LONG TERM
Planning
In order to be an effective educator, I utilize long term planning at the beginning of every school year. Long term planning entails analyzing all of the standards that are required for my fifth graders to master throughout the year to be considered successful. Once I have identified and analyzed each standard, I create a plan for the entire year, organized both by standards and by content. This ensures that I take time to expose students to all of the required standards, as well as making sure each one is connected to content that makes sense and is relevant to my students. In planning with the end in mind, I am setting myself and my students up for academic success.
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Due to the fact that I started at a new school this year, I was given the tremendous opportunity to create my own curriculum, after three years of being required to implement scripted lessons. In beginning to craft this curriculum, I did some research as to what the fifth grade expectations are in North Carolina to ensure that there are not any huge discrepancies between expectations in Wilmington and where I used to teach in Baltimore City, Maryland. I used this pacing guide to inform my own scope and sequence for the year, pictured below.
Above is a picture of my initial Scope and Sequence for the 2019-2020 school year. I used the standards from the pacing guide to inform the time frame that each standard is taught, but am able to utilize my own expertise of fifth grade curriculum as far as what content my students are exposed to within those standards. Due to the fact that this is my first year developing my own curriculum, I am constantly reflecting upon and adjusting my instructional practices. Below is a PDF of changes made to my scope and sequence between the beginning of the year and the middle of November.
I am a firm believer in problem based learning, and because of that, make sure to have an "application" week for every standard and unit I teach. For the first week, I focus on teaching the standard and providing students with practice in demonstrating mastery of the basic expectations of the unit. In the second week, I ensure that my students are college and career ready in their critical thinking skills and problem solving by having them participate in an application project in which they answer an essential question that is directly related to that standard, but provides students with relevant real life questions. Below is the breakdown of each unit for the year, organized through the focusing and essential questions.
IN
Summation
In creating and maintaining a plan that is focused on the year as a whole, I am ensuring that each unit, lesson, and activity are strategic, meaningful, and meet the rigorous standards required in order to provide my students with the skills and strategies that will support their success in fifth grade and beyond. By practicing backwards planning, I am also ensuring that I consistently use final assessments for student demonstration of comprehension that meet North Carolina state standards. In conjunction with unit planning and daily lesson plans, long term planning allows me to take advantage of all instructional time to best meet the needs of my students.