Next week I will completely take over the eighth grade classes and teach House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Since I will become, in my cooperating teacher’s place, one of the two eighth grade English/Reading teachers, I needed to plan and collaborate ahead of time to prepare for teaching the book.
To help with my planning, I created a House on Mango Street Unit Calendar/Unit Plan. I brainstormed ideas, activities, readings, and assessments and added them in, building off one another and matching the standards for eighth grade Reading/Literacy, Conventions, Writing Clearly and Coherently, and Writing.
Here’s what I came up with:
In the top right corner, I put the standards I want to match. As I added activities, ideas, and lesson rough drafts, I made sure they built upon one another. I even added Extension Activities (activities to go above and beyond, or for students who are ahead) in the last weeks to make sure that student learning was met at every level.
As I started thinking even deeper–towards standards and assessments in Standards-Based grading–I created a second planning sheet, this with highlighted categories for standards and assessments.
This was a visual of how my lessons were connecting to some of the power standards as well as how I was going to assess these standards. I am meeting with my cooperating teacher and the other eighth grade Reading/Literacy teacher today. Then I can start working on my assignment sheets and planning for activities which will start next week!