CommonLit Archive CommonLit’s Guide for Administrators: SY 20-21

After schools began closing due to the spread of COVID-19, CommonLit’s mission of supporting educators with engaging digital learning resources became more urgent than ever before.

At CommonLit, we’ve worked tirelessly since March to develop curriculum, assessment tools, professional development resources, and integrated technology designed specifically to support digital learning.

In this blog post, I’ll share a handful of resources that are critical for administrators looking to deeply implement CommonLit in SY 20–21.

CommonLit’s Free Program

CommonLit’s Guide to Accessibility for Schools, Districts, and States

At CommonLit, we have designed our program to be completely accessible to students, teachers, administrators, and families.

In the accessibility guide posted below, you’ll learn about how CommonLit’s program is flexible, helps teachers differentiate for diverse learners, offers hundreds of lessons in Spanish, and supports distance learning.

Click here to review CommonLit’s full accessibility guide.

Flexible Technology that Supports Distance Learning

CommonLit’s digital literacy program is incredibly flexible and interactive. With CommonLit’s program, teachers can customize student directions, assessments, and feedback for students.

Click here to learn more about how CommonLit’s technology supports distance learning.

CommonLit’s Free Pre-Assessment

This fall, CommonLit will be offering a free pre-assessment for teachers and students in grades 3–12. This psychometrically valid and easy-to-use pre-assessment provides teachers with actionable baseline data on their students’ performance.

These assessments are available on CommonLit.org and can be assigned to students through our digital platform.

Click here to learn how teachers can leverage CommonLit’s Pre-Assessment.

CommonLit’s Distance Learning Units

In addition to CommonLit’s 2,000+ reading lessons for grades 3–12, CommonLit has also created over 30 Distance Learning Units that are designed specifically to support virtual learning.

These units include highly engaging texts organized around an essential question. Each unit also includes a unit assessment, graphic organizers for students, and exemplars for teachers.

Click here to learn more about the design of CommonLit’s Distance Learning Units.

Weekly Webinar Trainings

CommonLit is also committed to ensuring that teachers have the necessary support to get the most out of all that CommonLit has to offer.

Each week, CommonLit’s team leads free webinars that highlight best practices for using CommonLit’s digital program. CommonLit also offers free chat support to teachers on CommonLit.org and shares important updates and strategies on its blog.

Click here to sign up for an upcoming free webinar.

A teacher and two students sitting at a table. The teacher is pointing at a computer and smiling.

CommonLit for Schools and Districts

CommonLit also offers two packages — the Distance Learning Support Package and Formative Insights — for schools and districts interested in rolling out its full instructional program.

A chart outlining the elements of CommonLit's District Solutions packages.

Below, we’ve outlined the products and services that are included in these two packages:

Rostering and SSO Via Clever or Google Classroom

Rostering saves teachers and administrators precious time. We work with teams to implement the student rostering solution that works best for their teachers and students.

With Clever and Google Classroom, roster management is made easy. Students can quickly log in to CommonLit via Single Sign-On and teachers can focus on instruction (instead of resetting student passwords).

Dedicated Consultative Support

Your team will have access to a dedicated account manager from CommonLit’s District Success team, who will help you navigate the uncertainty that lies ahead in SY 20–21.

CommonLit Professional Development Portal

This on-demand training library includes over 20 trainings that focus on best practices for using CommonLit’s digital program. These self-paced training modules include helpful tips for navigating CommonLit.org, real-life classroom examples, and application tasks. Each training is designed to be flexible and easy to use, and can be facilitated by an instructional leader or completed independently by teachers.

Formative Data Tracking for Administrators

With CommonLit’s Formative Insights program, administrators are able to closely monitor student usage and achievement on CommonLit.

CommonLit's Formative Insights data dashboard.
CommonLit’s Formative Insights data dashboard helps administrators monitor what lessons teachers are assigning and how students are performing on them.

Each reading passage in the CommonLit library includes approximately 5–8 standards-aligned text-dependent questions. With access to CommonLit’s formative data tracking tools, teachers and administrators can closely monitor trends, set goals for students, and adjust instruction to better meet the needs of all learners.

Live Virtual Kick-Off Training

With CommonLit’s personalized live and recorded trainings, our team will work closely with yours to ensure that all teachers know how to effectively choose lessons from CommonLit’s digital library, navigate and leverage CommonLit’s lesson planning tools, create digital lessons, and use CommonLit’s digital data displays to effectively choose future lessons.

Next Steps

CommonLit is eager to support your team!

If you would like to learn more about CommonLit’s Distance Learning Support Package, Formative Insights, or have questions about how to best roll out CommonLit in your school or district this school year, email partnerships@commonlit.org.