English Language Arts curriculum that develops critical thinkers, passionate readers, and deeply empathetic students.
About Our Curriculum
With our one-of-a-kind curriculum, we enrich students’ literary experience by interweaving a variety of external resources with the themes explored in a particular piece of literature. Beyond simply engaging with the text, students explore its interconnectedness with music, art, poetry, films, non-fiction articles, and excerpts from other literary works. Through exposure to numerous pieces of works sharing common themes, students develop the ability to draw connections and engage in critical analysis. This holistic approach enables students to grasp the broader significance of the material, cultivate essential critical thinking skills, and effectively apply literary concepts to real-world contexts. Every resource and assignment is meticulously selected and curated to offer students engaging activities that foster skill development and eliminate busywork. Each activity is designed to equip students with the skills they need to thrive as they progress towards becoming valuable contributors to society.
Learn more about our curriculum methodology here.
Frequently Asked Questions:
How long will it take to complete a unit?
Each of our units comes with an 8-week pacing guide. We provide this as a suggested timeline which would allow you to do a deep dive into four books per school year. However, we strongly encourage you to adjust the units to meet the needs of you and your kids. Maybe you spread it out a few weeks or cut a couple of activities that don’t feel like the right fit for you.
What credits does this curriculum count towards?
We’ve built an English language art curriculum that counts for a reading and writing credit. Additionally, all of our units count towards a social science credit and some can count towards a history or science one as well.
What is different about this curriculum?
We believe that books should be an experience and so we use what is called a text set: a comprehensive collection of resources designed to develop a central theme within a designated text. This includes an array of supplemental resources, such as fiction and non-fiction excerpts, short stories, poetry, music, art, relevant news articles, TED Talks, and so much more. Our text sets are the key to building a strong foundation for learning, as they work by enhancing background knowledge, fostering critical thinking skills, and improving reading comprehension.
Why do you use QR codes?
Unfortunately due to copyright laws we are unable to include a lot of the supplemental resources in our units. In addition we will often use videos and songs. In order to still utilize these teaching tools we include QR codes to provide direct links for your student if they have access to digital devices and are allowed to use them for school. Using QR codes provides some technology time but it doesn’t make for an entire day of screentime. We also include the links in our parent guides so parents who do not want their student using the codes can print off all of the available resources ahead of time.
What if I don’t want my student accessing the internet?
Some families have chosen this route which is why we provide a digital parent guide for all of our units. In the digital guide you’ll have access to all of the QR code links we provide in the workbook. It will require you to do some prep work before the lesson - perhaps you’re printing out an article, or printing out some resources you want them to use for their research. In the case of videos or songs we suggest watching through them first and then deciding if you feel it is appropriate for your student.
Will your curriculum work if I have a wide range of kids?
Our curriculum is currently built for middle and high school age students. However, we have had families buy units to use with children in elementary school. Since this became so popular after we released our Exploring the American Food System unit with Joel Salatin’s book we’ve actually created a document to provide suggestions on how to adapt our units based on age and skill level. Shoot us an email if you would like a copy of that resource.
