I have always loved the beginning of a school year: setting up the classroom, the opportunity for a fresh start, and most of all, the excitement of meeting a new class. (New school supplies are fun too!)
As I posted last year about this time, I encourage you to consider a weekly language arts schedule to help simplify your planning. Teaching is undoubtably challenging and increasingly complex. Simplify when you can and capitalize on routine. Determine what needs to happen every day and what will occur once a week: build these components into your timetable from the outset.
Consider these questions:
- How can you embed the strands of language–listening and speaking, reading and writing, viewing and representing–into each day?
- How might you give students daily, low-stakes opportunities to practice reading, writing, and speaking?
- What will you do to ensure students experience joy and success with each strand of language?
Simplifying your planning should not simplify your students’ experience with language. Rather, by creating a weekly schedule you can be more intentional about using your timetable to enhance language learning.
“The key is not to prioritize what is on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” Stephen Covey