Welcome back! This newsletter is the best way for teachers piloting CommonLit’s new curriculum to stay in the loop on how to get the most out of CommonLit’s tools and features.
Teachers, please fill out the end-of-unit survey!
Have you finished teaching your first CommonLit unit? If so, we really want to hear about what worked and what didn’t so that we can make changes! As soon as you fill out this survey we’ll send along a $5.00 Amazon gift card as a small token of our appreciation.
Updates
NEW UNITS: CommonLit has recently released three new units for middle school. These units include a mix of literary and informational texts and help students identify the thematic connections between them.
6th Grade: “Failure & Success” includes high-interest short stories featuring characters to had to try over and over again in order to succeed.
7th Grade: “Adolescence” includes very funny, poignant short stories about first loves and awkwardness.
8th Grade: “Courageous Choices” includes incredible stories of characters who took a personal risk to do the right thing.
RESEARCH UNITS COMING SOON: Starting in early November, CommonLit will begin releasing research units for grades 6–10!
Research skills are critical for success in college and career, but planning a research unit takes time. Our research units include primary and secondary source documents, charts and graphs, and video artifacts. The topics are engaging and cross-disciplinary:
Grade 6: Our Changing Oceans
Grade 7: The Effects of Social Media
Grade 8: Football, CTE, and How to Make Football Safer
Grade 9: Branding & Advertising — A Case Study of 3 Major American Brands
Grade 10: The American Textile Industry & The Lowell Mill (U.S. History connections!)
Each unit also includes direct instruction on how to write an effective research paper. Students will learn how to take effective notes, synthesize ideas across their research, draft a research paper, and revise and edit their writing.
Best Practices
- 1) Take the Unit Assessment: Be sure to assign the unit assessments, available through CommonLit.org. These unit assessments provide clear and valuable data on how your students mastered the skills taught in the unit. To learn all about these unit assessments and how to assign them, click here.
- 2) Master 4 Types of Questions: CommonLit’s curriculum includes four types of questions — “Think & Share,” “Turn & Talk,” “Find Evidence,” and “Write.” Each of these questions has a unique purpose. Check out this blog post to read tips for facilitating these different question types.
- 3) Make Vocabulary Instruction Highly Effective: Each unit in CommonLit’s curriculum includes at least 1 set of vocabulary activities. To learn how to use these activities and when to introduce them in class, check out this blog post.
CommonLit Support
GET IN TOUCH: At CommonLit, we’re committed to ensuring that you have a successful experience with our new full-year curriculum. If you have any questions about the curriculum, please email Pilots@CommonLit.org. Our team is on standby to help.
ACCESS LIVE CHAT SUPPORT: If you have specific questions about how to access our resources on CommonLit.org/Units, click on the chat button at the bottom of the page. You’ll be connected to our team right away for live support.
