ELA

Haven Statement about ELA Curriculum and Evolution

Writing a curriculum is hard and takes a level of experience, expertise and time.  In Haven’s past, we have tried this and were met with many challenges.  We have reviewed best practices and curriculum options.  We used Ed Reports as the "vetter" of options that would meet our quality standards and Wit and Wisdom and EL units stood out.  

They are better than the norm, but they are far from perfect.  Most units and curriculum have been developed in the context of white supremacy culture and won't meet all of our desires.  This is the reason we have explored Dr Gholdy Muhammad’s Culturally Responsive framework and the HILL Model.

Curriculum Focus

At Haven Academy, our vision for curriculum is that students should have a consistently rigorous and relevant experience in all of their classes. Specifically, we believe that students should experience ELA units that are vertically and horizontally aligned, content-rich, and aligned to the school’s mission and vision. 

We do that by ensuring: 

• 100% of units contains anchor text(s) that are sufficiently rigorous 

• 100% of unit builds critical background knowledge cumulatively 

• 75% of units have a culturally relevant anchor text

• 50% of units have an anchor text connected to Haven Academy's mission and values

• 75% of units focus on a specific people, place & time

• 1-2 units in grades 3-8 will be interdisciplinary (TBD if we can accomplish this THIS year)

Each school year, Haven Academy reviews each unit of our curriculum in order to ensure we are continuing to provide texts and materials to our students that achieve our literacy curriculum vision.