I'm just curious-does your team do some sort of curriculum map to chart out the goals for the year, or do you do one semester at a time, one week at a time? I'm meeting with my new team in a couple of weeks and was surprised that they never mapped out the year before. I just like being able to see where I'm ultimately going I guess. How does your school/grade level do it?
I have a year at a glance that maps out my TEKS so I can integrate when possible. I then plan by unit, but my unit plans aren't written in stone.
We have a general idea for the year. We have phonics, reading stories, math concepts, science and social studies focus for each week. Then we look at the plans from the year before and adjust as needed. We all save our typed lesson plans each year so that helps when planning.
We have a pacing calendar for reading, so all elementary school classes should be on the same lesson on the same day.
I map out the whole year in terms of the minimal time I could spend on a topic, then expand as I go. Once I've taught the same course twice in the same decade or so, old plan books become pretty valuable
We plan out the whole year (we actually did that just the other day for next year) before the start of the school year. This plan has the reading skills we will be doing, the language arts unit, math investigation topic, and Social Studies/Science topic. Then, we meet weekly to plan out the following week in more detail. Without a yearly plan, it's hard to make sure that you cover everything!
Thanks for your responses! That's how I like to do it too-so I can see where we're going. Although last year they were still working on our curriculum documents 2 weeks before each semester started-so it was a little hard to plan ahead-in August our 1st nine weeks was available and that's it-October our 2nd 9 weeks, etc. They changed our science standards again so those documents aren't available yet this summer-but everything else we could plan if I want to.
Our district gives the gen ed curriculum year long pacing guides for reading, math, and science. I don't follow it exactly in my classroom, but I use the guide to help choose the topics I teach.
I have my year planned in advanced--- just an outline of units. I then plan in detail week by week, depending on the needs of each class. I do it like that because sometimes I have one class that needs to focus on a particular skill/task and needs extra time to do well with it.
I seem to get the subjects where I am the only teacher (and the last teacher took everything but the teacher manuals), or the class is brand new, so there was no plan in place. In each case, I planned the general units of study. Individual plans were made about 2 weeks in advance by myself or teamed with another teacher (when we both had the same subject). Now that I have taught the classes quite a few times, I have more detailed Unit plans in place with topic order and suggested lessons/activities. I look at past years plans to see what worked, what didn't, or what I wanted to modify or spend more time on. I don't follow the same plan every year, as I find more resources for lessons.
Over the past two years our district has done a "curriculum alignment." One teacher from each grade/subject is responsible for a topic map and timeline. Topic Map is a general outline with TEKS and concepts written out. The timeline is a more specific sheet that has vocabulary, activities, and labs (if there are any), plus any assessments written out per week. The assessments are also written out prior to the school year. (I'm responsible for science for 4th grade.. writing my last test as I type this.. which means I'm almost done.. YAY)
Interesting how it seems as if most of you have to do your own curriculum mapping. I take it this is more common than what I originally thought? I thought that districts provided the curriculum maps for math, reading, writing, etc. to make sure everyone is on the same page...
We have a syllabus outlining what's to be covered in each trimester. Beyond that though, it's up to each teacher to organize his or her time. I tend to teach quickly with lots of review time. Others choose to go more slowly with less time at the end for review.
I tried planning math for the entire year last year. I stayed on track for about a week. Generally, it is by the chapter/unit for math and science. So, 1-3 weeks. For reading it is by the novel or basal unit. If I get too far ahead, things change (field trips, programs, snow days) and I have to erase a lot- which I hate!
We have access to and a responsibility to teach the state's core content, but beyond that we have complete freedom as to when and how we teach the standards. I very much appreciate the freedom.
I have the entire year planned. Of course, there are also weekly plans to be made since I have to tweak lessons for each individual class.
I plan for the entire year, but as far as preping lessons go, I onlywrite about 3 weeks ahead in my plan book because it always seems that something comes up and I need to make a change to my plan book, so I don't want to do that too far in advance.
I have a "pacing guide" - a calendar of major topics that I create each year (or tweak from the year before) based on the state standards but not a "set in stone" district guide. Our middle school LA teachers are very strongly against a "one plan fits all" approach to curriculum planning. We feel that may work in science/math/social studies, but feel that reading/writing needs to be less confined. We have benchmark tests in place, the state scope and sequence, standards, and frameworks as guides. I plan my lessons in detail on a weekly basis - sometimes two if I'm daring...
Our district gives us a general curriculum map. This past year we worked as a grade level to come up with a week by week framework for reading and writing. This year we'll be doing one for math.
