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A new curriculum put together by Tulita Elementary School’s English teachers were presented in the Redondo Beach Union School District (RBUSD) Board of Education Meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 6:30 p.m. in the boardroom of the Redondo Beach District Office. “Out of the 85 fifth-grade students who took the ELA CAASP test this year, 93% met or exceeded those standards,” said Dr. Tanaz Bruna, Over the past 6 years, Tulita Elementary English teachers Wendy DeMaria and Karin Sato have developed a rigorous curriculum for the fifth-grade ELA students to follow after new standards were adopted by the state. “We focused on the similarities between the old and new standards, took a closer look on the college and career readiness standards, and DeMaria and Sato found that by using Social Studies, specifically fictional events, and incorporating them into ELA themes by using essential questions, students would be able to receive a “cross-curricular education.” This would help students in both subject fields, also solidifying their understanding of learning. Instead of mainly focusing on memorization, students can go beyond and “It’s important for teachers to constantly change and update their curriculum based on the standards,” Sato said. “Many teachers don’t do this and use the same teaching method year after year.” Furthermore, by using information from other subjects and different sources, students would develop strong researching skills, as well was strengths in guided note-taking and citations. Though these skills are not necessary for the standards, it was included in the course study “Taking specific notes and completing reading responses are great techniques to help students prepare for middle school, as it did for me,” Savannah Jones, a current Parras Middle School student and former Tulita student who underwent the course of study said. The curriculum also features a summative as*essment, where students are tested on their “Depth of Knowledge” (DOK). The DOK is