English departments are roundly praised for their emphasis on skills rather than content. In the authors' classes, students read (skill), write (skill), think (skill), speak (skill), and listen (skill). Theoretically, the books being taught are interchangeable and simply a means to skill acquisition. But that's not always what happens in the English classroom. Often skill instruction is overshadowed by the content of the books being read. Teachers find themselves spending weeks of class time "getting through" the plot of the book, followed by short bursts of skill instruction and performance-based assessments en route to another book. This experience does not always meet the criteria for a "fun, engaging, and relevant" curriculum for students. The authors realized that, as a district, they had to think more carefully about the students' points of view while engaging more deeply with insights from the field of English education. This article explores these efforts at curriculum revisions in the English departments of Chicago's western suburbs.