AI Took my Curriculum... to the Next Level⬆️

Ya'll already know the startup life, for every teacher, coach, or school administrator that has said yes Planning Period, there are two that have said no.

Every great founder knows that every no is a treasure trove of information to get to a future yes. So we asked all of our "ones who got away" and here's what they said:

"It has lots of potential, but we've already purchased our curriculum for the year"

"No thank you, we already use our state-provided curriculum"

The underlying assumption in these statements is that the Planning Period suite of tools is a curriculum replacement and let me tell you...

Planning Period was designed to help teachers make the best use of their curriculum. So today, let me show you how you can use our suite of tools to:

• Make curriculum your own by creating resources that are tailored to your students' lives and interests.
• Differentiate curricular resources to empower diverse learners
• Expand the reach of your curriculum by creating even more resources.

Let's try it out together using a 6th lesson plan from Georgia's Inspire ELA curriculum:

Make it your own

This lesson features an amazing essay titled "Fish Cheeks" by chinese-american author Amy Tan, in which she describes her struggles with cultural assimilation as an immigrant, more specifically, feelings of shame when white guests join her and her family during her holiday celebration.

I know that my objective of the lesson deals evidence and character analysis, but within this lesson plan there are other supporting standard objectives such as ELAGSE6RL10 which deals with a student's ability to comprehend poetry, among other genres.

I also know that I have two students who recently moved from Jamaica to my classroom in Columbus Georgia, so I found an awesome poem that showcases pride and love for Jamaican holiday foods, and used the Worksheet Generator to create a quick warm-up activity for students to complete as they come into class.

With this warm up activity, I've engaged my students by grounding my lesson on their lived experiences AND provided a rigorous start to the class by engaging them in deep questioning. Most importantly, I've started the class setting the tone that culture is something to take pride in, not something to be ashamed about.

Differentiate 🔀

As in most classrooms in the United States, my students did not start the year with the same levels of background knowledge, vocabulary, or reading ability. So, it is my responsibility to ensure that they can read and understand the text that we'll be centering the class on, which will give them the capacity to engage in the amazing discussions I have prepared for the day.

So, I'll use the Passage Leveler to make Amy Tan's essay decodable to students that read at the 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade levels.

Making the text accessible to all reading levels present in my classroom is one the of the easiest way I can ensure engagement throughout my whole lesson cycle, as now all my students will be "text experts" and will feel be excited to share their thoughts on Amy Tan's amazing essay.

Expand 🌎

Let's fast forward to the end the lesson, I've given my students a quick exit ticket and determined that about 4 of them did not truly grasp the lesson objective, so we should review their misconceptions together so that they're up to speed as we move along next class tomorrow. Good thing that I planned for the last 20 minutes in class to be spent on independent work stations using the Station Planner.

Following the topic of pride in one's heritage, I am going to make a Game station featuring Calle 13's song "Latinoamerica", which covers themes of preserving one's culture, and being unapologetically proud of coming from Latin America. I might even consider setting up a space for students to listen to the song before they engage with the station's task.

I am also going to make a Group Discussion station featuring a quick read generated by our Passage Generator, which will feature simple story about a Ghanaian 6th grader that inspires his friends to try out the delicious West African dish known as Fufu.

Now, I've made sure that the last 20 minutes of my class are both rigorous and meaningful for all of my students, and have secured ample space and time to re-teach and review any misconceptions some of my students may have had during today's class.

We don't replace curriculum, we land it🛬

The education system is filled with a plethora of curricula, and as teachers, it is our responsibility to deliver this curricula in ways explicitly fit, affirm, and mirror the many experiences in our classroom.

That's exactly why we created Planning Period, because teachers needed way to land all of their learning materials to the context, culture, and identity of their classroom. Our suite of tools was never made to replace your curriculum, it was made to help you make it your own, differentiate it, and ultimately expand it in benefit of your students.