Teachers' Common Core Planning Toolkit
A guide for elementary teachers
Step One: Choose The Theme(s) or Content
Think about a unit or topic that you can build or improve upon using the new standards set forth in the Common Core. Is it a content area unit that you'd like to use to teach some of the literacy standards? Is it a language arts unit that must now incorporate informational text?
Decide, as you always do when planning:
- how much time you can devote to the topic
- what your enduring understandings are
- what your essential questions will be
- how you will engage students at the outset of the unit
- what scaffolded lessons will aid students in answering the essential questions
- what students will do (A helpful list of power verbs is available.)
- how you will assess student learning (both formative and summative assessments)
- which parts of the unit will involve whole-group, small group, and individual work
If this kind of planning is new to you, an excellent one hour webinar with Kathy Glass can be found here. Glass, author of Mapping Comprehensive Units to the ELA Common Core Standards, provides downloadable templates and documents at her website to assist you.