Whole Year Curriculum Map & More

A really terrific past principal, Bobbi Sexson, taught me to use a very simple, 3-column planning map for each year. I LOVE IT. It works. It keeps me on track. When I start to get sidetracked, start thinking about cool lesson plans I've found on Pinterest and then all-of-a-sudden think: "Hey, where have we been and where am I supposed to be taking them?" I grab what I call my TEACHER'S MANUAL. I look in it to see an overall month-by-month plan for topics.

Bobbi taught me the curriculum map. I took it a few steps further. I teach 6th, 7th, and 8th grades in language arts. So within this one binder I have 3 tabs: 6, 7, and 8.

Within each tab I have: 1) a syllabus, 2) a year curriculum map (mentioned above), a year of published writing due, and a copy of the Common Core Standards.

I will show you photos of each.

Writing
As far as the papers due page, Note: I started out doing an all-out writer's workshop. For my students, I found they were struggling with the concept of writing whatever genre they wanted to write. They wanted structure and clear directions of what was expected and they wanted due dates. So, I created a "modified" writer's workshop. They keep a "Writer's Binder" in class with 5 tabs with the writing process and they move their work into the tab for the stage they are in. Mini lessons instruct them on the Six Traits, paragraph writing, essays, leads, formats for different genres, and more. They MAY write anything they want and all will be at different stages in the process; however, they have clear expectations for due dates for genres. In the past, At the beginning of the year, I give them this list of published papers due each month.

Here is my own created "Teacher's Manual" that is my 'bible' for the year.

My Lesson Plan Books

I've tried a variety of ways to keep files and plans, and for me using binders has been the easiest and best organized when teaching 7 periods. I keep a three-ring binder for each month. On the outside I label the book using free Chevron patterns provided by Teachers pay Teachers. On the inside, I use a Table I created in Word. One column is for the period, class name, and time. The second column is for lesson notes, and the third column is for the objective. The lesson portion is not a full-out 5E lesson plan; it's simply what I need, which are steps and reminders about the full lesson. Also, regarding the objectives, sometimes I write SWBAT ..... and write a legit objective. These are MY guides for lessons, though, and sometimes I find it easier to just write the topic in the objective column. I can skim through pages later and see what topic we were on and find things quickly.

I use one page (front & back) for each day's lessons.

Within my binder, I have a pocket tab for each week. 5 Lesson Plan pages are behind each week. Resources, tests with keys, worksheets, more detailed schedules, etc. are behind the LP Schedule pages. The first one of each group is tabbed with the grade, either a 6, 7, or 8.

Here is an example of a resource page within a Grade 6 Tab.

These are what my monthly lesson plan binders look like. It becomes my filing system.