ELA Content Standards and Resources

Return to the K-12 Content Standards home page.

Access the ELA Content Standards on Satchel.

 

ELA Standards Revision Process

Montana’s new English Language Arts and Literacy Standards have been passed on to the Board of Public Education and are pending formal adoption. The anticipated implementation date is now July 2027! This date was selected to allow school districts adequate time to prepare between the implementation of new math and ELA standards. 

Check out the Montana ELA & Literacy Standards Revision Overview one-pager for a brief overview of the revisions, or see the 2027 Proposed MT ELA Standards and Coding. 

More information can be found on the OPI’s ELA Standards Revisions Webpage.

2026 NCTE Children’s Book Awards

See the Children’s fiction and nonfiction books, poetry books, and verse novels honored at the 2026 NCTE Annual Convention in Denver this November. The awards recognize outstanding literary works for children that set a standard for excellence in the field, and winners are selected by committees of NCTE-appointed teacher experts and authors. 

NCTE Call for Proposals

NCTE is accepting proposals for the 2026 NCTE Annual Convention in Philadelphia, PA, on November 19-22. Applications are due January 27, 9:00 am ET. Learn more and apply here.

Upcoming Hub Course: Preparing Students for the MAST Performance Task

Be on the lookout for a new course on the Learning Hub: Preparing Students for the MAST Performance Task. This course is designed for 3-8 teachers and will guide participants through a review of the rubrics and ELA content standards relevant to the writing assessment, writing strategies to use all year long with your students, and instructional resources and approaches to practice the Performance Task–including exemplars, prompts, and more.

International Literacy Association

Check out the latest post from the International Literacy Association’s Literacy Now blog, which addresses considerations for assessing comprehension that supplement screeners: When Reading Measures Miss the Mark: Rethinking How We Assess.

In case you missed it, the International Literacy Association has a Literacy Month Toolkit for 2025! The toolkit includes links to additional resources for families and teachers, including tips for family read-alouds, family engagement, and guides for teaching and using student-led book talks.

Report: The State of Literature Use in Secondary Classrooms

NCTE recently published a report examining the literature most commonly taught in secondary English classrooms and the factors shaping those choices. The findings shed light on both long-standing patterns and current challenges teachers face in bringing diverse texts to students. You can read NCTE’s article or download the full report to learn more about the report and its implications for English instruction. 
 

The English Language Arts and Literacy Standards 

Coming Soon: ELA & Literacy Standards

ELA Standards Revision Process

Montana’s new English Language Arts and Literacy Standards have been passed on to the Board of Public Education and are pending formal adoption. The anticipated implementation date is now July 2027! This date was selected to allow school districts adequate time to prepare between the implementation of new math and ELA standards. 

Check out the Montana ELA & Literacy Standards Revision Overview one-pager for a brief overview of the revisions, or see the 2027 Proposed MT ELA Standards and Coding. 

More information can be found on the OPI’s ELA Standards Revisions Webpage.

Current (2011) ELA Standards Documents

Montana Content Standards on Satchel

K-12 Montana Content Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy (includes Literacy Standards in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects)

Montana ELA Standards Appendix

Grade Level Standards Documents

Kindergarten

First Grade

Second Grade

Third Grade

Fourth Grade

Fifth Grade

Sixth Grade

Seventh Grade

Eighth Grade

Ninth-Tenth Grades

Eleventh-Twelfth Grades

Family Roadmaps: Grade-to-Grade Crosswalks for the MT English Language Arts Content Standards

Involve stakeholders in student learning by providing parents and families with these grade-level guides to the content standards.  Each grade level document provides a clear and easy-to-understand overview of what their child will learn and do in their grade.  It also includes a side-by-side comparison of vertical alignment with the grade below and grade above to help parents and students understand the subtle differences in ELA skill progression as outlined in the standards. Each grade-level document concludes with a section on specific supports families can and should do to help their students meet grade-level ELA goals. 

Kindergarten

Grade One

Grade Two

Grade Three

Grade Four

Grade Five

Grade Six

Grade Seven

Grade Eight

High School

Instructional Resources

Selecting ELA Materials

College and Career Readiness

Additional Resources

  • Montana PBS' Media Mavericks - Media Mavericks is a program by Montana PBS Education program that invites middle and high school students create standards-aligned media-making projects.

Assessments

Our Montana Comprehensive Assessment System (MontCAS) is carefully designed to help all stakeholders in Montana provide an equal, fair, and quality education for all Montana students. Learn more about ELA Summative Assessments on the Statewide Assessment Page:

Helpful Links

 

Professional Learning and Development

Featured Opportunities

NCTE's ELA AI Framework Cohort

NCTE is creating a teacher cohort to develop a scalable framework for responsible AI use in ELA instruction, through a grant from Google. NCTE invites applications from grades 6–12 ELA teachers, due Tuesday, January 13, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Cohort work begins in March, includes a stipend, and provides funding to attend the 2026 NCTE Annual Convention in Philadelphia. Applicants must be current NCTE members—if you’re not yet a member, you can join NCTE and apply.

2025-2026 Early Learning Series

The Early Targeted Intervention Learning Series is a virtual, bi-monthly learning series and community of practice open to preschool, kindergarten, and grade 1-3 Montana educators designed to support those implementing Early Literacy Targeted Intervention Classroom Programs and ANY educator wishing to strengthen their knowledge around Early Literacy. View the sessions and register here.

Upcoming Hub Course: Preparing Students for the MAST Performance Task

Be on the lookout for a new course on the Learning Hub: Preparing Students for the MAST Performance Task. This course is designed for 3-8 teachers and will guide participants through a review of the rubrics and ELA content standards relevant to the writing assessment, writing strategies to use all year long with your students, and instructional resources and approaches to practice the Performance Task–including exemplars, prompts, and more.

Professional Organizations

Learning Communities

The one-stop shop for professional learning opportunities. Take a look at our calendar of upcoming events!

The Teacher Learning Hub

The Teacher Learning Hub is transitioning from Moodle to Canvas! Check back soon for a variety of free, quality, online professional learning courses you can take for renewal units.

Writing

  • Using Writing to Teach Critical Thinking (1 PDU)

  • Using Assessment to Enhance Writing (6 PDU)

  • Write From the Start, K-2 Writing Strategies (Updated) (4 PDU)

  • Writing to Learn, 3-6 Writing Strategies (6 PDU)

  • Writing Across The Disciplines in Middle School (6 PDU)

  • Writing Across The Disciplines in High School (6 PDU)

Reading

  • Supporting Readers with Informational Text (5 PDU)

  • Reading Between the Lines (3 PDU)

Book Study

  • Braiding Sweetgrass: A Book Study (3 PDU)

Teaching Indian Education for All fulfills our constitutional commitment to honoring the historical and contemporary contributions and caretaking of our state and land by Montana Tribal Nations. We are committed to teaching IEFA in ELA to help our students understand perspective, identify bias in text, hold discussions, research authentically and with a broad net, and develop evidence-based written and spoken opinions and arguments surrounding contemporary issues affecting Indigenous communities today. Through teaching IEFA responsibly and responsively, we build relationships across our state for the benefit of all. 

IEFA Resources

Check out OPI's IEFA Indian Education Classroom Resources website, where you can browse lessons, unit plans, and resources by subject area and grade level, and also find resources specific to Montana tribal nations.

Looking for a class novel? Request to borrow free Class Set Available Books. For each text, IEFA also provides a full unit plan!

Additional K-12 Resources

You can also find many of these resources, and more, on the IEFA webpage

American Indians in Children's Literature

American Indians 101 - Frequently Asked Questions
Boarding Schools - Map of Schools in Montana
Essential Understandings Regarding Montana Indians
Essential Understandings Key Concepts
Evaluating American Indian Materials and Resources for the Classroom
Everyday Native Project
The Framework: A Practical Guide for Montana Teachers and Administrators Implementing IEFA
Humanities Montana: Native American Lit Study Guides
Indigenous People in Wyoming and the West
Lessons of our Land - Indian Land Tenure Foundation Website
Living Nations, Living Words-from the Library of Congress
Montana Historical Society - Educational Outreach Footlockers Web site
Montana: Stories of the Land website
Native Memory Project
National Museum of the American Indian: Native Knowledge 360°
Resilience: Stories of Twenty Indian Women

Reservation Tribal History Timelines:

AllBlackfeetCrowFlatheadFort BelknapFort PeckNorthern CheyenneRocky Boy