Implementing a comprehensive, standards-aligned curriculum is a complex undertaking, even in a typical, in-person classroom. There are new pedagogical approaches to consider, texts and topics to unpack, instructional shifts to practice, academic routines to introduce, and the list goes on. This year, as schools across the country were forced to adjust to virtual learning, professional learning and curriculum organizations like EL Education learned how to reimagine curriculum implementation designed for in-person learning.

Pre-pandemic, EL Education’s curriculum-aligned professional learning focused first on developing teachers’ knowledge of the curriculum, because data shows that layered and nuanced understanding of the curriculum leads to substantive instructional shifts, differentiated instruction, ever-increasing student engagement, and ultimately, improved student outcomes.  But within weeks of the shift to virtual instruction, teachers began seeking support in balancing the challenge of the curriculum with much-needed joy in their virtual classrooms.

In response to the need for virtual and hybrid iterations of the EL Education K-8 Language Arts curriculum for partners across the country, EL Education designed the Flex Curriculum, which provides adapted online lesson-by-lesson guidance, assessment recommendations, and additional resources in digital format. By honing in on the lesson elements essential for synchronous learning and those most effective for asynchronous time, the Flex resources have eased the transition to hybrid and virtual instruction.

Read the full article about pivoting to online education by Rebecca Stanko for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.