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Since arriving at Cedar Hill ISD in January, Michelle Lenear-Stimpson has focused on updating the way teachers present seventh through 12^th grade English/Language Arts & Reading (ELAR) to students.

“Technology has changed so much the past couple of years,” said Lenear-Stimpson, the District’s Secondary ELAR Coordinator. “Unless you build things a certain way, it doesn’t show up in the classroom. We have a lot of moving parts, and we’re starting to see the benefit of that.”

Among the techniques, methods, and practices that CHISD Secondary ELAR has established are the use of Sirius technology, classroom social contracts on the board, individualized work between teachers and students and interactive notebooks, said Lenear-Stimpson, an author who previously taught English at Cedar Hill High School and Joe Wilson Intermediate School.

Secondary ELAR has taken the concepts taught in Professional Development and translated it into action in the classroom.

“We’re streamlining the curriculum with the stories we’re reading and the activities we’re doing,” Lenear-Stimpson said. “We develop lesson frames that really guide the day-to-day lessons. Students have an opportunity to get their grade back and learn how to improve for the next time. All three middle schools are showing great growth so far.”

While the high school campuses have block scheduling with 90 minute classes, middle schools have 45 minute classes.

“Each lesson – from the warm-ups to the Daily Oral Language – flows seamlessly and maintains clear alignment from start to finish,” Permenter Middle School Seventh Grade ELAR Teacher Allene Jones said. “The lesson frames are thoroughly connected to the TEKS, ensuring that each standard is taught and reinforced throughout.”

CHISD ELAR Instruction Coach Kellie Burchfield, a former CHISD Secondary Teacher of the Year,  is pleased with the new approach to instruction.

“This strategic shift has resulted in a transformative improvement in professional focus and workload management,” Burchfield said. “By deliberately eliminating content redundancy and low-priority standards, teachers have immediately reclaimed significant planning time. This capacity is now being intentionally concentrated on high-leverage instructional practices, including facilitating targeted writing conferences, crafting intricate reading scaffolds for complex texts, and deepening lesson internalization prior to delivery.”