A practicum project developed the core curriculum and core curriculum guide for an American literature survey course. Students enrolled in the course came from low socioeconomic backgrounds, exhibited problematic behavior, and evidenced poor study habits, as well as low reading comprehension skills and substandard language usage. Under these circumstances the teachers had found it difficult to meet the state objectives and to come to a consensus in preparing a standard outline for the course. All eight teachers of the course responded to a needs survey, indicating a desire for model lesson plans that would employ collateral teaching techniques and allow for consistency of content. Following implementation of the core curriculum and core curriculum guide, an evaluation was made by the teachers. Results revealed that seven of the eight participating teachers and the department head expressed satisfaction with the core curriculum. Success was indicated by its acceptance by the teachers and adoption for future use by the department. Ten appendixes include three components of the curriculum guide (the curriculum framework, student performance standards, and writing enhancement program guidelines); the needs assessment survey with results; and criteria for planning and evaluating English language arts curriculum guides. (KEH).