EL Education
What is EL Education?
EL Education is the provider of the adopted ELA curriculum for OUSD grades 6-8. The curriculum is standards-based, and relies heavily on fiction and nonfiction trade books and connected text sets.
This curriculum is open access, and full materials are available to view and download at the EL Education website. OUSD's implementation and support materials are subject to EL Education's Terms of Use.
6-8 Language Arts Curriculum (Second Edition) New!
Each module in the grades 6-8 second edition curriculum consists of a 45-minute block of content-based literacy instruction. Built to the needs of middle school learners, our new block teaches and assesses all of the Language Arts standards for each grade level.
Designed with the Characteristics of Middle Schoolers in Mind: We recognize that early adolescent learners have a unique set of developmental needs, and we have designed our 6-8 curriculum with those needs in mind. Our work in this area is guided by an EL Education resource called "The Characteristics of Middle School Learners." This document is research-based, experience-tested wisdom on what it takes to meet the needs of young people at the beginning of a major transition in their lives.
Early Adolescents Need What They Learn to Have Emotional Resonance: To increase the chances that a student will find an emotionally resonant point of entry, the curriculum modules are centered around diverse and current topical issues and texts.
Academic Mindsets: Explicit integration of academic mindsets through reflection
Authentic Performance Tasks: More authentic performance tasks that support the creation of high-quality work and integrate twenty-first digital skills.
EL Education Curriculum Overview
The curriculum was built using the principle of backward design. The last unit of each module, Unit 3, culminates with a performance task. What students learn in Units 1 and 2 helps them prepare for this performance task.
What is the Designated ELD Program for EL Education in OUSD?
Designated ELD is a protected time for English Language Learner (ELL) students to interact in meaningful ways as they learn about how English Works (See CA ELA/ELD Framework). These lessons, created by OUSD teachers, are slide decks designed to be taught in a traditional classroom setting that emphasizes student talk. They build language knowledge in preparation for the Unit and Module written tasks and focus on skills required by the CA ELD Standards with an emphasis on the Part II Standards. See unit level for individual lessons per unit.