This upcoming school year, our school will be looking at adopting a new high school ELA curriculum.  I have a very limited background when it comes to school districts and their adoption or development of curriculums.  I have seen many documents online as I have done my own research for my own, which was based solely on the incorporation of the state standards, researched-based strategies, and strong texts.

I have been through several textbook series and curriculum support presentations in my career, and this summer would be no different.  Before the presentations began, I sat down and made a list of all the features I would want the ideal ELA curriculum to have:

• Standard-based lessons and activities
• Reading, Speaking, Listening activities
• Close Reading
• A strong writing program
  • Synthesizing information presented into a product
  • “Beyond-the-text” assignments
  • MLA/APA/Citations/Plagiarism support
  • How to do research – online and in libraries
• Rubrics
• The text selection would be both rigor-appropriate, but also high interest
• Technology & multimedia must be incorporated
• Digital copies of the texts for the students and teachers
• Differentiated options
• Support for ELL/ESL students
• A user-friendly interface
• Support for teachers (professional development, customer service support)
• Options for teachers to customize the content/assessments/assignments

Educator Question of the Day: What other features do you look for in a new curriculum?