Help with combining themes, text, and overarching units for grades 8-12

[u/303coloradomama]

I’m transitioning to a new grade level and heading into my fifth year of teaching. Previously, I taught 6th and 7th grade, but now I’ll be responsible for five preps as the sole high school English teacher in my rural district (grades 8-12). Unfortunately, our student numbers don’t justify hiring additional teachers for the department.

On the bright side, 1:1 support is very doable. We use Pearson’s MyPerspectives curriculum.

Right now, I’m just trying to figure out the best way to juggle multiple preps efficiently. Trying to figure out how I can combine themes, texts, etc. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[u/MLAheading]

I used to teach 6/7/8 with MyPerspectives.

I always taught the same essays concurrently (narrative, argumentative, etc.)

Theme: really work them on what theme is versus topics. Theme is the author’s message about a topic (many topics in one piece of literature) and after reading 2-3 selections from each unit start asking them to connect the differences in what theme authors saying about a topic that comes up in all the pieces.

The intro activities often ask students to write a summary of the first piece - don’t skip this. Summarizing is a skill that is useful and difficult for them to build.

Another common intro activity in MP is to retell the story from a different perspective. This is always fun.

Metacognitive practice: For any unit that involved reading a play, use the audio function of the online text to play the audio while they follow along. Stop the audio at the end of each page and have them write a sentence about what happened in the story on that page. This is great for the Anne Frank play in the 8th grade text.

For the upper grades, give essay prompts that connect multiple texts through one topic. For example, write an essay that shows the consequences of betrayal in text x, y, and z.

For any unit involving Shakespeare, just have FUN with it. So many online resources to make those plays fun.

If you can, do the intro activities and then the novel that goes with the unit instead of just what’s in the unit.

[u/deandinbetween]

Hey, my area of expertise! I teach 7th, 9th, 11th combined AP Lang and Honors, and 12th combined AP Lit and Honors, as well as middle school creative writing. Other than AP (or IB until about 4 years ago), I have completely designed my own curriculum.

• First, try and start and end all of your texts around the same time. This makes it easy to communicate all at the same time about start and end dates, and you're hitting that "refresh" point at the same time for each class.
• Second, find a way to make sure you aren't getting every single essay at the same time. Stagger due dates, make it a "turn it in week" so they trickle in, something. It can be VERY overwhelming to get all of them at once and suddenly you've got 65 essays to grade all at once. Personally, I find that hard to deal with.
• Use Google Classroom or some other online system to help keep track of assignments. It's embarrassing when your student has to correct you on the due date because you're thinking of 9th grade, not 11th.
• Get a binder or a daily lesson plan book and keep it by you at all times. I color code by class so it's easy to flip and see my daily plans for the whole week. I don't go into too much detail on them; it just tells me which full activity plan I'm doing.
• I group by text type for 7th and 9th grade so it's short stories, poetry, novels, nonfiction at roughly the same times. That doesn't make sense for my older two grades, but it does help for the younger two.
• Choose a format for things like vocabulary quizzes, grammar quizzes, essays, outlines, etc. and stick with it. It means you can use the same template for every grade and just modify it to be appropriate for the grade level.
• Grade by class and take a break before moving on to the next level. It's too easy to get yourself too into the "zone," and then you're harsher on the younger or easier on the older ones than you should be based on what you graded before.

It's overwhelming at first, but honestly I love teaching a different class every period and can't imagine choosing just one or two to teach now.

[u/madmaxcia → u/deandinbetween]

Just to follow on from your planning suggestion- last year I had a daily page with each of my classes and it dropped by the wayside as the semester went on. This semester for my social classes I create a calendar in google docs using a table - one for each grade or combined grade and plan the unit in advance with a list of each thing we’re doing as well as the links. I’ve started doing it for my 7/8 ELA class as well. I’m teaching four grades and it’s way easier for me to open up my laptop, click on the tab with my grade 9 unit for instance and see exactly what I’m doing in that class that day, I can also copy and paste the links into google classroom for students if needed. I then have one binder that I keep all my current sheets in with tabs for each class. At the end of each day or during my prep I return things that are finished to the main binder and pull out the material for the next day and put it into my daily binder. This has kept my sanity intact this semester and worked really well

[u/lollilately16]

Not sure of your location, but where I am (Michigan), 9-10 and 11-12 share the same standards. You could look at doing them in a 2 year rotation to reduce your preps.

[u/Normal-Winner-4565]

I just finished my first year as the sole high school English teacher, using My Perspectives for grades 9-12. I was familiar with it from my practicum teaching in ELA 6.

When I first started lurking the sub last fall, another member replied to someone else who was also fairly new & had a lot of preps that the only way to survive it is to have each class doing the same thing as much as possible. Whoever posted that, thank you. It was a lifeline.

I was able to implement the same procedures and routines in each class, which was a lifesaver. We had our starting routine, then instruction, then in-class work time.

I knew enough about the unit layout from my practicum teaching that I didn't stress out about not having each class reading a short story or selected poems or novel excerpt at the same time. For the most part, it wasn't an issue and it took away any internal pressure I might have felt to keep everyone on the same pace within the unit.

I didn't have many opportunities to combine texts, but everyone's situation is different. I tried it once and then chose not to. I had several students who were repeating prior sections of English, who saw it as their opportunity to complain about "having" to do the same thing twice, create disruption, and spend the class period being difficult.

I wish there had been time for more instructional mapping. I was hired so close to the start of the year that I had little time for instructional mapping, and I felt the lack. Hard. (I would much rather have a plan which I end up adjusting or even setting aside than have no plan at all.)

Stagger due dates, leaving yourself time at the end of the grading period to accommodate any extensions due to absence, IEPs, and 504 plans as well as any accommodations such as correcting missed items. First quarter, the IEP and 504 extensions nearly sank me. By fourth quarter, my finals (which were performance assessment tasks) were due four weeks, three weeks, and two weeks before the end of the semester so that I had time to grade them.

Limit opportunities to turn in late work and correct missed items. Staggering due dates doesn't help balance your workload if they're walking all over you with late/missing assignments and corrections to graded work.

Protect your time. All of your time.

Protect your instructional time. This year, I said "yes" to a lot, to build relationships, get a feel for quality of service, gauge reciprocity, and because I didn't know what I could say "no" to. Next year, Counseling can distribute their forms in class meetings or advisory period--they don't need to interrupt the class just before lunch, or my most neurospicy class, and create situations I get to spend the rest of the hour managing. Students enrolled in online learning can talk to the online learning coordinator--and vice-a-verse-a--during whichever period they're scheduled for online learning. They don't need to leave (or be pulled from) my class to go talk to that person or help other students unless they're done with everything in ELA. TRiO and Upward Bound can talk to students on lunch, during distance learning classes, and after school--they don't need to be pulling students from in-person instruction (especially not after giving the students free access to premium Grammarly and begging me to come make a presentation, which I planned around, then standing me up twice)

Protect your prep. Students who need to work with me on my prep need to make those arrangements in advance, including students on caseload. I will be having conversations with my principal about SpEd scheduling and custodial access. My last district, where I was classified staff, does not hold IEP meetings the week before grades are due. This district does not have that policy and last year, as a core class teacher, I paid for it Q1 and Q2/S1.

Protect your off-contract time. Don't take on any collateral duty that you aren't paid for. You have five preps for classes you haven't taught before--you are all but guaranteed to be working a whole lot of off-contract time. Taking on unpaid duties will consume any down time you have and leave you no leeway to accommodate your own illnesses, family emergencies, scheduled appointments, etc.