TUCSON, Ariz. — The Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) approved an innovative curriculum to be implemented in 60 Pre-K classrooms across its elementary schools beginning this year.
It's called the Teaching Early Literacy & Language (TELL) curriculum, designed to enhance development for TUSD's youngest learners.
Reem Kievit, Community Schools and Preschool Programs Senior Director, says she and teachers believe over time the TELL curriculum is going to help prepare students for kindergarten.
“So we're really focused on the whole child. We work on social emotional support, executive functions which includes communication, managing our big feelings, impulse control so that students can sit for an extended period of time and focus on their learning," Kievit said. "And then of course in addition is the academics. So that's where TELL comes in, where we talk about language and literacy, letter sounds, letter recognition, writing their name and so on.”
So what’s the difference between the TELL curriculum and what was used previously?
Before, teachers would have to create instruction from scratch but now it’s provided for them.
“It is more tailored to the way students learn today. It’s more user friendly for the teachers, so it’s easier to navigate and implement and it’s more engaging for the students," Kievit said.
Kievit says they know the TELL curriculum works because TUSD was part of Arizona State University’s (ASU) research study since 2020 and results spoke for itself.
"So as participants in the research study, ASU provided every single classroom with a free curriculum. Since then, that new research has created improvements in the curriculum," Kievit said.
This led TUSD to recently purchase the 2025 addition for $160,000 for 60 classrooms, allowing teachers and students to have access to the highest quality curriculum available.
Kellond preschool teacher Heather Brodhagen says she enjoys using the TELL curriculum because it has a variety of topics to teach about.
“There’s a lot of fun things like dinosaurs, ocean animals, you know the things that little kids are excited to learn about," Brodhagen said. "And we get to introduce a lot of vocabulary since it’s focused on oral language and vocabulary building.”
She says she loves this age group because she gets to see not only the physical growth, but also the academics and social skills they build.
Brodhagen has been teaching since 2013 and has experience with both kindergartners and preschoolers.
Having taught kindergarten, she feels this role allows her to better prepare the children for what's ahead, as she understands the challenges they'll soon face.
She says the TELL curriculum is already a game changer in her classroom.
"A lot of the kids are learning English for the first time and so it really builds a lot of their vocabulary and gives them confidence," Brodhagen said. "We've seen a lot of growth and just being able to talk in complete sentences — which is a big deal for this age group and so that has really been a big benefit that I've seen."
Teachers in Kindergarten are also recognizing the development.
"We already hear from kinder teachers about students who've been in our preschool programs and they come in far advanced in comparison to students who've never been in school. Now what this [TELL] is doing, is enhancing that," Kievit said. “I think if we have those high level expectations, they will rise to meet them.”
