CommonLit 360
Best Practices
CommonLit’s Professional Development Saves Teachers’ Time and Helps Them Effectively Implement 360
Looking to effectively implement CommonLit 360? CommonLit’s Professional Development modules set both teachers and students up for success.
CommonLit 360 is our research-backed ELA curriculum for grades 6-12. At CommonLit, we know that implementing a new curriculum can come with challenges. Luckily, we are committed to making sure teachers have the tools they need to roll out CommonLit 360 in their classrooms.
Schools and districts that partner with CommonLit by purchasing our affordable School Essentials PRO Plus package unlock a variety of professional development tools for teachers.
Schools with access to our affordable professional development see great success. In fact, a study of CommonLit 360 across 11 middle schools in New York City observed a relationship between teachers’ professional development session attendance and student growth.
Students whose teachers participated in professional development tended to show greater growth compared to students whose teachers did not attend professional development sessions. In one school, teachers attended four professional development sessions. The students in this school grew 3x the average growth for middle schoolers.
Types of Professional Development CommonLit Offers
CommonLit’s Professional Development Portal
Our Professional Development Portal provides teachers with 70+ bite sized trainings that can be completed in less than 45 minutes. These informational trainings are designed to be flexibly implemented and used by teachers. After engaging with these trainings, teachers will feel confident rolling out CommonLit 360 in their classrooms.
Unit Overviews Prepare Teachers to Roll Out 360
For each CommonLit 360 unit, there is a unit overview training. This saves teachers’ time because preparing for an upcoming unit can take hours and hours of prep work. Teachers must read materials, write pacing plans, develop reading and writing assessments, align lessons to unit objectives and standards, and more.
With CommonLit’s unit overviews, teachers can get a deep understanding of the unit’s Essential Question, key reading and writing outcomes, and create a pacing guide that works for their classroom.
Best Practices Modules Help Teachers to Plan Effective Instruction
Additionally, CommonLit’s Professional Development Portal includes trainings about best practices for 360. These modules help teachers understand how to teach CommonLit’s reading, writing, discussion, vocabulary, and grammar lessons. They also show teachers how to scaffold lessons to support diverse learners and how to plan data-driven instruction, both vital tools for teachers looking to help students’ gains skyrocket.
The modules include:
- Best Practices for Essential Reading Lessons
- Scaffolding Instruction to Support All Readers
- Data-Driven Instruction with Essential Reading Lessons
- Best Practices for Digital Writing Lessons
- Best Practices for 360 Vocabulary Sets
- Strategies for Facilitating 360 Discussion Lessons
- And more!
Ongoing Professional Development Sessions
Schools and districts that purchase School Essentials PRO Plus also gain access to ongoing, personalized Professional Development and consulting. Schools will be connected with a CommonLit Account Manager, who will support CommonLit 360 implementation. Our Account Managers are CommonLit 360 experts who will guide teachers by planning customized trainings based on the school’s individual needs. They’ll also support instructional leaders with consultative support over the course of the year.
Next Steps
Schools who purchase CommonLit’s affordable support packages will gain access to all the incredible Professional Development – but that’s not all.
School Essentials PRO Plus also includes a series of benchmark assessments to track student growth, formative assessments to measure progress towards unit goals, access to integrations including Canvas, Clever, and ClassLink, priority customer support, and more!
