Teachers plan thoughtful instruction to help students meet high expectations. Instruction should be designed to meet the unique Utah Core Standards, so teachers will use a variety of resources, including teacher collaboration and their own deep understanding of the content to effectively plan and teach to the standards.
Goal:
I will use the Core Standards and collaborate with other teachers to plan my instruction. I will use a variety of resources, including text books, academic resources online, resources created by colleagues, and materials I create to meet all of the Core Standards.
Goal Reflection:
When I was earning my Bachelor's degree, I remember many assignments that required us to create a unit plan or a lesson plan. For each of the assignments, it was the expectation that we would go to the library, select a textbook, and use it as the sole resource to plan our lessons and units. I was taught to use text books to build lessons and to teach. I did not go into education right after graduating, so between the time I earned my Bachelor's degree and the time I entered the field of education, text books nearly disappeared from the classrooms. With the adoption of the integrated Common Core, and more specifically the Utah Core for math in Utah, old text books that mapped out the traditional sequence of lessons, in a format that was very procedural and attained a very low level of thinking, were all but useless. How was I supposed to teach without a text book?
My first year of teaching I used an online resource, the Mathematics Vision Project (MVP) which was designed to teach the Utah Core, as the main resource in my classes. Although I would adapt the lessons as needed, I followed the sequence suggested by the MVP. As my second year commenced, math teachers across all grades decided to rearrange the scope and sequence from the prior year to make better connections between topics. This meant we had to create our own materials since we weren't following the sequence of the MVP. We had to refer to the standards to figure out exactly what our students needed to know and determine the best way to teach it. This happened in bits and pieces in each class, but not quite to the extend that was required in my College Prep class which had no text book and no resource at all. My fellow College Prep teacher and I studied the Core Standards, grouped them by topic, planned units and then individual lessons, creating a cohesive scope and sequence for the entire year. In each of our lessons, we referenced the standard to be taught. Once the calendar was built, then came the task of figuring out how to teach the lessons. Without a text book, we were left to create our own materials or recycle materials from other math classes. I loved creating a scope and sequence like this for the entire year. And while I did it in my other classes, I did not reference the standards as carefully as we did in College Prep. Next year as I build my scope and sequence for the entire year, I will reference each one of the standards taught to be sure I hit up each and every standard. Having a clear understanding of the core standards adds clarity and a precise goal to each lesson.
My first year of teaching I used an online resource, the Mathematics Vision Project (MVP) which was designed to teach the Utah Core, as the main resource in my classes. Although I would adapt the lessons as needed, I followed the sequence suggested by the MVP. As my second year commenced, math teachers across all grades decided to rearrange the scope and sequence from the prior year to make better connections between topics. This meant we had to create our own materials since we weren't following the sequence of the MVP. We had to refer to the standards to figure out exactly what our students needed to know and determine the best way to teach it. This happened in bits and pieces in each class, but not quite to the extend that was required in my College Prep class which had no text book and no resource at all. My fellow College Prep teacher and I studied the Core Standards, grouped them by topic, planned units and then individual lessons, creating a cohesive scope and sequence for the entire year. In each of our lessons, we referenced the standard to be taught. Once the calendar was built, then came the task of figuring out how to teach the lessons. Without a text book, we were left to create our own materials or recycle materials from other math classes. I loved creating a scope and sequence like this for the entire year. And while I did it in my other classes, I did not reference the standards as carefully as we did in College Prep. Next year as I build my scope and sequence for the entire year, I will reference each one of the standards taught to be sure I hit up each and every standard. Having a clear understanding of the core standards adds clarity and a precise goal to each lesson.
Evidence:
This calendar was a collaborative effort of the College Prep teachers at Tooele High School. It was created at the beginning of the year to serve as a scope and sequence of the entire year. Although it was designed early on to cover all of the standards for College Prep, it was a fluid calendar, changing several times throughout the year as needed.
Reflection:
Last year, a veteran teacher retired, leaving her upper-level courses, including College Prep Math, up for grabs. My mentor encouraged me to teach one of the recently vacated upper-level courses, as it would be refreshing to teach and interact with students who have a solid grasp on mathematics. I agreed the opportunity would be exciting. And then, once I committed to teaching College Prep, the reality settled in. The only other teacher to have taught College Prep was retiring and I didn't have an obvious mentor for this subject. To further complicate matters, there was not even a text book to use, nor a detailed scope-and-sequence outline from the district to follow. Yikes!
A week before school started, I met with another teacher who was also assigned to teach College Prep math for the first time. We dug through the standards to build our own scope and sequence, referencing the standards for each and every lesson planned. Once I had the entire year outlined, I could finally breathe a sigh of relief. It didn't matter that there wasn't a text book because I knew the standards. It didn't matter that I didn't have a College Prep mentor because I had a plan. My colleague and I worked closely, planning our lessons, creating assignments, sharing ideas for activities, and writing common formative assessments. We used a variety of resources, pulling material from other math classes, adapting lessons we received as college students, occasionally referencing text books or the internet, and sometimes creating our own material to fit our needs. It felt so empowering to plan an entire year, knowing I covered each of the standards, and to do it all without relying on a text book.
A week before school started, I met with another teacher who was also assigned to teach College Prep math for the first time. We dug through the standards to build our own scope and sequence, referencing the standards for each and every lesson planned. Once I had the entire year outlined, I could finally breathe a sigh of relief. It didn't matter that there wasn't a text book because I knew the standards. It didn't matter that I didn't have a College Prep mentor because I had a plan. My colleague and I worked closely, planning our lessons, creating assignments, sharing ideas for activities, and writing common formative assessments. We used a variety of resources, pulling material from other math classes, adapting lessons we received as college students, occasionally referencing text books or the internet, and sometimes creating our own material to fit our needs. It felt so empowering to plan an entire year, knowing I covered each of the standards, and to do it all without relying on a text book.