Tired of feeling stuck in your lessons and schedule and wishing for curriculum flexibility? Maybe you love to have your plans ready to go for the week or the month but you are quickly realizing that not adjusting your curriculum is hurting your students. I am always in favor of having a game plan but as I gained more classroom experience, I realize that I need to have flexible teaching strategies. When I can focus on what my students need and not what I think we should be doing at this point in the class, everyone feels better. You already have all the tools you need to create curriculum flexibility. This is why I am sharing my favorite flexible teaching strategies with you.
Before we dive into how I create a flexible curriculum in my classroom, I want to mention that one of the best ways to start changing curriculum is finding a unit that is ready to go for you. If you would like to have a stand-alone unit that you can insert into any part of your high school curriculum, check out my short story unit plan. This short story unit plan takes the guesswork out of planning your short story lessons. You have everything you need to teach literary elements, themes in lit, and short stories for high school. The resource includes a unit schedule, a short story lesson plan for each day, graphic organizers that go with any short story, and a theme analysis prompt.
My Ever Changing Curriculum
What My Flex Curriculum Looks Like
If your classroom is anything like mine, your classes have been hit hard by illness lately. With the flu, sinus infections, and head colds spreading like wildfire, this past week I had about a third of my students out every day. Of course, this happens the week we are writing our rhetorical analysis essays. These writing workshop days have mini lessons with me in each class and time to write.
The problem is that with so many students out, my kiddos did not have a chance to ask me questions, receive feedback, or have time to work on the essay. One of my personal beliefs is that when my students are homesick, they should rest and not be expected to work. So what do you do when you have so many kids on all different parts of the essay?
After checking in with my students, I decided to extend my deadline to those who needed more time. I added an extra day of writing for students who needed it and offered a bonus to students who had completed the essay on time. We were only two days away from Thanksgiving Break so it worked out well to give my students the break to finish if needed. My realization was that I was not going to grade those essays over the break so why not give those students what they needed? And that my friends are exactly what curriculum flexibility is all about!
Why Flexible Curriculum Changes Are Essential
When you aren’t tied to your schedule, you create a better learning environment for your students. They see that you are listening to their needs and input which helps to make them feel ownership.
Now, I am never suggesting that you skip essential skills or lessons for your students. I myself teach tenth graders and in my state, that means my students have a standardized test at the end of my unit. And I can tell you that adjusting my curriculum throughout the semester never hinders their learning or their scores. In fact, my students see value in what we are doing because I check in with them.
The point I’m making is that when you are set in your lessons and your curriculum, your students can tell. They feel that the pace is not for them and the lessons aren’t designed to help them. So if you are willing to give the flex curriculum a try, check out five ways you start implementing your classroom tomorrow!
Five Flexible Teaching Strategies For Your Classroom
Strategy #1: Create Stand Alone Units
A great way to help create a flexible curriculum is to have stand-alone units that focus on different skills. By having units that don’t have to build on one another, you can insert them anywhere in your curriculum. This flexibility means that you can mix and match each semester what unit you want to do based on your students and your calendar.
Having stand-alone units really helps to map out your semester or your year. You already know how many days each unit should take and you can plug it into your calendar. You also can decide based on how your students did before what new combination might work best for you. Or in the middle of your year, you can find a new combination of units that will appeal to your students and keep their energy level up.
For example, this fall I decided to switch my Shakespeare drama unit and my nonfiction unit. My students needed a break from reading passages and activities so I decided drama would be a great fit for them. They enjoyed having a chance to act out a play. By having these units ready to go, I can just add them where I think they will fit best for my students.
If you would like to start with a stand-alone unit but don’t think you have one ready to go, check out my Short Story Unit Plan. This short story unit plan takes the guesswork out of planning your short story lessons. In this print or digital resource, you have everything you need to teach literary elements, themes in lit, and short stories for high school. The resource includes a unit schedule, a short story lesson plan for each day, graphic organizers that go with any short story, and a theme analysis prompt.
Strategy #2: Adjust a Unit Schedule to Fit Your Calendar
Another way to create curriculum flexibility is to look at your school calendar. One of the best things is creating special, seasonal events that help to engage the students. If you are teaching your short story unit and Halloween is coming up, find a way to time up a spooky short story on that date. You could also create a celebration event to end a unit right before a break. Major breaks are always a great place to end units because it provides a clear end to a unit and leaves no homework for over the break.
Along with specialized days, think about ways to trim your units to fit the days in your semester or your year. I love to start units at the beginning of the week and end them as close to the end of the week as possible. Sometimes, in order to help create easy breaks in the schedule, you can extend a lesson for a day or two. Or you can go the opposite way and cut and combine lessons to help fit your schedule. When you create this flexibility, you allow easy ways for your students to have units that start and stop in logical ways.
Strategy #3: Cut the Fluff
At a recent PD, one of my friends shared that if you look at your lessons and take away all the pretty packaging, what do you really have left? Sometimes, as we teach our lessons, we realize that we have pretty packaging and fun ideas but what does that really leave? Sometimes, a flex curriculum means having the ability to change your lessons when you have too much fluff.
While realizing that some of your lessons are a little too fluffy, there is a positive to cutting out the extras. First, you get to have extra time in your schedule to focus on those special events that can add value and buy-in with your students. Secondly, you are able to create more valuable lessons for your students or be inspired by a new idea throughout the school year.
One thing that I love about teaching on the semester schedule is that I get two chances a year to try out lessons. For that reason, I am always thinking about new curriculum ideas, and I love having space in my schedule to try new ideas. By cutting out my fluffy activities that might be fun but don’t add value, I can focus on creating engaging lessons for my students.
Strategy #4: Use Informal Check Ins
Checking the temperature of your class is always a great way to decide how your curriculum can help your students. Now, I know that a lot of times, we as teachers hear that we should allow our research and our data to drive the curriculum. But to me, that seems vague and hard to pinpoint. What do you do when the data is all different? What about when you see something in the report but you don’t have time to add it to your schedule?
I prefer to check in with my students as we are in the unit. As my sickness triage story from earlier showed, sometimes we really have to hear what our students need. By taking some time at the beginning of a class, you can ask your students how they are understanding the lessons and the unit. I find that high school students can be brutally honest. If you ask their opinion, they will never be afraid to share. By having them share their thoughts, you might find some great insights for your lessons. You can also have them feel like they have some control because you are showing that you listen and care.
Strategy #5: Allow Students to Help Decide
Do you know how much you love getting to make decisions and have some choices? Remember as a teenager feeling like you had no say in most of your life? Why not give students a chance to feel like they are in control? For this part of curriculum flexibility, you are going to need to be prepared.
First, you need to think of a few ways that you can do your lessons or your unit. Don’t panic or overthink this part of the process. Could you offer partner work and a competition? Maybe your students would love music and individual work. Maybe they want to share as a class. Does your deadline need to be on that or could you add some wiggle room and offer incentives?
Once you have your options, you are ready to present your choices. Now, part of this flexible teaching strategy is to really sell it. If you don’t make these decisions seem like a big deal, the students will not be invested in making the choice. The whole point of this is to have your students feel in control, so let them be the boss for a little. By providing options that you have already planned, you won’t be upset by any of their choices. You can even mix and match and let students have different decisions as long as everyone gets to the end result.
More Ideas for How to Write Curriculum Changes
I absolutely love getting to share my ideas about how to make flex curriculum work in your classroom. I hope you and your students will have as much fun with the flex curriculum as my kiddos do. Feel free to use these ideas as inspiration for your own flexible teaching adventures. Show me what you did to change your curriculum and tag me or send me a DM @theteacherrewrite on Instagram. If you want to start right away, check out my Short Story Unit Plan. I can’t wait to see what you decide on how you are going to start to incorporate curriculum flexibility in your classroom.
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