FAQs

  • Novel ELA is a year-long, standards-aligned comprehensive curriculum.

    We offer curriculum for the core Engligh Language Arts course for grades 6-12, as well as AP pathways in 10th (AP Seminar), 11th (AP Language) and 12th (AP Literature).

  • Writing instruction and language and grammar skills are embedded directly within our units; all Novel ELA writing assignments are connected to a core text or ask students to write about knowledge built within the unit. Therefore, you will not need a separate writing block or writing curriculum.

  • Novel lessons are designed for a daily, 60-minute class period.

    Our course pathways allow you to customize your sequence based on your academic calendar and also accounts for some flex time for data response.

  • Purchasing a license to the Novel ELA curriculum includes:

    • Access to the full curriculum suite on the Novel ELA digital platform:

      • Daily instructional materials include the following editable resources: lesson plan, student handout, student handout for diverse learners, and slide deck.

      • Unit assessments include homework quizzes, daily formative assessments, cold passage quizzes and unit test, Socratic Seminars, and process-based performance task writing.

      • All units include include Knowledge Organizers, Text Selection Rationale, Parent Letter, and Independent Reading projects.

    • Access to the Novel Teacher Toolkit, which includes our comprehensive guidance on implementation and instructional routines and strategies.

    • Access to our Curriculum Implementation Guide and introductory Curriculum Adoption Modules.

    • Ongoing customer support

    Not included in curriculum license, but available from Novel:

    • Comprehensive teacher and leader professional development, delivered virtually or in person;

    • Access to the Novel Leader Toolkit, including our robust suite of leader protocols, resources, videos, and tools.

    • Novel Intensive Coaching for implementing instructional leaders;

    • a la carte coaching, site visits, and conferences.

    Not included in curriculum license, but available through our partners:

    • (Highly Recommended) Procurement of core novels for the curriculum (choose from Reading Warehouse and Lightswitch Learning)

    • (Optional) New for SY25-26: Novel will offer printed consumables, our Student Unit Readers, which are anthologized supplemental text sets for each Novel ELA unit.

    • (Optional) EnlightenAI offers AI-powered grading of all Novel ELA writing assignments — AI trained with our rubrics and exemplars.

  • Novel’s preferred book distributors are Reading Warehouse and Lightswitch Learning, which both keep inventory of our ISBNs in their US-based warehouses in order to ensure timely delivery. You can find helpful order forms on both websites, which are aligned to our course pathways and indicate whether 1:1 texts or a class set is advised for a particular unit

  • As a novel-based curriculum, Novel ELA relies on homework to support the reading of several long-form works over the course of the school year - while saving classtime for deep, analytical close reading, as well as writing, speaking, and listening about the text.

    We offer comprehensive guidance around how to design strong homework accountability systems for your implementation of Novel ELA. We use homework as a literal, “first read”; as such, we often recommend leveraging summaries, videos, and audiobooks as needed to support homework completion.

    You can expect the following of Novel homework:

    • Novel MS ELA = ~10-15 minutes of nightly homework reading;

    • Novel HS ELA = ~15-20 minutes of nightly homework reading;

    • Novel AP ELA = ~20-30 minutes of nightly homework reading.

  • Novel ELA does not include explicit test preparation for specific statewide assessments, including college entrance exams (e.g. ACT or SAT).

    Novel ELA is aligned to the Common Core and is also backwards mapped from the demands of the AP English Language and Literature courses. That said, in high school, we do leverage question stems from the SAT and ACT on our cold passage multiple choice assessments (quizzes and end-of-unit tests).

    If you desire explicit test prep around a high-stakes assessment, we advise layering this test prep in during another time in the school day, or leveraging flex days in your instructional calendar to include this coverage.

  • Novel ELA offers curriculum licenses for both curriculum pilots and full-scale adoptions.

    Please get in touch to explain the scope of your implementation and we are happy to provide a custom proposal.

  • Novel offers comprehensive teacher and leader professional development, delivered virtually or in person, and we also offer Intensive Coaching for implementing instructional leaders, a la carte coaching, site visits, and conferences.

    Please schedule a phone call to learn more about how we can support you with your implementation.

  • Though Novel ELA is relatively new and in its early stages, schools with strong implementation are already demonstrating exciting growth. We are thrilled to share this impact data summary from several of our implementing partners.