The Brand-New CILIA-T Curriculum is Now Available!

What does “CILIA-T” mean and what is it?

CILIA-T stands for Content-Integrated Language Instruction for Adults with Technology Support. It’s an open-access 16-module, CCRS/ELP/Northstar-aligned curriculum integrating civics, U.S. history and government knowledge-building with academic English language and digital skills instruction and critical thinking.

How can I access it? What’s the cost?

Our e-textbook is now fully available online, no subscription needed, and completely FREE of cost!

How can CILIA-T be delivered?

The e-textbook website is designed for online, in person and hybrid delivery. All three instructional methods have been successfully piloted in ABE classrooms!

Who is CILIA-T for?

The target audience for this resource includes intermediate-advanced ELLs, pre-GED and GED learners. While it’s not a tool directly aligned to citizenship coursework, much of the content serves as a useful supplement when preparing for naturalization.

CILIA-T project is part of  the CREATE Skills Network and is funded  by  a five-year federal grant from the Institute of Education Sciences, to the University of Minnesota Duluth, in partnership with Georgia State University, and Literacy Minnesota.

Who is behind CILIA-T?

The curriculum has been built by active adult educators (including Minnesota ABE educators Erin Cary, Mya Shaftel and John Trerotola), adult literacy researcher Dr. Aydin Durgunoğlu (University of Minnesota Duluth) and colleagues from Georgia State University; along with ABE digital literacy experts Theresa Sladek, Leah Hauge and other NorthStar colleagues from Literacy Minnesota, along with Nell Eckersley from Literacy Assistance Center in New York.

CILIA-T has undergone multiple classroom pilots at Adult Options in Education, Robbinsdale Adult Academic Program, Metro North Adult Education, and Open Door Learning Centers. It was revised according to teacher and learner feedback, and our final e-textbook continues to be vetted in ABE classrooms in spring/summer 2026. Meet our full team here.

What does the CILIA-T curriculum cover?

Aside from an introductory module and final review module, each module consists of ~6-8 hours of instruction material. See these slides for a list of module topics and an overview of routines, or this SAMPLE MODULE for examples!

What’s special about this curriculum?

CILIA-T cultivates a classroom environment where adult learners can share and build on their immense personal experience as global citizens in partnership with their classmates. Learners find the U.S. history, civics and government content highly engaging and are provided continual opportunities to integrate their prior knowledge with new learning and everyday experiences in their communities. Students also appreciate the explicit academic English activities and technology skill application built systematically into each module.

Principal Investigator Dr. Aydin Durgunoğlu said of the project,

“Adult students enter adult foundational programs with a whole host of knowledge, skills, and experience that add to the sense of community, academic fulfillment, and growth when intentionally activated through focused deep discussion and critical thinking exercises.”

Whose voices were included in the development of CILIA-T?

In addition to the academic researchers and experienced adult practitioners who created CILIA-T’s content, our project development benefitted from consulting with content experts in African American history, Native American history and culture, and the perspective of the immigrant experience. We also incorporated NorthStar curriculum developers and digital learning experts on the team to make sure our technology instruction is relevant to core digital literacy competencies, aligned to content and effectively scaffolded for adult learners.

Most importantly, we made sure to revise our curriculum according to the feedback of our pilot instructors and learners. Teachers helped us to adjust content, accessibility, language and formatting of activities for more effective instruction, and let us know how they adapted our framework to better serve learners. Jill Ashley-Grochowski from Robbinsdale AAP said CILIA-T made for a “great way to incorporate technology into instruction. Students were very interested in the U.S. civics & history. The curriculum allowed students to share their lived experiences. They got to share their opinion(s) and knowledge–it also was a great motivator in getting them writing.”

Learners from Jill’s CILIA-T pilot group commented:

• “I like history study. In addition to learning history, this program helped me with my English because it has vocabulary, good texts and some grammar.”
• “CILIA gave us the opportunity to listen from the different classmates about the [their] reality and how is the situation…”
• “[The curriculum] really, really helped me because I only use before the WhatsApp and other things. But now I know they send emails and use the other skills on the websites and too many things.”
• “Now I know why the culture of American or American culture is multiple. And I understand how different people live together. And knowing about history is very, very important because the history affect the present.”

Where can I learn more about the rationale, research and development of your curriculum?

Check out our CILIA-T project website for more background information!

We have also published some recent journal articles highlighting goals and features of CILIA-T–please read and share:

• Promoting agency and active citizenship in an integrated adult education program (CILIA-T) in the U.S. – Durgunoğlu, A. Y., Trerotola, J., Cary, E. (2025)
• Digital technology use in four adult education classrooms: Challenges and solutions – Durgunoğlu, A. Y., Cary, E., Harford, J., Yarbrough, K., & Hauge, L. (2026)
• Developing digital proficiencies of English learners in adult education – Hauge, L., Durgunoglu, A.Y. & Stewart, J. (2025)

Please read and share, and feel free to check out our other materials!

Feel free to share the CILIA-T curriculum e-textbook website widely! While piloting is still underway and the site is subject to minor edits, it is ready for you to try out in your classrooms and program sites. If you do, please share your feedback with our Principal Investigator and CILIA-T curriculum lead Dr. Aydin Durgunoğlu ([email protected]) or CILIA-T Project Coordinator Erin Cary ([email protected]). Take a look and tell us what you think!

If you plan to attend ATLAS’ Statewide Virtual Conference on April 17. 2026, Erin Cary and John Trerotola from the project team will be sharing and highlighting features of the CILIA-T curriculum in a session. Also, Theresa Sladek and Dr. Elizabeth Tighe will be at the COABE Conference in Indianapolis to demonstrate and discuss the curriculum.  We look forward to seeing you at any of those meetings  and answering your questions!