Standards and Curriculum Maps

I am a new teacher who went to school with teacher accountability and No Child Left Behind at the forefront of lessons. I had to write every lesson plan to target a state standard. My cooperating teacher when student teaching was a veteran teacher and didn't glimpse at them at all. Does my school force? No. We did do some training at the beginning of the year to help align teaching, but my school doesn't slap writs for straying.

The other day, I was chatting with another (more experienced) teacher and she asked, "Did you teach about rocks and minerals, yet?" Without any thought, I immediately, in an appalled way, replied, "No, it's not in the state standards, why would I teach it?" I think there was a moment of silence before she burst out laughing. I quickly tried to backtrack my words, making them sound less snappish. But, besides teaching the Solar System much longer than I needed, I haven't straying from this belief all year.

I set up curriculum maps in September to guide me through the year. I carefully plotted out Language Arts, Math, and Science/Social Studies to best fit my own teaching style. Besides using the Reading Street curriculum for reading books and Saxon worksheets for math work, I was free to do as I pleased. I am most thankful for this. In Science and Social Studies, we have been jumping around the textbooks and are FINALLY starting the textbook from page one with our last unit on plants and animals. 

My year, in essence, with Science and Social Studies looked like this:

September: Space and Solar System in Science and Communities in Social Studies

October: Inventions and Change Over Time to cover standards in both

November: Native Americans, Pilgrims, and Comparing Civilizations 

December: Force and Motion, Sound and Light

January: America- Maps, Customs, Important People, Symbols, Changes Over Time, Revolutionary War, Independence, Branches of Government, and Responsibilities of Citizens 

March: Matter, Weather, Temperature, and Seasons

April: Economics- Goods and Services, Resources, Currency, and Opportunity Cost

May: Plants and Animals

And then viola, all second and third grade standards were covered (or are being covered now). How could I have time to add rocks and minerals when I want to teach in depth lessons. I want my students to still be able to tell me what the main groups of Native Americans were in Minnesota. I want them to be able to burst into a rap about the Solar System and tell me what type of simple machine is leading up to a doorway. Even dates have stuck in their minds and they told the Arabic teaching that the Declaration of Independence was signed on what date (month and day given by a second grader and the year given by a third grader). 

Are they tested on this information? No. But whether or not I support strictly adhering to state standards or not, I understand it and do follow this. I am also happy that my students have developed a deeper understanding, rather than jumping around to one topic after the next to read the entire Science and Social Studies textbooks. 

Freebie for Science and Social Studies

We create a World Habitat Mobile when studying the Desert, Rain Forest, Tundra, Grassland, and Ocean Habitats. They turned out to be adorable and a good cumulating activity.

Get: World Habitat Mobile Here!

What Do I Do in the Classroom

As mentioned in the last post, I wanted to post what I have done in the class. Although I am no expert teacher, I am thrilled that my students have raised in scores (minus two, which one went down a point and another stayed the same). For working with at-risk categories of students, I have set my bar of expectation at that of any school with privileged students. I tell my students this. I tell them that I give assignments at higher levels and that I grade hard. My C is what an average student will get. You need to work hard to get an A. 

A number of parents have been unhappy that this is my teaching philosophy. In the past, many of the students, to my knowledge, received higher grade. Since the parents have realized my grading scale and teaching practices, students have risen to meet my standards. Over the year, more students are testing (on my tests) at B or A level than at the beginning. 

If it hasn't been apparent, I do teach at a charter school. I believe this is important to state. I believe charter schools take a different approach to teaching. Now, that be said, every classroom across America and the world, believes that each child should succeed. However, I think charter schools will take the approach to specify how they will do this across the entire school. Our school really stresses teaching all standards and having students know the standards and expectations.

Anyway, before getting off task, here is some of what I do already:

Areas that we have done strongly in, we have spent a lot of time on. In math, we have covered a lot of topics. I expect fact fluency. Each day, my students have either forty, 100, or 200 math facts to complete. My students also spend time on xtramath.org and use flashcards for fractions and the four operations when they finish the daily math assignments. I do not use flashcard games, but am hoping to implement some coming up. 

With the combined classroom, I taught the whole class at the beginning of the year on topics such as place value, rounding, and +10/100/1000s. When standards began splitting, I implemented four leveled math groups. Students went through rotations: lesson, Saxon (which we use the program), facts, and game (sometimes a center, sometimes an independent sheet). After winter break, I did grade level lessons with the other group doing all the seat work when not in lesson. Now, I am again teaching the whole group. We are covering geometry and I am giving third grade assignments and lessons to all students. 

In language arts, I teach each group separately for 45 minutes and have 30 minuets with both groups. This time is when the other group goes to lunch and have recess. I eat lunch during quiet time. We use Reading Street and I follow this, but teach additional activities in the progress of what I feel is right. I use literature circles, research projects, and standard-based lessons (especially with parts of speech and writing topics).

On that note, I do not find the writing portion of the Reading Street curriculum is all too impressive; so I stress creating writing assignments of my own creation. Sample prompts have included: What super power would you have? Write about what you would do with your super power. and An alien came down to Earth and you were the first human it saw. Describe Earth and humans to the alien. We do this almost every week. I do not grade them, but let the students know what I expect and offer comments. I always insist that they write two complete paragraphs at a minimum. We also do oral readings of works every once in awhile. This encourages students to write with purpose and write so they will be able to read the work later. 

We do a comprehension assessment every two weeks. This really gives the students practice with test-taking. I take full advantage or edinformatics.com, which allows public to look at old state tests from around the country. New York, Massachusetts, and Flordia have some of the best selections, and I print a passage and its questions for my students to take. I have all students take a third grade test (as this is what is available at the sites). 

I send homework daily (expect one similar day a week), which allows students to practice more at home. Each is a front-to-back page. There is typically math and spelling/language arts. I occasionally send a science or social studies sheet home, but I try to do these in school. The students are also expected to read at least 15-minutes a night. We subscribe on raz-kids.com, which is something that a number use at home. 

I have also used other resource books for language arts and math, including: Scholastic Success (Grade 4), Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills (Grades 3-4), Spectrum Spelling and Math (Grades 2-3), and a few others. I give a mixture of these to my students, regardless of the grade students are in. I do need to get a hold of a few second grade books, I do have one big book of curriculum topics, but I can't remember the name off the top of my head!

I hope these help for others to find success in their teaching. If anything else, take a look at the links, they are very beneficial! 

Finished With NWEA Testing

Fofta! We're finished with testing! I do have one student who I accidently put the wrong test on for, so he will have to take the right one. I'm bummed because he did well. Hopefully, he will score just as well. I'm sure he will be at proficient, hopefully above like the other one too.


One score definitely shocked me. I hadn't thought one of them was as high as he was. It blew my mind! But, it helps to know where he tests! He is one of the students who rarely turns in work. In the first month I had him (he came in near the end of October), he turned in two assignments the whole time. Hopefully, he will now start pulling in some work. In language arts, he is still very below, but at least in math his is above expectations!


So, my scores have now almost completely switched with how many were well below and how many were above- which is fabulous! Of course, there are still a number that I will have plenty of remedial work ahead for!

I'm very pleased with the number that have gone up, but I am very concerned about those that are very low. There is one that is a recent immigrant to America and I am thrilled that she has drastically jumped; but I will understand when she is still in the low percentile in reading in the Spring. The others in reading and all in math are a concern. To keep the post from being too long or off topic, I will post what I will do after learning results here and what I already do in a separate post.

I admit that I have a harder time teaching language arts with my class. Because of a split classroom, I haven't had as much time with the language arts block. If it were one grade, I would have a full one-and-a-half hour block. As it is now, I probably have an hour per grade and half-an-hour for a combo lesson.

What I will do:

Since I have seen the results, I have been looking for ways to build comprehension and fluency. I have opted to change the format of my quiet time. Working with an Islamic student base, I have quiet time in the afternoon. If they want to pray, they can use this time to do so. It has also been a quiet work time, draw time, or reading time. I have changed this to the only option (other than praying) is reading time (or if they really haven't finished work, work time). I hope this will open up more excitement for reading- since being an enthusiastic reader will help build fluency.

I am also planning to implement centers. I haven't done this much. Working with second and third graders, it is harder to create center activities (in my opinion) that fits with both levels. But, I believe my low second graders would very much benefit from centers. I hope to create challenging ones for my upper level students too. I already have comprehension giant jenga and sight word regular jenga, but I need more!I discovered: fcrr.org, which is a collection of activities separated from K-1, 2-3, and 4-5. Best thing? They're free!

In math, I will stress word problems even more. This will hopefully build problem solving skills. Data Analysis is the other area of which my students will need more practice. I have not covered this topic with my third graders, so it will be a topic coming up soon (after geometry and measurement, the other area my students struggled with most). 

We have also gotten an account with ixl.com, which will allow students to practice benchmark items in math. I aim to create remedial packets for my low students to take home and work on too. I will try to enlist help from parents to ensure that the skills expected of them will be practiced. I am a huge supporter of teacher-created items. I spend a lot of my time creating assignments and packets or of collecting items that will specifically allow students to practice benchmarks.

All of this will be quite a task, but I have a big focus on my class and trying to ensure each to succeed. I am crossing my fingers that the students will grow even more and all will rise up to meet the standards as best as they can!