Take Back Teaching
Inquiry by Design for California
A whole classroom. One connected curriculum.
There is a lot happening in a California classroom.
Students are working with complex, grade-level texts while developing different levels of language, fluency, foundational skills, knowledge, and confidence. Teachers are in the center — listening, noticing, questioning, and deciding what their students need next.
But too often, curriculum makes that work harder by dividing learning into separate programs, supports, and materials teachers have to put back together.
Inquiry by Design was built differently.
Middle School ELA, Integrated and Designated ELD, reading, writing, discussion, language development, knowledge building, and student support are designed to work together from the start.
The curriculum holds the connections.
The teacher leads the learning.
Recommended for California adoption.
Built for California classrooms
Different learners. Shared ideas. One connected experience.
California understands the need to balance rigor and support. Students need access to rich, grade-level learning while receiving the language development, scaffolding, fluency support, or foundational literacy instruction necessary to participate fully.
That should not require teachers to assemble a different curriculum for every need.
Inquiry by Design is built around a simple principle:
Support should bring students further into the learning, not pull them away from it.
Core ELA, Integrated ELD, and corresponding Designated ELD build from the same texts, ideas, discussions, and writing.
Different levels of support.
One connected intellectual experience.
Understanding builds when ideas connect
In every Inquiry by Design lesson, reading, writing, language, discussion, and knowledge building are designed to work together, not assembled by the teacher, but built in from the start.
A real text in students’ hands. Language studied in context. Ideas coming alive through discussion. Writing throughout it all.
And one lesson intentionally builds on what came before.
That is Connected by Design.
Comprehensive shouldn't feel overwhelming
Everything teachers need. Right where they need it.
California asks a lot of a curriculum, and we applaud those high standards.
That does not mean the curriculum should ask more of the teacher.
Inquiry by Design’s California program brings the pieces together:
- ELA + Integrated and Designated ELD: Language development builds into and from the same texts, ideas, discussion, and writing as the core ELA experience.
- Support for Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging students
Differentiated scaffolds and expectations within a shared instructional core. - Grade 6 foundational literacy + fluency support
Targeted support that helps students access the learning already underway. - An aligned MTSS framework: Tier 2 and Tier 3 supports connected to grade-level texts, unit goals, and instructional routines.
Another way into the learning. Not another curriculum to manage.
Recommended for California Adoption
Inquiry by Design Middle School ELA with Integrated and Designated ELD has been recommended by California’s instructional materials review panel for adoption by the State Board of Education following a positive review across general and academic standards.
Built for California from the start.
Connected for students.
Clearer for teachers.
Take back teaching
When the texts, ideas, language, writing, and support are already connected, teachers can spend less time managing curriculum and more time doing the work only they can do.
The curriculum does its job.
You get to do yours.
