CommonLit 360 Schools & Districts Unlock High Quality Professional Development for CommonLit 360

CommonLit’s on-demand professional development gets teachers ready to teach every 360 Unit.

CommonLit 360 is a comprehensive and effective ELA curriculum for grades 6–12. The curriculum includes 6 engaging units per grade. Each unit comes complete with rigorous reading, writing, vocabulary, and discussion lessons.

For schools and districts that are interested in rolling out the full curriculum, we strongly recommend School Essentials PRO or School Essentials PRO Plus. These affordable packages includes a host of supports to ensure an effective rollout of the curriculum, including:

• on-demand and live teacher professional development workshops,
• access to CommonLit’s Assessment Series,
• school and district-wide data tracking, and
• full rostering support.

In this blog post, we’ll hone in on the benefits of CommonLit’s Professional Development Portal. The portal will save teachers and administrators time, while encouraging strong instructional practices as they implement the 360 Curriculum.

Professional Development Portal for CommonLit 360

Our Solution

Preparing for an upcoming unit often takes hours and hours of work. Teachers need to read a ton of different materials, write a pacing plan, develop reading assessments, figure out how the lessons align to the unit’s objectives, and much more.

At CommonLit, we’ve created the perfect solution to this problem. For each unit of the 360 Curriculum, we’ve developed a Professional Development module that can be completed in less than 45 minutes. By the end of the training, educators will understand:

• the unit’s Essential Question and topics of the key reading lessons,
• the key writing outcomes for the unit and how students will get there, and
• how to make strategic pacing decisions to meet the needs of their students.

Now, let’s take a look at how this works in practice. We’ll zoom in on a 10th grade unit called “Coming of Age.”

Introduction to the Unit’s Content

In the first part of the training, educators learn all about the unit’s content — the Essential Question, the topics of the Essential Reading Lessons, and other engaging activities that are designed to build students’ reading comprehension.

As educators watch the video, they’re prompted to reflect and consider how they’ll hook their students.

Analyzing Student Writing Outcomes

In the second part of the training, educators get to analyze an exemplar writing response for CommonLit’s end-of-unit prompt. While they do that, teachers learn more about the key skills that students will learn from the unit’s writing lessons.

As educators review the exemplar essay, CommonLit’s guided reading questions will help them internalize the importance of the writing lessons and think about their students’ specific learning needs. After students complete their assessments, teachers can use formative data to measure student success or develop reading intervention strategies for struggling readers.

Understanding the Order and Purpose of Each Lesson

Within a CommonLit 360 Unit, some lessons are optional, some are recommended, and some lessons are essential. Essential Lessons are really critical to the unit because they’re directly tied to the most important reading and writing outcomes.

During the third part of the training modules, teachers get a detailed overview of the unit’s Essential Lessons and why they are so critical.

Pacing the Unit

In the final part of the training, educators get the chance to put all of their learning into action. They’ll think through the unit’s different lessons and create a pacing plan that meets the needs of their students. CommonLit provides teachers with an editable calendar that they can use to document their decisions.

In addition to these on-demand trainings, CommonLit’s team will also provide up to two personalized live webinar trainings to your team throughout the school year. Taken together, this highly affordable and effective professional development program for teachers ensures success with CommonLit’s 360 Curriculum.

Next Steps

We’re eager to support your team and get you access to the tools you need to roll out CommonLit 360.

If you are ready to request a quote for School Essentials PRO Plus:

If you’d prefer to speak to a CommonLit 360 specialist, schedule a quick call, here.