Rather than spend weeks re-teaching material from previous grade levels, Gateway Middle School faculty are approaching this year with an approach based around Accelerated Learning: strategically identifying the most essential skills students need catching up on to succeed in classwork going forward, presented in context with grade-level content that’s scaffolded so as to catch them up as quickly as possible.

This Curriculum Planning Guide walks you through that process for your grade level and subject, helping guide your thinking as you design and implement your early units.

This document, designed for department planning meetings, is meant to generate ideas about what students will need to combat summer learning loss, what you as an educator will need, and how to creatively meet those needs. Together, your team will consider: 

• Social Emotional Support for Students - How can we diagnose where students are and build more social-emotional work into the first quarter of the year?
• Community Building - How can we strengthen community in Quarter 1?
• Supporting Students’ Non-Cognitive Skill Growth - We’re going to continue asking students to be more independent. In what ways do we need to be coaches, and how do we plan for that?
• Curriculum - How can we plan for a curriculum that may need to shift, considering what instruction was missed in Q4 and that we may need to teach remotely again?

Gateway High faculty have assembled an impressive array of activities in all disciplines for students to take on during the summer. As they are ungraded and optional, all are designed to be relevant to students’ lives, maximize student choice, and be fun! It’s a great opportunity to go-in depth into topics constrained by the typical school schedule or that aren’t quite covered by state standards. And while it’s true most students probably have literally nothing better to do, the deal is made sweeter by a prize raffle: completed projects earn entries into two different raffles for teen-friendly gift cards. 

Gateway educators have compiled this quick tip sheet to help students understand how to reach out to teachers appropriately and effectively, going over the basics of business email and video chat etiquette, and even providing a sample email students can use to help them organize their thoughts when they need assistance. 

This activity is best done in a fairly large group (at Gateway, it was an all-faculty meeting), and will take a little bit of advance preparation: you’ll need to set up several dummy accounts on Google Classroom (or whatever learning platform your school is using) and “enroll” them in a standard course load. Small teams of teachers will then “shadow” the student – surveying a day or week as a student would to get a sense of what works well and what is confusing. 

This activity is best done in a fairly large group (at Gateway, it was an all-faculty meeting), and will take a little bit of advance preparation: you’ll need to set up several dummy accounts on Google Classroom (or whatever learning platform your school is using) and “enroll” them in a standard course load. Small teams of teachers will then “shadow” the student – surveying a day or week as a student would to get a sense of what works well and what is confusing. 

You’re working your butt off: rewriting curriculum, making videos, hosting zoom lessons, calling home, answering emails from students at all hours of the day and night. Distance teaching isn’t for the faint of the heart. But it isn’t easy for those tasked with doing the distance learning, either. If you’re finding that your students are struggling or are hard to keep in touch with, this PD exercise may help by inviting you to spend time in your online classrooms from the perspective of a student.

The High School schedule is somewhat simple, for older, more responsible students managing more of their work using Google classroom. This document emphasizes instructor office hours (a term deliberately chosen to mirror the practice they’ll encounter in college) and contact information -- many instructors opt for a fairly “open door” policy for students, while others manage meetings throughout the week. 

The Middle School version walks students through each day’s mandatory and optional activities. The school day “begins” with optional but highly encouraged morning meetings, which are opportunities for students to connect with each other and with staff, ask questions about the day’s work, and stay informed about announcements that impact the extended school community. Students are also encouraged to visit the virtual “Student Services Office” each afternoon for live support if they need help with issues not directly related to specific class content. The organizer also provides extension opportunities for students looking for stretch goals, and reiterates “schoolwide” norms -- slightly updated and adapted for the new learning context.

Along with calendar and grading information, these organizers can help clarify expectations for working together under a distance learning model, as well as points of contact for issues that may arise. Customize with your directory information and guidelines.