English Language Arts and Literacy Standards

ELA Content Standards and Resources

Access the ELA Content Standards on Satchel

New 2027 ELA Content Standards!

Montana’s new English Language Arts and Literacy Content Standards have been formally adopted by the Montana Board of Public Education! The implementation date is July 2027. This date was selected to allow school districts adequate time to prepare between the implementation of new math and ELA standards. More information about the standards revision process can be found on the OPI’s ELA Standards Revisions Webpage.

Montana's 2027 ELA Standards:

Montana's ELA Standards: Monthly Implementation Webinars beginning in August!

Join OPI’s free, statewide webinar series designed to support educators in implementing the 2027 Montana English Language Arts and Literacy Content Standards. Sessions will include

  • practical guidance
  • job-embedded strategies and resources
  • tips for alignment with your curriculum
  • a community of professionals engaging in shared learning
See the PDF version of the flier, which includes a link to the webinar calendar and topics and the registration form.

Primary Source Lessons Available on ReadWriteThink

NCTE has collaborated with the Library of Congress’s Teaching with Primary Sources program, resulting in the addition of 150 new lesson plans on ReadWriteThink.org. The searchable database includes strategies for teaching using items from the Library of Congress’s digitized primary source collection. The strategies were created by a cohort of teachers and leaders in English language arts education. They articulate specific literacy merit for curriculum or classroom use, along with suggested themes, units, and state standards. Content is searchable through tags such as picture book and argument.

 

The English Language Arts and Literacy Standards

New 2027 ELA Content Standards

Montana’s new English Language Arts and Literacy Content Standards have been formally adopted by the Montana Board of Public Education! The implementation date is July 2027. This date was selected to allow school districts adequate time to prepare between the implementation of new math and ELA standards. Access the new standards below!

More information about the standards revision process can be found on the OPI’s ELA Standards Revisions Webpage.

ELA Standards Documents

2027 Standards for Implementation
Current 2011 Standards Documents

ELA Standards Monthly Webinar Series Coming 26/27

Join OPI’s free, statewide webinar series designed to support educators in implementing the 2027 Montana English Language Arts and Literacy Content Standards. 1 PDU will be available per session. Sessions will include

  • practical guidance
  • job-embedded strategies and resources
  • tips for alignment with your curriculum
  • a community of professionals engaging in shared learning

See the PDF version of the flier here, which includes a link to the webinar calendar and topics and the registration form.

Grade Level Standards Documents

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.

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 Featured Opportunities

Montana's ELA Standards: Monthly Implementation Webinars beginning in August!

Join OPI’s free, statewide webinar series designed to support educators in implementing the 2027 Montana English Language Arts and Literacy Content Standards. Sessions will include

  • practical guidance
  • job-embedded strategies and resources
  • tips for alignment with your curriculum
  • a community of professionals engaging in shared learning

See the PDF version of the flier here, which includes a link to the webinar calendar and topics and the registration form.

Facing History Summary PD Offerings

Facing History and Ourselved Professional Development Offerings for the summer include free virtual synchronous and asynchronous courses for ELA educators. Topics include Holocaust literature, coming of age, exploring text selection, and more. 

The Big Sky Literacy Summit

Registration is open for The Big Sky Literacy Summit, August 27-30, 2026, at the Yellowstone Conference Center in Big Sky, Montana. Early bird registration is open until April 15. Learn more and register on the conference website.

2026 NCTE Annual Convention

Registration is open for the 2026 NCTE Annual Convention, to be held in Philadelphia, PA November 19-22. Learn more and register on the convention website

2026 Joint Conference for Elementary Literacy and Mathematics 

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) are pleased to announce the third year of the joint conference focused on K–5/elementary literacy and mathematics. The conference will take place August 3-5 in Charlotte, NC. Learn more and register on the conference website.

Professional Organizations

Learning Communities

The Professional Learning Portal

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 has transitioned from Moodle to Canvas! Courses are currently being added and updated, so check back regularly.

Writing

Reading

  • Supporting Readers with Informational Text (5 PDUs)

  • Reading Between the Lines (3 PDUs)

Book Study

English Language Learning

Teaching Indian Education for All fulfills our constitutional commitment to honoring the historical and contemporary contributions and care taking 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

Reservation Tribal History Timelines:

Arts Standards
Career and Technical Education Standards
Computer Science
English Language Proficiency
Health Enhancement Standards
Information Literacy - Library Media Standards
K-12 Content Standards and Resources
Mathematics Standards
Science Standards
Social Studies Standards
Standards Revision
Technology Standards
World Languages Standards