ELA classrooms must evolve with the times. Just twenty years ago, we taught from heavy
basal readers, and national testing didn’t exist. Today, there are new internal and external accountability systems created for ELA classrooms every year; districts and states look to reading and writing growth, as a benchmark of instructional success, more so than ever before. Indeed, teaching middle school ELA isn’t about haikus and school uniform essays anymore.
However, the aging ELA curriculum used by many ELA classrooms today does not support the modern ELA teacher and student. A big reason for this are the authors of such curriculum: consultants. Although well-read and well-intentioned, ELA classrooms have long-accepted this idea that curriculum is written by experts far-removed from the classroom. As the stakes grow in ELA classrooms, it’s time to pivot to the real experts of ELA instruction: teachers. In NWC, some of America’s best ELA middle school teachers have come together to create the most practical, standards-based, seamless modules that vertically articulate standards from grades six to eight. They know what works, they know what doesn’t work, and most of all, they know today’s students better than anyone.