There are 190 days in the extended year school, and it is crucial to have a long-term plan so that students are set up for long-term mathematical success. DC Public Schools does have a Eureka Math curriculum and a recommended pacing guide already created, but I still went through and decided which standards were most crucial for me to emphasize and continuously spiral throughout the year.
Source: DC Public Schools
DC Public schools has the recommended pacing calendar, as seen above. However, I still modified this pacing calendar to spiral and pre-teach particular skills. None of my students are on grade level, and the majority are over two grade levels behind. It was necessary I added the necessary prerequisite skills and spiraling to my long-term plan so that students can access grade level content. My long-term plan is as follows:
Above all, this plan emphasizes these three critical skills that are “must-haves” from the 7th grade for students to be successful in the 8th grade:
- Applying all four operations to manipulate rational numbers. This a newly introduced skill in the 7th grade that is critical for long-term mathematical success. I introduced adding integers the 3rd day of school and have continuously revisited adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing positive and negative numbers every day.
- Solve one-step and two-step equations to isolate a variable. This will set students up for success in the 8th grade when they must solve multi-step equations.
- Translate between a graph, equation, verbal description, and table of a proportional relationship. This will set students up for success when they must do this for all linear equations in the 8th grade.
All standards are taught and re-taught as necessary, but these three critical skills will be emphasized even more so that students are most well set up for long-term success.
Collaborating with Colleagues
I collaborate with colleagues in all steps of the planning process. We meet once to twice a week formally for our LEAP seminar, where we discuss how to improve our teaching practice. We often create long-term plans, unit plans, and lesson plans collaboratively. We also model instruction for each other and give feedback. These meetings include special education teachers, general education teachers, and instructional coaches. I have attached below an excerpt from Whetstone documenting our LEAP seminars.
Mary (Vansuch) Silverglate 