The Shift

I'd be lying if I said I never sat in front of my sixth graders reading about Mesopotamia from the Social Studies textbook (though it makes me cringe thinking about it now).  In fact, when the shift in standards began, I felt like I was so overwhelmed trying to plan and comprehend the reading, writing, and math lessons and SS pretty much fell to the back-burner (just a short three years ago).  I know...I know...Bad Teacher.  Of course I still covered the content that was required.  HOW I covered it though falls closely in line with the following: boring, reading, shhh - read quietly, buddy read, short writing prompt (look, we're writing in SS), and more reading, occasional project, chapter review, chapter test.

I know for a fact I am not the only teacher finding themselves in this struggle.  Teachers, when you find yourself in this position, know that you are not alone, and there is a reason you are feeling this way.  Also know there are ways teachers are defeating the classroom bore (I know this because I did). 

The Problem with Lesson Planning:

Teachers are strapped for every single minute with their students.  With the adoption of the Common Core Standards or State Standards, we have been thrown into a world of unknown.  We must completely revamp any reading or writing assignment we have ever created or assigned.  We need to expose our students to authentic pieces of text, like primary and secondary sources as early as possible.  We must do this more deeply than looking at page 47 of our textbooks and discussing it.  Also, don't forget to incorporate writing into all content areas.  In math, spend a longer time on a single problem to discuss in more depth rather than drilling multiplication or practicing 20 problems with a partner.  We sometimes answer 100 or more emails a day between colleagues, administration, and parents.  We counsel families struggling.  We feed our students.  We offer to help them in the mornings and afternoons for no extra pay, just because we sincerely care.  At all times, be prepared to share what you are doing with your colleagues and ready for anyone to walk through your classroom to make sure you are meeting the depth of each standard you spent time each morning writing on the wall.  Oh, and if you didn't pose your essential question for the lesson - shame on you.  Teachers, listen closely.  Stop blaming yourselves. The reality is there is NEVER enough time.  

What I learned in the process is there are tools available that solve this problem.  Never allow yourself to dull your instruction, ever.  You can be a purposeful Science or SS teacher while still teaching the standards in ELA with fidelity.  Literacy Design Collaborative offers a framework that helps you infuse reading and writing across the disciplines.  More importantly, it offers multiple templates with discipline-specific options that make sense.  This was the answer to my boredom grading 5 paragraph essays and teaching writing.  Don't roll your eyes or feel like this is just another strategy that will be shoved down your throat (like I did when it was first brought into our school). Rarely do we hear of strategies to implement that start a chain reaction shift in the way you teach every. single. day.  LDC did that for me.  This practice transformed my teaching across all curricular areas and my students are better off because of it.

Since CoreTools lets you build your instruction based on necessary skills to meet a written product, it is difficult to find a part of the module that is not relevant to your classroom or teaching task (question students will answer at the end of the module in a written product).  Once I quit stomping my feet and embraced LDC for this design, I realized backwards design makes so much more sense. There was actually a moment I felt the light bulb turn on. Mini-tasks taught me to assess every step of the way by encouraging mini-lessons to be followed by some sort of product before getting to the final written product and realizing my students missed something (formative and summative assessments fall in here).  This thought process has completely attacked my lesson planning.  Let me also admit to you my students had no idea they were writing as much as they were.  A year and a half ago, my sixth graders were halfway into our Ancient China module when I had the chrome books out, research taking place, themed music in the background and I realized they love delving more deeply into the content and escaping the "Round Robin Bore" with textbooks.  Every single student was engaged.  Every single student was reading and interested because it was driven by them and they concretely understood the purpose of the assignment as well as where it was bound to go.

Heather Lacey
Follow my journey on Twitter: Lacey_HN
Email: Lacey.hn@gmail.com