ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS RESOURCES

SAMPLE PLANNING GUIDE FORMAT

Both the curriculum standards and the skills needed for the assessments should span the year, and a simple format like the one below may help structure the plan and may be completed with varying degrees of detail, as needed. While the chart may initially be filled in with plans for the year, teachers may find it helpful to mark changes and/or additions as the year progresses and plans change.

With concerns about teaching grammar and conventions to address goal 6, teachers may wish to add an additional column for their plans to incorporate study of grammar and language usage throughout the year. Again, teachers should consider their students' needs each year, as well as the alignment with other courses. The example on page 6 follows the format below for one teacher's English II course.

To take another approach, teachers may want to plan each unit on a separate page, collecting them all in a notebook. Placing state and local guidelines into a form like the one below would allow teachers to demonstrate to themselves and others how the SCS is fulfilled through the collection of units. The example provided on page 7 has been adapted from one local system's guidelines for English I.

Many possibilities exist for creating planning and pacing guides to fit a teacher's style and needs. But, as Jim Burke, author of the English Teacher's Companion points out on his web site (www.englishcompanion.com), "Effective curriculum design requires both micro and macro planning. If you cut straight to the obvious and all-important question, "What am I doing on the first day?" you might preclude certain options later on."

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