On Today’s Episode: Curriculum vs. Teacher Created the Pros & Cons

• The pros and cons of math curriculums 
• The pros and cons of teacher created lessons
• My recommendation for how to spend the bulk of your time during math planning

We know the limitations with our curriculum, but sometimes a new curriculum just isn’t the answer either. In a recent interview with Zeba McGibbon on the podcast Kindergarten Cafe we talked about the struggles with getting a new curriculum. You can listen to that episode here.

Boxed curriculums are made for EVERYone… which means they are not tailored to your students needs. That is an important idea to keep in mind as you’re progressing through the lessons and students are bored and seem to “already know this” or the lessons are moving such a quick pace that students just seem to be going through the motions, but not really getting it. YOU, teacher friend are the expert in the room. You are the expert on your students and YOU are the decision maker. It is up to you to decide when the right time is to slow down, supplement, pre-assess and skip lessons.

As I discussed with Zeba sometimes the curriculum is completely different than how you taught before and you’re being urged to have “Fidelity” to the program/curriculum to see if it works. From a district perspective of management that makes sense. However, it remains true that YOU are the expert in the room and you know what is engaging your students and what’s putting them to sleep.

So what are the pros to a curriculum?

• Vertical alignment. This allows students to build understanding through the years and build on the previous years understanding. 
• Materials. Having workbooks and lesson slides ready to use is helpful to your preparation. Curriculum are usually well thought out with TONS of hours poured into the creation of them. 
• Balance of standards and distribution of them in a scope and sequence. Having a map of the year is helpful, knowing what you’ll teach when is helpful because you know you’ll be covering the major standards for the grade level within the year. 
• Provides resources for homework, extra practice, family support, online programs, etc. These are often extras that curriculums provide that are not things teachers love creating. These can be useful if utilized.

What are the cons to a curriculum?

• Heavily focus on procedural fluency vs. conceptual understanding first to build procedural fluency. 
• The feeling that one lesson per day is the requirement and moving on before students are ready. 
• Pacing Guide– Districts often create these to help teachers ensure they get through it all in the year, but it ends up feeling like a requirement rather than a guide. This hinders teachers ability to use their professional judgment in order to accommodate their students’ needs. 
• The tasks are often not relatable to students– I was in a math classroom with what I think is a good curriculum… and the task was about ONIONS. Like no 8 or 9 year old is going to a farmers market and interacting with a farmer and their onions. These tasks mathematically were good, but students were having a difficult time accessing them because who cares or even likes onions as a 3rd grader! 
• May be filled with “busy work” to check the boxes of ‘Our curriculum has _____’ marketing tactics. After all, curriculum companies are companies and companies are trying to make money. One thing that comes to mind are the slides that accompany curriculums. They aren’t always great or aren’t designed for your students’ grade levels.

But is teacher created the best option if your curriculum isn’t cutting it?

Not always, there are limitations with teacher created too. 

What are the pros to teacher created?

• Tailored for your students – relevant contexts and numbers/problem types that meet students where they are with what they need 
• Can go at a pace that suits your students 
• Allows you to have more flexibility with your pacing

What are the cons to teacher created?

• TIME. Making all the things takes a lot of time 
• Inconsistencies among teachers and grades if there isn’t a clear scope and sequence for all to follow 
• The use of “nick names” for math vocabulary that gets confusing for students long term

I’m sure there are other thing we could add to this list. So, I am a fan of you creating resources that feel more relevant to your students… however I am not a fan of you spending all your time on creation because… there are TONS of high quality resources out there!

Of course you can visit TPT and find high quality math tasks. However, a word of caution that everything that looks good does not mean it is good.

One thing I offer teachers within word problem workshop is the ability to gain a FULL year of editable word problems for their grade level. I usually do not offer this outside of WPW but for listeners of this podcast episode I’m going to share a special link with you to get you access to that resource. If you’d like to purchase a full year of word problems you can visit MonaMath.com/YearofWordProblems. They are available for grades K-5 only for $29 for a full year of word problems! 

Here is a list of places to go for high quality math tasks:

I think you should spend the bulk of your planning and prep time on the following three things:

• Analyzing student work 
• Planning for a task by forecasting the progression students might solve on 
• Developing integrated lesson plans that include math warm ups, math tasks and discussions, and SEL lessons that address the needs you’ve observed in class and on formative assessments

You can use your curriculum and do the three things I just mentioned and see great results. You can also gather math tasks from the resources shared and do the three things I mentioned- analyze student work, plan for the task, and develop engaging lessons that will lead to math proficiency for students.

Here’s the deal you do not have to create everything.
You also do not have to follow your curriculum lock step.

There is NO guarantee if you teach every lesson in your curriculum that your students will learn it. Instead, you need to utilize formative assessments, analyze students work, and plan responsively to meet students needs. That is how you’ll ensure students learn. Working with your grade level team to determine your goals for each unit and choosing strategically what tasks in the curriculum meet those goals might be a good place to start.

I’d love to hear your feedback on how your curriculum and other materials work together in your classroom. Send me an email or instagram message @hellomonamath on IG or hellomonamath@gmail.com

Links Mentioned in This Episode

• My interview with The Kindergarten Cafe podcast on getting new curriculum
• Year of Word Problems (K-5 for only $29!)
• High Quality Math Tasks List

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• engage every student in problem solving, daily.
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