Louisiana Guidebooks

1 Where it came from

Peabody is not connected to the Louisiana Department of Education, and nothing here is written or checked by the Department. The Department describes the Guidebooks as made by teachers for teachers. Its own timeline says the framework and text sets were developed in 2013, version 1.0 was released in 2014, version 2.0 was piloted with ten districts in 2015 and released statewide in 2016, grades 3 to 8 got added supports in 2018, grades 9 to 12 got new units in 2020, and a grades 3 to 5 edition with an explicit writing progression came in 2022. The grades 6 to 8 edition is dated 2024.

2 The big ideas

• Whole-class teaching of grade-level texts. The Department says the Guidebooks help all students read, understand and express their understanding of complex, grade-level texts.
• Each unit is a set of texts. A text set is a series of texts organized around an anchor text or topic, so students build knowledge of substantive topics.
• Texts are repeated and discussed. Students return to the texts and ideas throughout a unit to build knowledge and tackle big ideas.
• Schools and teachers choose. School leaders choose which units run at each grade, and teachers choose among core and optional activities in each lesson.
• Assessment is built in. Every lesson has look-fors, each section ends with a diagnostic, and each unit ends with a culminating task.

3 What a lesson looks like

The Department's grades 6 to 8 overview describes how a unit runs. Each unit is built on a text set around a central question. Every lesson has two look-fors, one on content knowledge and one on skill, which teachers watch for each day. Each section of a unit ends in a section diagnostic, and the unit ends with a culminating task that asks students to use what they have built, in a narrative, informational, or argument writing mode. The last unit of the year is an application unit, where the school or the students choose which earlier unit and which mode of writing to use for a research task. Look at the Department's annotated teaching guide example for a real lesson, which was not read for this page.

4 The adult's job

The teacher runs whole-class lessons from the unit, choosing among the core and optional activities in each lesson to fit the class. Teachers monitor understanding daily with the look-fors, use the section diagnostics to measure progress, and judge the culminating task at the end. The Department also lists professional learning and a content leader initiative for teachers.

5 How progress is checked

The Department describes three practices in each unit: teachers monitor daily with lesson look-fors, diagnose progress with section diagnostics, and evaluate understanding with the culminating task at the end of a unit.

6 Strengths and criticisms

7 What the research says

This page makes no claim about how well the Guidebooks work. The Department's pages quote teachers from two schools in one Louisiana parish who describe deeper discussion and writing, but those are opinions from the Department's own materials, not a study. The Department also links a pilot feedback report for the grades 3 to 5 edition, which was not read. No independent review was read, so none is stated.

8 How to try it

1. Open the Department's grades 3 to 5 or 6 to 8 overview and read the unit list for your grade.
2. Read one unit's central question and its culminating task before you read any lessons, so you know where the unit is going.
3. Decide which core and optional activities fit your class and write them down for the unit.
4. Check how many children in your class read the unit's texts fluently, and plan extra reading for those who do not.
5. Use the section diagnostics to decide what to reteach before the culminating task.

9 Using Peabody with it

• DecodablesFor a child in the grades covered who still struggles to decode, hand them a decodable text beside the unit's harder reading.
• Fluency practiceHave children reread a short passage across several days to build the ease the unit's long texts ask for.
• CVC worksheetsUse these for the youngest or most behind readers who are still learning short vowel words.
• Anchor chartsPrint or copy a chart for a reading or writing skill and keep it on the wall while students work on the unit's text.

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10 Programs that follow it

Programs and materials often named with this approach: text sets, culminating task, section diagnostic, application unit.