ELA Committee. “This thought process was entirely teacher driven. We’re thoughtfully considering what’s best for students as we make these important decisions.”
The Middle School ELA Committee collaboratively focused on building core concepts for the ELA blueprint to ensure content is consistent across classrooms and between both middle schools. The blueprint is also designed to allow the core concepts to be differentiated to meet students at their current learning level.
“The ELA blueprint will guide instruction for middle school ELA teachers, providing them with anchor texts that will be used in all classrooms at both middle schools,” said Herrick Assistant Principal Amy Gray. “Beyond the anchor texts, the blueprint offers flexibility, giving teachers the freedom to be creative and select their own texts to teach.”
Gray added that the Middle School ELA Committee already built much of the draft ELA blueprint. For each ELA standard, the committee created clear learner objectives, strategies and skills, focus (or primary) standards, recursive (or review) standards, differentiation opportunities and possible anchor and flexible resources.
“We are amazed and impressed by the work and progress our teachers have made on the blueprint!” Gray added.
The Middle School ELA Committee will meet with ELA publishers later this month to consider new resources that align with the blueprint they have begun to develop.
This fall, the Elementary ELA Committee discussed their mission, best practices and the District’s philosophy of learning in English-Language Arts to guide their decision-making. They invited four ELA publishers to give in-person presentations and hands-on product previews. The committee selected two finalists – Benchmark Advance and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Journeys. Elementary ELA Committee members will receive pilot training and pilot both publishers’ materials in their classroom this spring and, if needed, during the 2017-18 school year.
“I have served on the ELA Committee for a very long time, and I am very excited about where we are at this point,” said Hillcrest Third Grade Teacher Dr. Sue Anderson, an ELA Committee member.
Benchmark Advance closely aligns its materials to the District’s learning standards, and its products include essential questions, a high degree of differentiation and a strong focus on writing. Their materials offer themed units that go across grade levels, creating a unique opportunity for multi-grade themed conversations in school and at home.
“For example, unit 1 is government, so all students in grades K-6 will study government at the same time,” Dr. Anderson said.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Journeys offers a strong guided reading and small group instruction component, with an intervention alignment for reading specialists and resource teachers. The publisher also provides standards-based assessments and strong phonics, guided reading and writing opportunities.
The Elementary ELA Committee will use early feedback from the pilot to inform their elementary ELA blueprint development next summer and throughout the 2017-18 school year. They hope to make a final decision on new publisher resources in October 2017.
Deanna Bloom, a Fairmount sixth grade teacher and an ELA Committee member, noted that sixth grade teachers are reviewing both elementary (K-6) and middle school (6-8) resources for implementation.
“Sixth grade is a unique island between elementary and middle schools,” Bloom said. “Dr. Rich gave us time to thoughtfully consider resources from K-6 bundles, as well as in 6-8 bundles. We found that some of the K-6 materials lack the rigor to meet students, and the grades 6-8 bundles offer more enticing resources. We plan to thoughtfully consider every option before making a decision.”
The entire ELA Committee plans to identify common assessments and professional development opportunities, with the goal of fully implementing all new ELA resources and the final ELA blueprint by the 2018-19 school year.
Media inquiries may be directed to Megan Hewitt, community relations coordinator, at 630-719-5805 or mhewitt@dg58.org.