Beginning of the Year Looking at Curriculum

 Vacation is officially OVER..

The first week back what a journey. I thought I had everything together little did I know. New curriculum, a new LMS the journey of a lifetime. 

NEW CURRICULUM

HMH Into Literature

Looks good on paper but it has a lot of components. It has everything you would want in an ELA curriculum: Reading, Writing, Grammar, Video resources, Assessments, Workbook (digital and hard copy). No immersive reader but they do give the option of read to me and some translation options. They are based off Notice and Notes by Beers and Probst so all annotations guide them using that protocol, which is wonderful. Throughout the reading they are prompted using notice and notes question protocol guides. 

Notice and Note

Writing uses the text read in reading as mentor text. Video supports for strategies are throughout the program reading, writing, grammar. Assessments are included at the end of each text but also at the end of units. You can edit the assessments or create your own. Editable lesson plans are included in the curriculum. Overall, so far it looks good. 

Lightsail 

Library of books for students to read. You can assign or they can choose their own. When the students start the "program" they are forced to complete a power challenge assessment to determine Lexile level. Then books are "recommended" to them based on their levels but they have access to all levels. Based on their reading their lexile is "updated" regularly so change in Lexile will be determined. During reading cloze reading questions are automatically prompted for students to respond to during reading. Additionally, during reading multiple choice and short response questions are prompted. As a teacher you can create assignments, assessments, and set weekly time on reading goal. The program keeps track of pages and minutes read. 

Neither of these programs integrate into my schools LMS iLearn (Brightspace) but HMH Into Literature does integrate into Google Classroom. 

Overall the staff is very pleased with the new curriculum but lots of concerns over implementation.