Image from New Africa shows blonde woman in white shirt sitting at desk frustrated with lesson plans in front of her.

Curriculum Planning Starts with Students, Not Scripts

Whether starting with a new unit, returning from an extended break, or starting the year fresh, knowing exactly what to focus on can be tough. There’s a lot to consider. State standards. The program in front of you. And, of course, the needs of your students.

But what happens when the curriculumm doesn’t match what your students need?

What if that intersection of student needs, state standards, and the provided program creates a traffic jam? Where do we start?

With what your students need. Always.

Kate and Maggie Roberts give us guidance on this tension with an important reality check. In their book Unboxing the Curriculum, they remind us that “we are responsible for growth in ability, not fidelity to the details of a plan.”

I couldn’t agree more–it’s always about fidelity to our students, not the script.

How do we do that?

**By starting with the data, then moving onto the program.**

Let’s say you’re about to begin a new unit. This idea works exactly the same whether starting a new unit or a new school year.

Step one: look at your data.

This can come from the previous year’s ending assessments, your most recent computerized assessments, and of course your own classroom assessments. Classroom assessments might include end of unit summatives, quizzes throughout the unit, informal formative checks, conferring notes, and observations. It’s all data, and it all tells a story.

What are the big trends?

You’re going to see trends related to overarching standards and you’re going to see things that are never measured by these tests–things like stamina, whether students do or don’t preview a text, and where they currently are in the journey toward mastering a big skill, like retelling or summarizing. These are things that matter a lot, but will never be addressed in the program lessons. The program lessons assume a one-size-fits-all approach.

Starting with where students actually are is key to making it work.

Step two: look at the program.

In the upcoming unit, where are the lessons that address the standards-based data you’ve gathered? Hopefully, there are some. If so, take a look at those lessons. Number one–do they actually match what your standards ask? Will your students be ready for the lessons as written or will they need some scaffolding? Will some extra time for that scaffolding need to be built in?

Looking at what standards work students need in relation to what they’re being asked to do, and planning for it ahead of time rather than diving into the lessons and hoping for the best, will help you set students up for success. This will also result in fewer headaches for you.

What if your program doesn’t actually include lessons on what your students need?

First consider if this particular unit even lends itself to some of the standards students need. You might, for example, be about to teach a narrative unit, but your data shows that students are low in a standard related to informational text. Since this is a narrative unit, use this information to help you plan a later unit that is more conducive to informational text.

However, chances are pretty good that there will be natural places to include or add some work on those needed standards within or alongside the existing lessons. Decide where these will go.

Step three: consider how much time you’ll really want to spend on things.

Maybe that suggested 10 minute lesson on point of view just isn’t enough. Or you know reading the given passage will take 2 days, given its complexity. Make room for these things. Conversely, maybe there are lessons in skills your students are already strong in. Plan to use less time on these, or even replace them with a more pressing need.

“Perhaps one of the most important principles for educators is that it doesn’t matter what we teach; what matters is what students learn. If we cover something and students don’t learn it, then what have we accomplished?”
Richard Curwin, Edutopia 7/31/12

I know what you’re saying at this point.

That there are 50 other things the lessons ask you to teach.

That’s why step four is all about discernment.

What isn’t necessary? What can be streamlined? What’s actually realistic in your given timeframe?

There’s just no way anyone can get to it all. And there’s really no reason to think you should. If we’re going to do what’s best for students, then the data we have must be a major driver of what we spend our time on. There’s little sense in plowing through a bloated set of lessons in a unit if many of those lessons don’t line up with the skills and standards your students most need to work on.

As well, there’s little sense in plowing through lessons that are sure to need more scaffolding or more time than the program assumes.

“It takes courage to say that something in a pre-written or pre-packaged curriculum doesn’t fit your students this year, or that they need more practice with something that isn’t given enough time.”
Kate and Maggie Roberts, Unboxing the Curriculum (2027)

What it comes down to is keeping the main thing the main thing. Student data tells us what they need. Standards tell us where we want them to go. The program gives us tools. But it’s teachers who make decisions.

Is this always easy? No. There are administrators and district leaders out there that believe the program is the be-all, end-all. There’s usually state funding tied to this decision. It’s through real and honest conversations, where we don’t put the program before the kids, but rather put the kids first, that adjustments to the program in order to truly help the kids can be made.

It’s not “use the program or do not use the program.” It’s using the program to support students, guided by teacher expertise.

This means truly knowing what your standards expect. It means keeping your students’ data front and center. And it requires a willingness to adjust the program when it doesn’t match what they need.

The program is just a tool. It’s not the decision-maker. You are.

When we start with our students, then use the program to help us get them where our standards tell us they need to go, we’re doing what we’re supposed to do in the first place: making instructional decisions based on what students need to learn.

Coach from the Couch Michelle Ruhe doing virtual coaching session for literacy teachers.

Who is Coach from the Couch? I’m Michelle Ruhe, a 25+ year veteran educator, currently a K-5 literacy coach. I continue to learn alongside teachers in classrooms each and every day, and it’s my mission to support as many teachers with this hard work as I can.