Unit Contributor, Freelance

The role:

Our Unit Contributors bring a wide variety of experience to the table, but they are all united by their passion for improving the lives of teachers and students, and their commitment to developing engaging, student-centered, and culturally responsive resources. To achieve this, different types of assignments for Unit Contributors might include: 

• Creating units for Newsela’s content collections that align to a provided scope & sequence and specific standards, relying on their instructional expertise and creativity to curate Newsela texts and design lesson plans that are engaging

• Reviewing and editing draft versions of Units, evaluating the content and instructional choices, providing feedback and revisions along the way

• Revisiting and refreshing Newsela content collections, adding more relevant and up-to-date resources based on staff and teacher feedback

• Other tasks that support the production process, such as migrating information, adjusting unit formatting, updating resources & links, tagging standards within a Unit, and other quick, yet vital, tasks

Why you're a great fit:

In order to be successful in this role, our Unit Contributors have the following experience and abilities:

• Experience

  • Experience writing and implementing standards and objectives-aligned lessons that help students build skills and master content, particularly in Social Studies, ELA and Science

  • Experience curating vetted, reliable resources to support the learning experience for all students, and providing the scaffolds and supports that can help teachers differentiate learning

  • Experience creating curriculum and lesson activities for use in digital education contexts, utilizing standard frameworks such as the C3 Inquiry Model, CCSS, NGSS, etc.

• Knowledge

  • Deep understanding of backwards-design, objective-based planning, familiarity with key components of strong formative assessment

  • Commitment to developing engaging, student-centered and culturally responsive resources

  • Understanding of how to unpack standards and ensure that content meets core learning objectives

  • Rich content knowledge in one or more of Newsela’s key focus areas: Social Studies, ELA and Science

  • Ability to respond well to and implement feedback

  • Attentive to details, accuracy and production deadlines

  • Technical savvy and ability to use different platforms and software

This role is compensated on a per-task basis. The benefits listed below apply to full-time employees only.