This resource is organized by strand to bring attention to the potential barriers or “roadblocks” that students may face in the strands of reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language within the North Carolina English Language Arts Standard Course of Study (NCSCOS). Educators may use this resource to determine possible scaffolding strategies that can be used to help students succeed with grade-level texts and aligned ELA instruction.
This resource provides question stems that are aligned to the NCSCOS ELA Reading Standards.The question stems are intended for instructional use during standards-based, text-centered lessons. Teachers should adapt and/or add additional questions to support student access to complex texts.
This resource provides sentence frames for the NCSCOS ELA Speaking and Listening Standards. These frames can be used as a tool to start academic conversations and are not meant for summative assessment purposes. The sentence frames are intended for instructional use by teachers when modeling speaking and listening strategies. The sentence frames can be sequenced in various ways depending on the purpose of instruction. Teachers should adapt and/or add sentence frames to make this resource their own.
As a way to support teachers with English Language Arts (ELA) instruction during the pandemic, the NCDPI ELA team created choice boards featuring standards-aligned ELA activities. The intended purpose of these choice boards is to provide a way for students to continue standards-based learning while schools are closed. Each activity can be adapted and modified to be completed with or without the use of digital tools. Many activities can also be repeated with different texts. These standards-based activities are meant to be a low-stress approach to reinforcing and enriching the skills learned during the 2019-2020 school year.
The ELA Scoop is the NCDPI ELA Team’s quarterly newsletter. Each Scoop focuses on a theme related to the Literacy Instruction Standards and/or ELA standards, curriculum, and/or instruction. The Scoop is available to all stakeholders at no cost and is distributed via the listserv and social media. The issues for the 21-22 school year and beyond are available. Previous Scoops are archived, but available upon request.
*Please note that the ELA Scoop is currently paused for the 23-24 and 24-25 SYs due to ELA Standards Review and Revision. ELA Scoops will resume with installation in the 25-26 SY.
Writing Guidebook by Recommendation with Directory and References
This guidebook highlights four recommendations, each supported by research-based strategies. This resource provides educators with specific recommendations for increasing the frequency and efficacy of student writing as well as supporting students with producing original, substantive, and comprehensive compositions.
NCDPI has collaborated with the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust to work with teachers across the state to develop the ELA Holocaust Curriculum Resource documents provided below. Each of the resources below represent text sets designed to support ELA teachers in middle and high school. Grades 6-12 include two comprehensive text sets which teachers may choose to use. Each text set has lesson plans with links to handouts, resources, documentaries, and culminating activities. Teachers are encouraged to use and adapt these resources as needed in the planning and delivery of instruction. Teachers are also encouraged to share these resources.
This vignette models a possible process for differentiating instruction of the ELA NCSCOS for honors-level study during high school, utilizing existing resources to support the process. All resources and materials created by the ELA team referenced within the vignette, while useful for guiding honors-level differentiation, are also intended for use to support general instructional planning.
Click the tabs below to access implementation resources for the Literacy Instruction Standards.
This tool is designed to support school leaders (e.g. instructional coaches, principals, assistant principals, etc.) conduct productive learning walks and coaching cycles to observe alignment to the LIS. All components of the toolkit are meant to be used in concert with one another, but the indicators can be used independent from the guides for PLCs, self-reflection, and/or goal setting.
This document serves as a guide for developing and/or reviewing lesson plans, units of instruction, and/or locally-developed or purchased curriculum for alignment to the LIS and NCSCOS. Because this rubric is not exhaustive, those using this rubric may want to add their own criteria to the ones provided in order to evaluate considerations beyond the LIS and NCSCOS. For materials meeting the criteria of this rubric, educators can make use of more detailed tools available developed by the Office of Early Learning and/or Office of Exceptional Children.
Writing Guidebook by Recommendation with Directory and References
This guidebook highlights four recommendations, each supported by research-based strategies. This resource provides educators with specific recommendations for increasing the frequency and efficacy of student writing as well as supporting students with producing original, substantive, and comprehensive compositions.
As part of SBE387 legislation and the implementation of the the LIS, the team provided (i) a model literacy implementation plan that illustrates the standards developed and (ii) an example of a non-model literacy implementation plan that would not implement the standards fully, providing explanatory guidance on why. PSUs may want to reference these as a resource for their ongoing implementation of the LIS.
