GRADES K-8

We develop materials to support your classroom practice in ways that deepen your understanding of EL Education's approach and strategies. For answers to common questions about curriculum implementation, please visit our Curriculum Q&A Blog, which is updated monthly. Our most recent post on how the Science of Reading informs our curriculum can be found here.

To view videos of the K-5 Language Arts Curriculum in action, visit the video collection.

Scope and Sequence


DOCUMENT	DESCRIPTION
K-8 Module Topics	A one-page, high-level view of the module topics for the EL Education Language Arts Curriculum (Second Edition). View
K-8 Curriculum Plans	The Curriculum Plan provides a high-level overview of the recommended sequencing and pacing of topics, targets, and required trade texts for each grade and outlines key aspects of vertical alignment across grades. View
K-8 Curriculum Maps	The Curriculum Map is the best resource to understand the year's work in the module lessons for each grade level. It gives a detailed view of the scope and sequence of the modules, showing module titles, topics, tasks (each module's unit assessments and performance task), and targets (the standards explicitly taught and formally assessed in each module). View

Trade Book Procurement Lists and Guidance Resources

Our curriculum includes authentic grade-level trade books. For details about procurement, view the lists below. For more information about How to Order, review our preferred distributors.


DOCUMENT	DESCRIPTION
K-8 Required Trade Book and Resource Procurement List	This critical document lists the specific trade books and other required resources that schools and districts must purchase to implement the EL Education Language Arts Curriculum, including quantities required (e.g., one per classroom, six per classroom, or one per student). View
K-8 Recommended Texts and Other Resources List	The Recommended Texts & Other Resources list contains books and other resources that have been selected by our experts to support independent research reading for each module. View
K-2 Labs Materials Lists	This list includes the materials needed to effectively implement the K-2 Labs. Note that many of the items on this list (e.g., cardboard, feathers) may already be available in a school building, and also are easy to purchase at local crafts or hobby stores. View
3-5 Life Science Materials Lists	This list includes the science materials needed to effectively implement the Grades 3-5 Life Science Module. Note that some of these items (e.g., eyedroppers, children's socks) may already be available in a school building or in students' homes; others (e.g., water lily plants, mix of pond snail specimens) may need to be special ordered. View
6-8 Topic and Text Selection	This document outlines the process for selecting topics and texts for the second edition of our Grades 6–8 Language Arts Curriculum. View
6-8 Anchor Text Guidance	This resource provides an overview of the anchor text for each of the modules. It offers insight into the rationale for selecting each text, examples of sensitive topics in the text and examples of how the curriculum materials provide guidance for teachers to address these issues. It describes how the tasks are designed to address the sensitive and/or controversial issues raised by the text. Guidance is given in how to best include families in conversations about the texts. View
K-8 Text Analyses	The Text Analyses includes an analysis of every central text used in the EL Education Language Arts Curriculum, focusing on four specific qualitative aspects of complexity: meaning, structure, language features, and knowledge demands. View
K-8 Recommended Texts Selection Criteria	The Recommended Texts Selection Criteria explains the purpose and importance of the recommended texts in the curriculum and shares the criteria we use to select texts so schools and districts may evaluate their existing collections or reading platforms to use instead of purchasing the texts we recommend. View
The Importance of a Volume of Reading	This document cites the research base for a volume of reading and explains how the EL Education Language Arts Curriculum supports this. View
Why Use Books to Teach Literacy?	This document is a position statement explaining why we see books as an indispensable tool for teaching literacy. View
Grade 7 Module 2 COVID-19 Updates: Discussion and Research	This guidance document is intended to help frame Grade 7 Module 2:Epidemics and to give resources for discussing and researching COVID-19 over the course of the module. View

Implementation Guidance and Support


DOCUMENT	DESCRIPTION
Language Arts Curriculum Q & A Blog	Come back the first Tuesday of each month for the latest from the Curriculum Q & A Blog. View
K-5 Language Arts Guidance Document	This Introduction to EL Education Language Arts Curriculum explains the structure of our program and lays out the principles behind our design. It includes our approach to addressing the Common Core ELA and literacy standards, and specifics about the key features of our comprehensive literacy curriculum as well as a description of the 3-5 Life Science Modules. View
Fostering Character in a Collaborative Classroom	Our Language Arts Curriculum (Second Edition) addresses three dimensions of student achievement: character, mastery of knowledge and skills, and high-quality student work. This document focuses on the character dimension. Part 1 explains our definition of character and how the curriculum promotes habits of character. Part 2 provides practical guidance about how teachers can set up a classroom environment, structures, and culture that will help this curriculum succeed. View
Supporting English Language Learners	The Supporting English Language Learners guidance document, K-5 and 6-8, provides a high-level overview of our system for supports for English language learners, including cultural and linguistic supports. Includes details on our use of the California English Language Development standards (ELD), and details about "language dives" and "conversation cues." View
Digital Planning Templates	The Digital Planning Templates, or task cards, are by design, extensive to help the user internalize the purpose and flow of the curriculum over weeks and months to understand the backwards design, to feel fully prepared to teach the texts, and to see how the Labs and ALL Block deepen student learning and provide additional time to practice important skills. View
6-8 Independent Reading Plans	The Independent Reading Plans document is a resource for launching and sustaining a strong independent reading program that emphasizes accountability in Grades 3-8. It includes lesson sequences that vary in length. View
EL Education Classroom Protocols	A compendium of protocols (structured conversations) used in the EL Education Language Arts Curriculum. Serves as a critical ongoing reference document alongside the K-8 curriculum. View
6-8 Welcome to Language Arts (for Families)	The welcome letter introduces families to the texts and skills that students will encounter and gives families the chance to familiarize themselves with the texts and understand more about the curriculum's approach to content-based literacy. View
3-8 Second Edition Enhancements	This resource outlines enhancements to the Grades 3-8 Language Arts Curriculum (Second Edition) including changes to the overall structure and specific enhancements to instruction, assessments, and materials toward literacy standards alignment. View
Conversation Cues in the Curriculum	This document describes Conversation Cues--questions teachers can ask students to promote productive and equitable conversation, based on four goals: encourage all students to talk and be understood; to listen carefully and seek to understand one another; to deepen thinking; and to think with others to expand the conversation. It includes examples for each goal and describes the research base behind Conversation Cues. View
Language Dives in the Curriculum	This document describes what a Language Dive is, criteria for a good Language Dive sentence, when students do Language Dives, what the benefits of Language Dives are, and the principles and research base that underlie Language Dives. View
K-5 Sample Schedules	The sample schedules outline advantages and considerations to give leaders ideas about how to incorporate the K-5 Language Arts Curriculum (2 hours daily for Grades 3-5) into a school schedule. This document shows options for school days with 7, 6.5, and 6 hours of daily instruction. View
K-5 Language Language Arts Curriculum Screencasts	We have designed several screencasts for our K-5 Language Arts Curriculum to serve as an introductory overview for our K-2 and 3-5 content-based curriculum as well as our phonics program, the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block. In addition to the overviews to get started using the curriculum, you can also view screencasts for each module. View
6-8 Affix Lists	The affix list contains frequently used Greek and Latin prefixes, suffixes and roots used in the EL Education Language Arts Curriculum. View
K-8 Writing Rubrics and Checklists	Grade level rubrics for each of the three types of writing laid out in the CCS Standards: opinion/argument (W.1), informative/explanatory (W.2), and narrative (W.3) View

Assessment and Guidance


DOCUMENT	DESCRIPTION
K-8 Writing Rubrics and Checklists	Grade level rubrics for each of the three types of writing laid out in the CCS Standards: opinion/argument (W.1), informative/explanatory (W.2), and narrative (W.3) EL Education created these 6-8 rubrics based on an analysis of the grade-level demands of the CCS Standards, rubrics used by PARCC and Smarter Balanced, and EL Education's own professional expertise (including attention to the Writing for Understanding framework). The bolded language in the Proficient column is taken directly from the CCS Standards. View
3-8 Second Edition Enhancements	This resource outlines enhancements to the Grades 3-8 Language Arts Curriculum (Second Edition) including changes to the overall structure and specific enhancements to instruction, assessments, and materials toward literacy standards alignment. View

K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block

To learn more about the Skills Block, including suggested implementation guidance, please view the overview.


DOCUMENT	DESCRIPTION
Implementing the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block	This guidance document helps teachers understand the why, as well as the concrete what and how, of the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block: the overall structure, what students do during Whole Group instruction and during differentiated Small Group instruction and Independent work,connection to the grade level reading and language standards, assessments, how the K-2 Skills Block supports and complements the work from the K-2 Language Arts Curriculum (module lessons and Labs), what a day in the Skills Block looks like, and Frequently Asked Questions. View
Resource Manual	A single comprehensive resource that includes many of the documents needed to understand the design and to effectively implement the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block, including an assessment overview, assessment conversion chart, Benchmark Assessments (teacher and student materials), Activity Bank, information on independent and small group work, syllabification guidance, handwriting guidance, and a glossary. View
Differentiation Packs	The K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block Differentiation Packs can be used as a resource for planning differentiated small group instruction for students whose microphase aligns with work from a different grade level. This resource includes a comprehensive word list, key cycle information and texts for each grade level cycle, suggested instructional practices, decodable readers, and handwriting sheets in each module. View
Learning Letters	Learning Letters is a collection of all of the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block curricular materials related to learning about letter names, sounds, and formation. The contents include the research behind EL Education's approach to teaching letters, Letter Stories (engaging read-alouds, one for each letter of the alphabet and consonant digraph ("ch", "sh", and"th"), upper- and lowercase Keyword Cards (a colorful picture of the animal or object associated with each letter, and Handwriting Sheets (letter formation and handwriting practice sheets). View
Scope and Sequence: Standards Coverage	An outline of all of the Reading Foundations Standards and Language Standards (related to spelling) are taught and assessed in the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block. This document identifies which standards are covered in each module. View
K-2 Standards and Targets: Reading Foundations Standards and Language Standard 2	This document provides a high-level overview of the Common Core State Standards, substandards, and associated EL-created learning targets explicitly taught and formally assessed in each of the four modules for a given grade level of the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block. View
Why a Structured Phonics Program is Effective	A clear and thorough explanation of the research behind a structured phonics approach to reading instruction, how this approach works, and why it is effective. Written by David Liben (Student Achievement Partners) for teachers, coaches, and administrators who are trying to understand structured phonics, and specifically how it differs from a typical Guided Reading program. View

K-2 Labs


DOCUMENT	DESCRIPTION
Implementing the K-2 Labs	This guidance document helps teachers understand the why, as well as the concrete what and how, of the K-2 Labs: what the five labs are, how each lab supports student learning, how the Labs hour is structured, how Labs reinforce and extend work from the module lessons, what work students do during Labs, how unfold over the course of an entire module in order to build students' independence, what a day in Labs looks like, and Frequently Asked Questions. View
K-2 Labs Materials Lists	This list includes the materials needed to effectively implement the K-2 Labs. Note that many of the items on this list (e.g., cardboard, feathers) may already be available in a school building, and also are easy to purchase at local crafts or hobby stores. View

Additional Language and Literacy (ALL) Block


DOCUMENT	DESCRIPTION
Implementing the Grades 3-5 Additional Language and Literacy (ALL) Block	This guidance document helps teachers understand the why, as well as the concrete what and how, of the ALL Block: the five components, how each component reinforces the work from the module lessons, how rotations work, what a day in the ALL Block looks like, and Frequently Asked Questions. View

EL Education Curriculum