CommonLit 360 CommonLit 360: An ELA Curriculum that Accelerates Learning for All Students

CommonLit’s comprehensive ELA curriculum for grades 6-12 comes with the professional learning, data tracking tools, and wraparound supports you need for seamless adoption.

At CommonLit, we want every child to graduate with the reading comprehension, writing, communication, and problem-solving skills they need to be successful. That’s why we created CommonLit 360, a comprehensive ELA curriculum for grades 6-12 with everything teachers need to ensure student success.

In this blog post, we’ll highlight the key benefits of the 360 curriculum and how CommonLit works with schools and districts to provide an affordable set of wraparound services to facilitate effective adoption of the program.

Design of 360

Our team has developed CommonLit 360 with some key principles in mind. We designed our curriculum to be rigorous and engaging for students, aligned to grade-level standards, easy to use, and accessible for all learners. In this section, we’ll dig deeper into these core values.

Our curriculum is rigorous and features engaging grade-level content.

CommonLit 360 units are designed around high-interest themes and rigorous grade-level content, so students build both knowledge and mastery of grade-level standards. Over the course of the year, students explore multi-genre units, novel studies, research units, and evidence-based argument units. They’ll answer compelling essential questions about the challenges of adolescence, the importance of school electives, the impact of social media, and more.

Reading, writing, vocabulary, and discussion are tightly integrated for a seamless experience, and high-quality texts form the backbone of each unit. Students will analyze works by well-known authors like Shirley Jackson, Toni Cade Bambara, Roald Dahl, and more. Check out the Scope and Sequence below to see all of CommonLit 360’s engaging units:

Our curriculum is user-friendly for both teachers and students.

CommonLit 360 is easy to use, so teachers can spend less time planning and more time focused on instruction. Each unit includes full lesson plans and materials to support student work, like student copies and supportive teacher copies with exemplar student answers. All of our lessons can also be printed as PDFs for a pen-to-paper option, and many materials come as editable Google Docs so teachers can adjust as they see fit. Each unit is designed to take 5-7 weeks, and we provide suggested pacing options so teachers can determine how to best meet their students’ needs.

Our curriculum is built to support all learners.

CommonLit 360 is a grade-level curriculum, with lessons and materials that include scaffolding for maximum inclusion and options for differentiation. Each unit has explicit vocabulary instruction, scaffolded writing lessons, supplemental texts, and accessibility tools like Read Aloud, Translation, and digital annotation. The digital platform also provides teachers with powerful data to track student progress and plan targeted instruction.

Research

CommonLit 360 is already accelerating learning in hundreds of schools and districts across the country. Partnering with CommonLit gives teachers and administrators the support they need to roll out the 360 curriculum effectively. The two studies below highlight the impact of CommonLit 360 on student learning.

Full implementation of CommonLit 360 in Blount County, Tennessee

Schools in Blount County, Tennessee, fully adopted CommonLit 360 as their ELA curriculum, and it led to enormous reading gains for students. When it came time for the end of year state assessment, results showed more students were reading on grade level and fewer students were reading below grade level. To top it off, teachers saw significant growth for historically underserved student populations, creating even more equitable outcomes to celebrate across the district.

CommonLit 360 Usage in New York City Middle Schools

During the 2020-2021 school year in New York City, middle schoolers who completed at least 11 digital reading lessons within CommonLit 360 demonstrated increased reading gains– beyond what can be expected after a typical year of instruction. The study also revealed that 360 utilization was predictive of improved reading scores. Additionally, students with disabilities and students classified as English Language Learners showed similar growth to their peers. Check out the full report here.

Hear from Educators Who Have Used CommonLit 360 with Their Students

How You Can Roll Out CommonLit 360

We recommend the CommonLit School Essentials PRO Plus package to schools and districts utilizing CommonLit 360 to ensure success in rolling out the curriculum.

School Essentials PRO Plus costs just $6,500 per school per year and includes access to:

• Custom virtual professional development and on-demand modules,
• Unit assessments and benchmark assessments,
• School and district-wide data tracking,
• Seamless onboarding and consultative support, and
• Rostering and LMS integrations, including Canvas, Clever, ClassLink, and Google Classroom.

Personalized Professional Learning

School Essentials PRO Plus includes tailored virtual professional development about CommonLit 360 over the course of the year led by our instructional experts.

Your team will kick off the school year with an introduction to CommonLit 360 that focuses on the key components of the 360 units and technology. Over the course of the year, teachers and administrators will participate in focused training sessions that support the effective implementation of the CommonLit 360 curriculum.

CommonLit’s Professional Development Portal

The Professional Development Portal is critical for any team that is looking to effectively use CommonLit 360. School Essentials PRO Plus unlocks access to this super useful resource.

CommonLit has created individual modules to prepare educators to teach each unit within CommonLit 360. These modules include key information about upcoming reading lessons, writing outcomes, high-leverage instructional moves, and more. At the end of each module, teachers create a pacing plan to meet their students’ needs.

360 Unit Skills Assessments

School Essentials PRO Plus also unlocks 360 Unit Skills Assessments, so teachers can meaningfully track student progress.

The 360 Unit Skills Assessments are aligned to each unit’s focus skills and topics. With two assessments per unit, each assessment includes about 10 multiple choice questions and an optional writing question, so teachers get the formative data they need to effectively plan targeted instruction and support students in reaching End of Unit outcomes.

CommonLit’s Assessment Series

With CommonLit’s Assessment Series, teachers in grades 3-12 gain access to three skills-based benchmark assessments - a Pre-, Mid-Year, and Post-Assessment.

Each specialized benchmark assessment includes three grade-level reading passages and 20+ multiple choice questions. Teachers and administrators get immediate access to easy-to-read, actionable data reports. They’ll also see growth data from Pre- to Mid-Year and Mid-Year to Post-Assessment to meaningfully track student progress over the course of the year.

School-Wide and District-Wide Data Reports

With School Essentials PRO Plus, administrators also unlock access to school- and district-wide data reports to make progress monitoring easy. They’ll see usage, performance, and growth data for all students, and it’s super easy to filter by lesson, standard, class, and more. These reports are invaluable for identifying trends across schools and districts and setting instructional priorities with your team.

Customized Onboarding Experience

Roster management is totally seamless with our Clever, ClassLink, and Google Classroom integrations. Our instructional specialists work with your team to choose the best rostering solution for your teachers and students. Students can quickly log in to CommonLit via Single Sign-On and teachers can focus on instruction (instead of resetting student passwords).

Additionally, CommonLit’s Canvas integration is a powerful time-saver that teachers love. The integration includes three key benefits:

• Teachers can seamlessly import their classes from Canvas to CommonLit.
• Students can complete assigned CommonLit lessons directly from their Canvas account.
• Teachers can send student grades from CommonLit assignments back to their Canvas grade book.

Consultative Support

Throughout the school year, you’ll be partnered with a CommonLit Account Manager who is an expert on the 360 curriculum. They’ll be on hand to help craft an instructional plan, answer technical questions, and provide consultative support throughout your partnership.

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. Save thousands with CommonLit.