CommonLit 360 Secondary Classrooms Announcing New CommonLit 360 Units for Grades 9 and 10

CommonLit 360 is a comprehensive, full-year ELA curriculum for grades 6-12 designed to support student growth in reading, writing, and speaking and listening skills. Our curriculum provides teachers with researched-based instructional materials designed by literacy experts, many of whom are former teachers. We believe that students learn best when they are engaged in meaningful, relevant, and challenging work. Every 360 unit equips educators with all the materials needed to provide this learning experience.

Explore the latest addition to CommonLit 360: new and updated Edition 2.0 Unit 2s for 9th and 10th grades!

Joining the Edition 2.0 Unit 1s published earlier this school year, 9th and 10th grade Unit 2s are now available in your free CommonLit account! These units explore two classic novels, Animal Farm and Fahrenheit 451, and challenge students to think critically about how the themes of these texts translate to the world around them.

As with all CommonLit 360 units, these new units give teachers everything they need for engaging and effective standards-aligned instruction. In addition to integrated reading and writing lessons centered around an essential question and leading to a topical Culminating Task, all units also feature a variety of lessons and activities that help students master academic vocabulary terms and improve discussion skills.

Additionally, schools and districts can unlock two Unit Skills Assessments for each of these units with a School Essentials PRO Plus partnership. These assessments provide teachers with formative insights into how well their students understand and apply unit skills.

9th Grade Unit 2, Edition 2.0 is now available

In 9th grade Unit 2 of CommonLit 360 Edition 2.0, students will read George Orwell’s allegorical novel Animal Farm over 6-9 weeks and explore connections between historical and literary events that serve as warnings for readers. This novel was previously taught in Unit 3 of CommonLit 360 Edition 1.0, but has been shifted earlier in the year with an updated culminating task, a new narrative writing arc, new paired texts, and a new essential question: What makes a person vulnerable to manipulation? What conditions enable corruption?

Students will love engaging with this classic, fast-paced novel with a hidden deeper meaning. It will prompt them to think critically about the characteristics that make someone vulnerable to manipulation and the conditions that enable corruption in government systems. The Culminating Task for this unit allows students to express their understanding of the novel’s themes by writing an essay explaining how Orwell crafts an effective warning in Animal Farm.

Additionally, this unit contributes to the new year-long exploration of the theme Civic Responsibility. As 9th graders explore this theme in each 360 unit, we encourage students to think about themselves as having both rights and duties in our society. Students will consider questions like: What is my role in society? What is the best way to structure a government? Who is responsible for the way society functions and develops? The texts in these units provide complex viewpoints on how our government and society function and whom they serve.

10th Grade Unit 2, Edition 2.0 is now available

In 10th grade Unit 2 of CommonLit 360 Edition 2.0, students will read Ray Bradbury’s classic science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451. Over 6-9 weeks, students will consider how Bradbury delivers social commentary on important topics such as human overdependence on technology and the dangers of knowledge suppression. They’ll work to answer the unit’s essential question: What does science fiction teach us about ourselves and our world?

Students will love exploring relevant themes related to advancing technology and censorship, critically thinking about how fictional worlds with advanced AI or alliances could mirror our own, and diving into their own selected texts chosen from a diverse set of science fiction stories. The Culminating Task for this unit challenges students to develop a presentation that explains how the author of their choice text uses the genre of science fiction to deliver social commentary. As students create their presentations, they will learn to strategically incorporate text and media into visual presentations and to adapt their speaker notes based on a peer review.

Additionally, this unit contributes to the new year-long exploration of the theme Finding Your Voice. As 10th graders explore this theme in each 360 unit, they’ll encounter texts featuring people facing an inflection point and deciding who they want to be. This includes examples of characters who become stronger and braver through their failures. The units in 10th grade feature texts across a wide variety of genres, preparing students for whatever they may encounter on state tests.

Guiding principles of instruction

When the literacy experts at CommonLit create 360 units, they have a number of guiding principles. These include:

• Students can and should engage with rigorous grade-level content with appropriate support in place.
• Teachers drive student outcomes and create meaningful and engaging learning experiences. 
• Deep engagement fosters deep learning and occurs when students have content that matters to them.
• Learning is a social process with students acquiring knowledge and skills through social interactions, collaboration, and observation.

Each CommonLit 360 unit centers these principles and features integrated reading and writing lessons that are appropriately rigorous to provide teachers with a core curriculum that is structured (not scripted).

Bring CommonLit 360 to your school or district

Gain access to school- and district-wide data reports, benchmark assessments, personalized professional development, and more with School Essentials PRO Plus.