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.