The Literacy Curriculum: Buy it or build it? (or am I asking the wrong question?)
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After 5+ years of developing our literacy beliefs and embedding promising practices, we are currently examining reading resources to help support our work.
We know no one resource will meet all our kids’ needs, yet even the idea of writing an ELA curriculum feels exhausting considering the last three school years.
Where you are on this, and what insights do you have from your experiences?
Right now we are examining three resources: Wit and Wisdom, EL Education, and Core Knowledge. All are highly rated on EdReports.org.
A concern when acquiring a resource like this is it can become the curriculum, and teachers feel like they cannot diverge from the manual to teach readers first. Yet how do we achieve consistency?
The key to me is the professional development/learning/support that needs to accompany any resource we might acquire.
This is a question I've been asking myself all year. The classes in my school have a wide range of ability (my school is specifically for kiddos with emotional and behavioral disorders and it affects their academics in different ways). A traditional reading program just doesn't seem like the right fit for our kiddos, so I have been writing a curriculum that can be adapted to developmental levels. It has been A LOT of work choosing materials, developing staff to be able to deliver a curriculum that is so open-ended, and shifting the mindset to teaching based on where the kids are, right now, academically, rather than where they "should be" based on a program. Some days I think "holy cow this would be so much easier with a program" but then on days like today, when I see reading data coming in with reading levels going up like they haven't gone up before, I think "huh, this is good for these students."
We are also looking at EL Education and Wit and Wisdom but I agree with your concerns. I am the curriculum specialist now, but when I was in the classroom I used a variety of resources including F&P, Lucy Calkins UOS and Pam Allyn's guides, but we have found it is hard for many teachers to create their own curriculum so we had moved exclusively to UOS but that is even more open ended than some teachers like. I hate the idea of teachers being committed to a program and not their learners. If anyone has used EL or Wit & Wisdom I would love to hear your thoughts. I have read that some teachers feel EL is very structured and hard to personalize?
I moved to a brand new building this year and shift grade levels. When I switch grade levels I find myself anchoring to resources provided. We went with the Fountas and Pinnell resources and I love many aspects about the materials they have put together. The Interactive Read Aloud titles are diverse in setting, characters and topics. The IRA front loads the mini lesson - keeping a mini lesson, mini. I too have used Pam Allyn's things and enjoyed the ideas there - I need to look at them for third grade again or see if I have them down stairs. I'm already getting the itch to sway and create some of my own things.
Right now we are examining three resources: Wit and Wisdom, EL Education, and Core Knowledge. All are highly rated on EdReports.org.
A concern when acquiring a resource like this is it can become the curriculum, and teachers feel like they cannot diverge from the manual to teach readers first. Yet how do we achieve consistency?
The key to me is the professional development/learning/support that needs to accompany any resource we might acquire.
I am engaging in this work now as well. I am interested in what you are finding and what process you are using to review this curriculum.
This is a question I've been asking myself all year. The classes in my school have a wide range of ability (my school is specifically for kiddos with emotional and behavioral disorders and it affects their academics in different ways). A traditional reading program just doesn't seem like the right fit for our kiddos, so I have been writing a curriculum that can be adapted to developmental levels. It has been A LOT of work choosing materials, developing staff to be able to deliver a curriculum that is so open-ended, and shifting the mindset to teaching based on where the kids are, right now, academically, rather than where they "should be" based on a program. Some days I think "holy cow this would be so much easier with a program" but then on days like today, when I see reading data coming in with reading levels going up like they haven't gone up before, I think "huh, this is good for these students."
We are also looking at EL Education and Wit and Wisdom but I agree with your concerns. I am the curriculum specialist now, but when I was in the classroom I used a variety of resources including F&P, Lucy Calkins UOS and Pam Allyn's guides, but we have found it is hard for many teachers to create their own curriculum so we had moved exclusively to UOS but that is even more open ended than some teachers like. I hate the idea of teachers being committed to a program and not their learners. If anyone has used EL or Wit & Wisdom I would love to hear your thoughts. I have read that some teachers feel EL is very structured and hard to personalize?
I moved to a brand new building this year and shift grade levels. When I switch grade levels I find myself anchoring to resources provided. We went with the Fountas and Pinnell resources and I love many aspects about the materials they have put together. The Interactive Read Aloud titles are diverse in setting, characters and topics. The IRA front loads the mini lesson - keeping a mini lesson, mini. I too have used Pam Allyn's things and enjoyed the ideas there - I need to look at them for third grade again or see if I have them down stairs. I'm already getting the itch to sway and create some of my own things.