REVISING YOUR SCHOOL'S INDIVIDUALIZED PLANNERS

In a prior article, the topic of how and when to revise your school’s Educational Framework was addressed. This week’s blog will touch on tips for modifying the individualized teacher planners that accompany your framework, but before moving on to the how, it’s important to understand when changes must be made:

• If new curriculum(s) will be offered at your school, planners must be developed to support those teachers.
• If a teacher who previously taught a single-grade or level class will now be teaching a split-grade or multi-level class
• If you would like to push teachers further in their professional growth

With your choice(s) of when in mind: 

1. New Curriculum(s)

Accommodating new curriculums is a relatively easy fix, and all that is required is to copy planners already created for an existing subject area. For example, if you already have planners done up to support your Music curriculum and you are adding an Art class, the layout done up for a specialist teacher can remain the same; wording can be changed to reflect that it is a planner for the Art teacher and not Music, for example, swapping out “Music outcomes” to “Art outcomes.”

2. Split-Grade/Multi-Level Classes

​When it comes to modifying planners to accommodate multi-level or split grade classes, one will need to explore ways to add additional columns and rows to a planner to accommodate varying student needs, as demonstrated in the planner for a multi-level Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) class below. 

As you can see in the above planner, each lesson is split into three so that a teacher can plan for CEFR level A1, A2 and A3 levels at the same time. For more information on designing split-grade/multi-level planners see: A Planning Template for Multi-Level MFL Classes

3. Encouraging Professional Growth

If you want to modify planners to encourage professional growth at your school, your approach depends on whether you have opted to attach your planners using the Jigsaw Method or the Symbiotic Method, as each one carries certain limitations to how the planners can be altered. With your chosen method in mind, it then comes down to strategizing which of the options below may be the best option for you:

1. Adding columns/rows to teacher planners to incorporate new teaching methods
2. Switching rows or columns to encourage different thought processes
3. Removing columns/rows that are redundant and where staff have demonstrated a solid knowledge

To learn tips on how to mentor your staff using planner modifications check out the article below:

How to Use Planners as a Teaching Tool
 
With these strategies in mind, you’ll be able to keep staff planners up to date at your school, thus ensuring that teachers are empowered and equipped with the tools they need to help you meet your objectives!

Feel like you might need some extra support in keeping your Educational Framework and/or planners current? Contact us - we are happy to help!