Introduction
VLSD teachers and administrators have spent much of the 24-25 school year working hard to select a new English-Language Arts curriculum for board adoption this Spring and implementation in the Fall of 2025. What follows is a brief overview of the process and curriculum, with an invitation below to provide feedback on the curricula we are considering.
Current Curriculum
The VLSD ELA Course of Study on the web page below reflects the curriculum currently in use at VLSD. Briefly, our curriculum presently includes
Why Adopt a New Curriculum?
Curriculum mapping and alignment work over the past two school years led teachers and administrators to seek a new, aligned K-12 writing curriculum as part of our curriculum adoption. Also, the exclusion of Wonders 2016 from the Ohio Department of Education & Workforce approved High Quality Instructional Materials in ELA means we need to adopt a new K-5 ELA reading curriculum this school year.
The Process
District ELA teachers and administrators met in September to reach consensus on the criteria we would use to evaluate curricula. The Writing Revolution framework (more information below) had been proposed the previous year and many teachers had been eagerly exploring it and piloting its use in the classroom since that time. We proceeded to evaluate all materials on the Ohio HQIM list, with an emphasis on selecting K-5 curriculum that explicitly builds content knowledge in students. (See here for an example of one research review that summarizes what we know about the role of content knowledge in learning to read.)
The Curricula
Teachers and administrators selected the following four K-5 reading curricula and evaluated them more closely:
In addition, teachers and administrators developed our knowledge of The Writing Revolution and worked collaboratively to understand how it fits with our prospective reading curriculum.
Collectively, we believe that The Writing Revolution meets our criteria for a writing curriculum moving forward. To more fully understand its six key principles, see here. For an in-depth look at a scope and sequence for instruction, developed here in Vermilion, see here. (May include copyrighted material that cannot be distributed)
The Finalists
Teachers and administrators selected Core Knowledge Language Arts and Wit & Wisdom for consideration as our K-5 core reading curriculum. In December and January, teachers are visiting local districts using each of these two curricula to observe lessons and talk to teachers about their experience using the materials. You can find a Curriculum overview for Families for Wit & Wisdom here and a Caregiver Hub for CKLA here.
Invitation for community feedback and input
The Vermilion Local School District is actively seeking community input as we make our final decision on the K-5 reading curriculum and integrate The Writing Revolution into our ELA curriculum maps. Please use the feedback form below to give us your thoughts and questions. As we receive questions from community members, we may share the questions and our answers (without your name attached) on this page for everyone to see.
We thank you in advance for your participation!
Feedback form