Saturday, July 13, 2013

Sweet Summer Time

Summer is in full swing, but I don't quite feel relaxed yet. Since school's been out I've actually been working on rewriting our 4th grade reading curriculum. Does your school pay teachers to do this as well?
We are basically starting from the bottom up, changing everything as we go. The CCSS is quite specific about the expectations for our students, and in order to prepare them we have to raise the bar. So, a coworker and I spent the last few weeks breaking apart the standards, prioritizing them into units, and finding challenging texts to use as exemplars. When we started I thought it was going to be much easier than it actually turned out to be. However, we are almost  finished and I am completely ready to start my summer.
While it's been a lot of work. Every unit now has:
Suggested Text and Other Resources
I can statements for the students to track their learning 
 Suggested mini-lessons broken down by targeted standards
 Sample lesson plans and thinking stems
 Graphic organizers
Exit slips
 Formative assessment options

7 units later and my brain is a little fried! One of my goals this summer was to work on things for my TpT store, but after this, all I want to do is lay on the beach and read a book!

What things do you work on for your classroom over the summer if anything? Do you take a break and turn off your teacher brain for the summer, or spend hours like me revamping and rethinking lessons?

2 comments:

  1. What reading curriculum does your state use? I LOVE the checklist for the standards with the "I Can" statements and the suggested minilessons! Those are probably things you could sell on your TpT store. You did all the work - might as well put it on there if you can! :)

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    1. We don't use a specific reading curriculum. Our reading units were all put together by teachers. We broke down the Common Core State Standards into units and then found materials to best help us meet those standards. And I'll give putting it on TpT a thought! Thanks for you comment!

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