Learning Experience Designer, ELA Supplemental

Edtech.com's Summary

Newsela is hiring a Learning Experience Designer, ELA Supplemental. The role involves designing and producing high-quality K-12 English Language Arts instructional materials, including lessons, activities, texts, and assessments that are standards-aligned and accessible to diverse learners. The designer will collaborate with contributors and product managers while applying evidence-based reading science and ELA pedagogy to ensure engaging and effective curriculum content.

Highlights

Main responsibilities: Author instructional materials, select and edit texts, design assessments, ensure quality and alignment with standards, and collaborate with teams.
Apply principles of the science of reading including phonics, fluency, and comprehension to lesson design.
Maintain adherence to K-12 ELA standards and embed scaffolds for accessibility and differentiation.
Provide detailed feedback to freelance contributors and internal teams.
Required skills: Strong ELA pedagogy knowledge, excellent writing and editing, fluency with AI tools, and strong organizational and communication skills.
Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in Instructional Design, Education, Curriculum & Instruction, English, Journalism or related field; 3+ years in K-12 curriculum development or instructional design preferably in ed-tech or publishing.
Preferred: Prior K-12 ELA classroom teaching experience and experience with digital content authoring or CMS tools.
Work closely with product managers and other learning experience designers to maintain content quality.

Learning Experience Designer, ELA Supplemental Full Description

We are seeking a Learning Experience Designer (LXD) to be a key driver in the development and production of high-quality instructional materials for our supplemental K-12 English Language Arts (ELA) product. This role is ideal for a hands-on curriculum builder with a strong foundation in ELA pedagogy who is passionate about creating engaging, standards-aligned lessons, activities, texts, and assessments for K-12 students.

Key ResponsibilitiesContent Creation and Curation

Material Authoring: Directly write, design, and structure detailed lessons, activities, and student worksheets/interactives based on established instructional models and product specifications.
Text Selection and Editing: Identify, vet, and edit grade-appropriate student-facing texts (fiction and non-fiction) to ensure they align with ELA learning objectives and provide rich opportunities for skills practice.
Assessment Design: Develop clear and concise low-stakes formative and summative assessment items and rubrics (e.g., multiple-choice, short answer, essay prompts) that effectively measure student progress against specific learning outcomes and standards.
Quality Assurance: Review and provide focused editorial and pedagogical feedback on content drafts produced by internal teams or external contributors or vendors, ensuring accuracy, fidelity to the curriculum model, and student engagement.

Science of Reading Best Practices and Curriculum Alignment

Instructional Application: Apply fundamental, evidence-based principles of learning science, including best practices for reading comprehension, language or vocabulary acquisition, and writing mechanics, to the design of every lesson, activity and assessment.
Science of Reading: Stay up to date with research and best practices for teaching students how to leverage the pillars of the science of reading including phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, reading comprehension and vocabulary.
Standards Adherence: Ensure all content development strictly adheres to relevant state ELA standards across the K-12 continuum.
Accessibility and Scaffolding: Design materials with embedded scaffolds and differentiation strategies to make content accessible and meaningful for a wide range of learners, including Multilingual Learners (MLLs).

Collaboration and Workflow

Team Coordination: Work effectively with freelance contributors, other learning experience designers, and product managers to ensure content quality is consistently high.
Feedback: Provide detailed and consistent feedback to contributors to ensure output meets Newselaâs high quality standards. Ensure all feedback is rooted in documentation from Newsela or in ELA best practices.
Organization: Prioritize and deliver work on time and within Newselaâs standards of quality. Understand Newselaâs quality standards and their purposes, so they can be effectively applied across all content.
Learning Design: Translate high-level blueprints into detailed design specifications and content outlines that guide a scalable and consistent content development process that leverages AI tools, human contributors and staff.

QualificationsRequired

Education: Bachelorâs degree in Instructional Design, Education, Curriculum & Instruction, English, Journalism or a related field.
Experience: 3+ years of experience in K-12 curriculum development, instructional design, or content creation, preferably for an educational technology or publishing company.
ELA Knowledge: Strong working knowledge of K-12 ELA pedagogy, standards, and effective teaching methods.
Content Skills: Excellent writing and editing with demonstrated ability to produce high-quality, polished instructional content.
Fluency with AI tools
Other: Strong organizational skills as well as verbal communication skills and ability to prioritize and re-prioritize in conjunction with business needs.

Preferred

Prior classroom teaching experience (K-12 ELA).
Experience working with digital content authoring tools or content management systems (CMS).

Original Job Description

Key ResponsibilitiesContent Creation and Curation

Material Authoring: Directly write, design, and structure detailed lessons, activities, and student worksheets/interactives based on established instructional models and product specifications.
Text Selection and Editing: Identify, vet, and edit grade-appropriate student-facing texts (fiction and non-fiction) to ensure they align with ELA learning objectives and provide rich opportunities for skills practice.
Assessment Design: Develop clear and concise low-stakes formative and summative assessment items and rubrics (e.g., multiple-choice, short answer, essay prompts) that effectively measure student progress against specific learning outcomes and standards.
Quality Assurance: Review and provide focused editorial and pedagogical feedback on content drafts produced by internal teams or external contributors or vendors, ensuring accuracy, fidelity to the curriculum model, and student engagement.

Science of Reading Best Practices and Curriculum Alignment

Instructional Application: Apply fundamental, evidence-based principles of learning science, including best practices for reading comprehension, language or vocabulary acquisition, and writing mechanics, to the design of every lesson, activity and assessment.
Science of Reading: Stay up to date with research and best practices for teaching students how to leverage the pillars of the science of reading including phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, reading comprehension and vocabulary.
Standards Adherence: Ensure all content development strictly adheres to relevant state ELA standards across the K-12 continuum.
Accessibility and Scaffolding: Design materials with embedded scaffolds and differentiation strategies to make content accessible and meaningful for a wide range of learners, including Multilingual Learners (MLLs).

Collaboration and Workflow

Team Coordination: Work effectively with freelance contributors, other learning experience designers, and product managers to ensure content quality is consistently high.
Feedback: Provide detailed and consistent feedback to contributors to ensure output meets Newselaâs high quality standards. Ensure all feedback is rooted in documentation from Newsela or in ELA best practices.
Organization: Prioritize and deliver work on time and within Newselaâs standards of quality. Understand Newselaâs quality standards and their purposes, so they can be effectively applied across all content.
Learning Design: Translate high-level blueprints into detailed design specifications and content outlines that guide a scalable and consistent content development process that leverages AI tools, human contributors and staff.

QualificationsRequired

Education: Bachelorâs degree in Instructional Design, Education, Curriculum & Instruction, English, Journalism or a related field.
Experience: 3+ years of experience in K-12 curriculum development, instructional design, or content creation, preferably for an educational technology or publishing company.
ELA Knowledge: Strong working knowledge of K-12 ELA pedagogy, standards, and effective teaching methods.
Content Skills: Excellent writing and editing with demonstrated ability to produce high-quality, polished instructional content.
Fluency with AI tools
Other: Strong organizational skills as well as verbal communication skills and ability to prioritize and re-prioritize in conjunction with business needs.

Preferred

Prior classroom teaching experience (K-12 ELA).
Experience working with digital content authoring tools or content management systems (CMS).

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Learning Experience Designer, ELA Supplemental

Edtech.com's Summary

Learning Experience Designer, ELA Supplemental Full Description

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