Big-picture planning

Yesterday I was successful in completing some planning, although I really have to cut down the amount of time I take because I will not have all this free time during the school year.

I consider myself a day-to-day planner. I find it easier to think of a lesson for the next day when I know what I've already covered the day before and how to piece it together. I often would not worry if the entire curriculum is covered by the end of the year (because it really requires me moving way too fast for students learning a second language); however, yesterday I did some "big-picture" planning so that I could cover everything for the year (for my AP class at least). Although my AP students did relatively well (only 2 got a 2 or below), I did not get through the entire curriculum before the exam, and I know the extra vocabulary and grammar would have been beneficial. So what I did was break down all of the grammar, vocabulary, stories, and projects they would have to do for the year by quarters and then by weeks. Thus, whereas last year we spent waaaay too much time reviewing basic Spanish 1 concepts, I'm going to move through that a lot more quickly this year and make sure they have more practice with the newer concepts. I'll just have to wait until our daily calendar comes out for me to set the actual deadlines. (We have a rotating schedule that's different from day to day.) I think this year this class will be much more successful than last year.

Now I have to try to do this big-picture planning for my level 1 and 4 classes. I guess now I have something to do this coming week.