Planning Out My Year

Hi Everyone!

I hope that you guys are enjoying your summer!  I wanted to share with you how I plan out my upcoming year using my state standards.  My standards are called TEKS here in Texas.  TEKS stands for Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.  They are laid out by grade level and subject.  I teach ELAR/SS, but will just be focusing on the ELAR side of things today.  ELAR is wonderful because, unlike SS, you have a lot of options on how you want to lay out your year to best meet the needs of your students.

The first thing I did was go to our state website to locate my TEKS.  TEKS are found at TEA.Texas.gov and you can pull them up two different ways.

TEKS by Content Area 

TEKS by Grade Level

It doesn't matter which way you choose, as it is the same information on both PDFs other than the location of Figure 19.  I'll address that in a bit.  Once I pull up my TEKS, I scroll down to the Knowledge and Skills statements.  You need to read the introduction, but it isn't part of your planning process.

Start here:

Next, I open up a Sheets page on Google Drive.  You can use Excel if that is what you prefer to use.  I begin to copy and paste my TEKS one by one into my spreadsheet into columns. What is really important, and often overlooked is the Knowledge and Skills statement.  That is the wording right after the number.  I put all of the K&S statements in the first column.  I put the SE (Student Expectations) in the second column.  So, this means that a lot of times, I have to copy that K&S into multiple squares on my sheet to match up with the SE.   This is what it looks like:

Some SEs have additional information using Roman Numerals.  I put those with the corrisponding letters and continued copying and pasting the K&S and SE statements that go with them.  This is important because when we use these to plan, they are as important as a strand on their own.  If you just copy and past everything once, you will end up separating the K&S statement from the SE, and that will not help you understand what is actually being asked of the students.  As I'm doing this, I separate the TEKS by topic.  For ELAR, these are the topics I used:

Do not forget your Figure 19.  It is actually at the VERY top of the TEKS if you look at them by subject.  If you look at them by grade level, they are at the bottom of your TEKS, after Listening/Speaking.

Once I have these finished on the spreadsheet, I print them one sheet at a time and change the color of the paper I use for each topic.  My print settings look like this:

Once I have them printed, I cut them out without separating the K&S statements from the SEs.

 Then, I laminate and cut again.

Now, I have my TEKS ready to lay out and sort.  One thing I did with mine that I have fixed in the copy I am linking below is that I made writing and oral language the same color.  That has made it a little harder to quickly see the different topics.  

Reading TEKS

Research TEKS

Listening/Speaking TEKS

 

Writing Process

Writing TEKS

Conventions TEKS

Now that I am done with that, I want to start looking at the genres.  I like to start with fiction because I think it is the one our students are most familiar with in reading.  I pull my fiction TEKS and then see what else could go with this as a unit.  For me, that is TEKS 5.6A-C.  When you look at your TEKS and start to break them down, you will start to realize that there are TEKS that go with all fiction genres, informational genres, and all genres.  For me, TEKS. 5.1, 5.2A-E, 5.3, and 5.9 go with all of my genres.  They are my independent reading, vocabulary, and fluency TEKS.   

Once I go through all of my TEKS and decide what I want to go in each unit, I make a copy of my previous Sheets where I have my TEKS by topic.  I use it to create TEKS by unit.  My units are Fiction, Expository, Poetry, Drama, Persuasive, and Literary Nonfiction. 

I will then print these sheets to use when I plan out my lessons and activities.  I have attached the Google Drive links below to both Sheets I created.  They are view only, but if you make a copy, you can edit them in your own drive without messing with mine.

5th Grade TEKS by Genre

5th Grade TEKS by Topic

The art of teaching is absolutely fascinating to me.  I hope that even if you work in a district that mandates what you teach and when you teach it, you take advantage of really knowing and understanding your standards.  My biggest advice to any teacher is to remember that we do not teach data points, tests, or even standards, we teach children.  They are our "Who" and they must come first when designing units, lessons, and activities.  Be creative and never be stop being innovative.  Our students deserve it.  

With Love,

Amber Sparks