Weekly Pattern: A Typical Schedule

Scheduling is one of the most complex activities in elementary schools.  As we employ thoughtful attention to specific learning and professional development needs with the addition of special education teachers and assistants, reading specialists, coaches, regular education assistants and many volunteers, we find that setting up the weekly routine for best effect takes time.

At last my class has a routine that includes a positive variety for their learning interests and academic standards.  Take a look at our typical schedule below. Is our schedule similar to yours?  How does it differ, and how is it the same?

I use this template each week to add the specific lessons, activities and focus, then share out the schedule about one week in advance to all who work with the class.

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Short and Sweet

I was known as the teacher who created long, complex packets for student learning. I liked the packets because in the days of old, prior to technology, the packets led students independently from a place of content review to challenging inquiry.

For the most part, the days of the "packet" are gone and have been replaced by short, sweet introductions, practice and formative assessments. The short, sweet assignments give students a chance to practice, learn and demonstrate knowledge without becoming overwhelmed, then the inquiry, challenge and review is there for the taking with collaborative projects and tech venues.

The short, sweet assignments are quick to review, provide adequate information for further teaching and are a perfect venue for quick, meaningful feedback which is important when you are responding to large numbers of students each day.  These assignments also serve to inform family members of classroom learning goals and students' daily performance.

As with all new learning in education, I wonder why I didn't discover this approach earlier, and I know there are many teachers out there saying, "She didn't know that."  But "short and sweet" has been so successful that I just had to share. Let me know what you think?

Examples of Short, Sweet Assignments

Weekly Spelling/Grammar: This weekly assignment responds to common writing errors students make each week.

Literacy Tickett: This assignment takes a similar format each day and leads students Literacy Studio work (reading/writing workshop).

Measurement Problem Solving: This (not as short and sweet) responded to the observation that students in general had a very difficult time drawing and manipulating simple measurement models to solve problems.

Mini-Research: This assignment was the follow-up to several information text read aloud books where we discussed informational text structure and reasons for and the process for reading informational text.

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Best?

Now that excessive information is at our fingertips all the time, our job is to find the best information.

• What is the best, most flexible mathematical/scientific model to teach a concept?
• What is the best film to convey a specific content?
• What are the best methods to learn important information?
• What is the best field experience to develop understanding?

In the old days, we were satisfied to find a film, model, method or field experience, but now with the world at our fingertips, it is our job to find the best available.

While many are scurrying to produce online content sites, models, virtual experiences and methods--teachers have the responsibility to be discerning consumers of information, the masters who utilize continual processes of identifying, then utilizing the best of what's out there to teach children well.

Then those same teachers must guide students' to discern and identify information too so that they  become masters of the information they choose to use, not servants of the companies that produce the information. 

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