There are many different publishers and textbooks available to schools, but all curricula are not created equal. Some are superior, some are mediocre, and some can cause major problems in the classroom. We should be wise and well-educated on what these different publishers are offering so that we (or whoever is choosing the curricula) can make good decisions for our students. Here are a few of my thoughts on the topic of choosing curricula.

1. Those who are choosing the curricula for schools should be extremely knowledgeable about it, and if they aren’t, they should check with trusted others who are.
2. The best curricula have content that is not too simple or too complex for most of the students in any given class to understand.
3. The best curricula are well-paced and don’t move too fast or too slowly.
4. The best curricula do not have tedious, repetitive tasks that cause students to tune-out because of the length of the exercises.
5. The best curricula have good visual presentations–not necessarily colors–but the font is large enough and there is enough space between lines in the homework section (not the text itself) so that there is no visual overload which can lead to confusion.

When I think of curriculum and understanding content, my Algebra I teacher always comes to mind. She was one of the best teachers I ever had. She was very intelligent and easily understood the material, but she was wise enough to know that it wasn’t that easy for us, because we were learning new concepts.

She would slowly present the new material at a rate where our brains could have a few seconds to think of which step would come next, rather than having her show us or tell us all the time. She paused and gave us time to think. She would also present enough examples that by the time she finished the sixth or seventh one, we completely understood the concept and were itching to do some on our own. I loved English–not math–but she presented it in such a way that I began to love algebra. Our books had exercises that focused on the one skill that we had learned that day. It was a perfect combination–a good book and a good teacher for Algebra I and II.

I don’t remember the name of the books we used, but they were extremely well-paced. We only learned one new concept a day, and we had the time to master that concept before we applied it in a different way, such as dividing when we had been multiplying.

I’ve seen some curricula that in one day taught a new concept, gave only one or two examples, and then quickly showed how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide using the same advanced concept. Besides not giving enough examples for students to completely understand and master the concept, throwing in the other ways to apply the concept just confuses students and leads to one of the major problems with some curricula today: exposure vs. mastery.

Many educators or school boards seem to be impressed with curricula that do this very thing. They expose students to many different concepts, usually rather quickly, without giving students the time to master them. Students feel frustrated and confused, but the teachers/school boards/whoever chooses the curricula think that the curricula is superior because it moves quickly, has lots of advanced concepts in it, and exposes the students to many more concepts earlier in their school careers.

The problem is that usually a majority of the students aren’t truly understanding the material and certainly aren’t able to master the concepts. They are usually just confused, struggle through it for a day or two using their short term memories, but cannot accomplish the skills on the test as week or two later.

Most curricula end up at the same place by the high school years. I feel it is detrimental to students to have complex concepts presented to them too early, when having a slower-paced, solid foundation will much better prepare them for these same concepts in later years.

I also feel that in a school situation, what is best for the majority of the students is what we should be striving to use. Why should a majority of the students suffer and be confused because we are using an “advanced” curriculum to benefit the top 10-20% of the students? That’s not fair.

I also have seen some curricula that move too slowly and are way too predictable and simple for students to use. Students need materials that are challenging but attainable.

Every teacher has his or her own favorite curricula, but there are a few danger signs in choosing these that I’ve noticed over the years.

1. Teachers like to use curricula that they used when they were in school because it is familiar to them.
2. Teachers like to use the curricula that they have already taught because it is much easier to teach it again the second or third year.
3. Teachers say that it’s hard on the students to change curricula.

I would disagree with all of these reasons, because the most important thing should be that the students can understand the material well. If we are using books that confuse the students (look at their grades to see if they are confused) just because we as teachers have already used them and it’s easier for us to use, then that’s just being selfish on our part. We should do what is best for the students.

I have found that it is not hard for students to change curricula. I’ve done it with them numerous times. There may perhaps be a different term here and there, but I’ve never seen a normal student struggle just because he is using a new curriculum. I think this is often referred to or used as an excuse because certain students struggle with academics in general, and thus it is easy to blame the curriculum, when the real issue is that the student generally struggles in school.

My next blog post will address the issue that good teachers can make any curriculum work.

1. They can lie and say, "I'm not doing that," when they are.
2. They can say, "I am doing that, and I'm so sorry."
3. Or they can say, "I'm not doing it. It's the truth. I didn't mean to. I didn't even know what I was doing."

The first day of second grade arrives. The eager students appear at your door with confidence. They know what school is about. They know the routines and procedures. They know where the rest rooms are and where to put their lunch boxes and coats. They can find the kick balls and know how to play the recess games. They can read and write, add and subtract. They are not the little people in school anymore.

Then the school day starts. Suddenly some of them realize that they don’t know so much after all. Those words that were so easy at the end of first grade now elude their memory and the long pages of print look daunting. The facts on the math sheet are stored far back in their brains. The pencil feels clumsy in their hands. And this new teacher doesn’t do things like the teacher last year did.

You, as the teacher, may also be wondering what these second graders learned last year. You may be thinking that you’ve been handed a class of struggling learners. Even if you were the teacher who taught them in first grade, you may be surprised at how much they’ve forgotten over the summer. Things that were easy at the end of first grade are often difficult at the beginning of second grade. You will need to build a bridge over the gap.

The learning loss during summer is more apparent between the first and second grades than any of the other grades. The gap between the reader and the non-reader is also more noticeable when second grade begins. Some children—especially those whose interests lie outside the school walls—will spend very little time with letters and numbers during their summer vacation. The students who find reading easy and enjoyable probably spent time enjoying reading. Reading takes practice and those who practice are better at it than those who don’t. For many children, summer is about exploring the outdoors, helping mom or dad, playing with siblings, enjoying the release of the constraint of school. It is not about sticking their noses in the books. For them, second grade begins with a bit of a shock.

The beginning of second grade can be frustrating to the teacher and the students alike. The schoolbooks are on a second-grade level while the students’ skills may be closer to the end of the third quarter of first grade. It will take patience and perseverance for both the teacher and the student but eventually it evens out and dependent students become independent workers once again.

Following are some ideas that can help take the frustration out of the first weeks of second grade.

• Expect that most of the students are going to find the work difficult to begin with. They are adjusting to new books, new methods, and possibly a new teacher.
• Depending on your curriculum, plan to do a lot of work together as a class instead of independently during the first few weeks.
• Second grade will start off by reviewing some of the things they’ve learned in first grade. Ask the first-grade teacher how they taught those things. Maybe they used a slightly different terminology or a certain chart. Help link this year’s material to what they learned last year.
• To help bring reading skills back to where they should be, use choral reading practice. Read directions chorally (all together). Read story problems chorally in math. If students are not ready to silently read a bulk of material, read it chorally. Choral reading can include the entire group, or divided up into smaller groups for various selections. You need to be attentive during choral reading so that not only the strong readers are doing the reading. The teacher should be the leader. Everyone needs to participate and should read at a pace that will not lose the slower reader. If done well, choral reading gives practice and feedback to the struggling reader¹.
• Make use of flashcards and extra drill for math facts. If the facts were learned well in first grade, some extra practice will soon bring them back to mind.
• Recognize that adjusting to school schedules and routines is tiring to bodies and minds. Provide breaks as necessary.
• Explain, model, and practice your routines, procedures, and rules. They might be different from what students knew last year.

Eventually you will look back and realize that your class is not one of struggling learners after all. They just needed time and practice to settle into second grade.

________________

See this article for more choral reading helps:

A trove of information, tips, songs, and rhymes, this document helps teachers train young students to read confidently. Originally presented at Faith Builders Teachers Week 2022.

Written prayers are a way to come to God when our own hearts feel reflective, silent, confused, overwhelmed, or exhausted. They allow us to speak true things that help to align our hearts and minds with what God is doing and what He wants to do through us. These �Prayers for Teachers� can be prayed by individual teachers or collectively as a staff team as a way to commune with God throughout different seasons of the school year.

Our Father,

The One who knows all things, we long to learn more about You this year.

We long for You to open our eyes to Your grace and goodness.

We long to see You all around us.

We long to feel You leading and guiding within us.

We long to recognize Your hand at work in the lives of our students.

We know that You are already present in every part of our school year, but we ask for a deeper awareness of Your presence.

This school year stretches before us, open with opportunity.

We know there will be many delights�moments of joy and laughter and excitement. We ask for open hearts to revel in these gifts from You.

We know there will be many challenges�moments of frustration and despair and disappointment. We ask for the courage to face these situations with grace.

We know there will be successes and triumphs this year. Give us the humility to remember that we may plant and we may water, but it is You who gives the increase.

We know that we will experience personal failures and weaknesses this year. Give us the perspective it takes to remember that You are a God who can work out all things for good.

Help us to care about the things You care about. May the minutia of our daily tasks not steal our focus from the opportunities You give us to speak life, build character, and make Your name great.

Help us to love our students as You love them. May we see each child as uniquely, beautifully created by the One who makes no mistakes.

Help us to view all things as service to You, whether it is preparing our lessons or playing soccer or cleaning up after a sick child or emailing an upset parent.

We want to be Your hands and Your feet.

Thank you for the incredible privilege we have to impact these lives. We cannot do this alone. Thank You that You are always with us.

Multiply our small efforts. We are excited to see how You will do exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask or think this year.

We walk gratefully into this school year knowing that You are here.

Amen.

Poetry is a wonderful addition to any classroom. Children are naturally drawn to rhyme and rhythm, and poetry has an inherent sticking power. It fosters enjoyment of language, it builds vocabulary, and it can help children to find a voice for thoughts and feelings that they are otherwise unable to express. For these reasons, I have worked to incorporate more poetry in my classroom, and here are two of the easiest ways I have done it.

1. Have a poetry reading time every day. I typically do this after our morning break time, since it’s a nice way to transition back into class. Sometimes I call it our “mini story time.” I have several books of poetry especially for children, and I simply read a poem aloud from one of them. Sometimes I read several, depending on the length and on how much time I want to take that day. I might make several comments to introduce the poem, but not always because good poetry speaks for itself. I can put as much or as little planning and forethought into this as I want. I like to include seasonal poetry or poems that have to do with something else we are learning that day. For instance, I read Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride” when we learn about Paul Revere in history class. But often I choose the poem on the spot or just keep a bookmark in the poetry book and read whatever comes next. So even if you have a tight schedule and feel like it’s impossible to fit in one more thing, you may be able to squeeze in a bit of poetry reading. It can take less than a minute out of the school day, and all it requires from you is a bit of planning to have some books of poetry readily available.
2. Plan ahead for poetry memorization. Before school begins, I choose a set of poems to memorize with my students that year. I aim for one poem per month, though we spend less time on short poems and more than a month on some longer ones. I provide copies for the students, and we recite the poem together every day, usually at the beginning of language class. Like the poetry reading, this takes very little time out of class and demands no planning or preparation on my part after the routine is established. With the daily repetition, most students are able to recite the poem by memory within a few weeks. Following is a list of some of the poems I have memorized with my third graders:

“My Dog” by Marchette Chute

“A Vagabond Song” by Bliss Carman

“A Tale of Two Conquerors” by Charles Ross Weede

“God Is Like This” by Rowena Bennet

“Look at the Snow” by Mary Carolyn Davies

“The Eagle” by Lord Alfred Tennyson

“Somehow, Not Only for Christmas” by John Greenleaf Whittier

“The Chickens” (anonymous author)

“The Year’s at the Spring” by Robert Browning

“The Swing” by Robert Louis Stevenson

“The Blind Men and the Elephant” by John Godfrey Saxe

I have found memorizing poetry with my students to be delightful and rewarding, and most times the students love it.

How will you include poetry in your classroom this coming school year? It only takes a bit of forethought and a few minutes out of each school day to gift your students with poetry that may stick with them for life.

Teaching is demanding. We constantly look for ways to be efficient and reduce stress. But in all this, we need cultivate a servant heart – one that honestly asks, “What is best for each student?”

Tens of billions of brain cells work in delicate balance, giving us the ability to think, memorize, express emotions, and enjoy social interactions. We will consider how technology effects these important abilities.

This talk explores the effects of confessed and unconfessed sin on the four main characters in Nathaniel Hawthorne�s Scarlet Letter: Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth, and Pearl Prynne. Confessed sin does not equal repentance. This session is taught from the perspective of a high school teacher.

Cramming for Bible memory is frustrating for both students and parents, and it is NOT hiding God�s word in their hearts, yet that is what a majority of our students do. This session will present several practical ways that teachers can use to help and to encourage students to memorize Scripture long-term. These methods have worked for me successfully in the classroom for ten years, and students have remembered their Scripture passages months and even years later. Grades 1-12.

Have you ever wondered why some teachers have such an easy time relating to students, and why some teachers seem to struggle with almost every interaction? We plan to tackle this head on by looking at case studies (successes and failures) of teachers that I have observed over the past 30 years. The focus will be on relating to and interacting with students of all ages on a day to day, professional, appropriate basis. Our goal will be to present practical relational strategies that are time teste

Everyone in the world has a specific role to fill to make others' lives better. In the same way, when school staff and students use their talents and collaborate together, great things can be accomplished. But how can we teach collaboration? Jeremy shows how Jesus and others taught with collaboration, and then discusses how we can teach in the same way.

In this first session of his series on "Educating for the Kingdom," Jeremy Sauder defines both education and the "kingdom." He then turns his focus toward teaching with compassion, using Jesus and others as examples.

Creativity is found in the people of the classroom. To have a creative class, teachers must pay more attention to their students then to projects or programs. In his second talk in the "Educating for the Kingdom" series, Jeremy Sauder discusses how teachers can teach with creativity.

To educate for God's kingdom, we must get to the root of a matter and take action. Both of these things require us to think. As teachers, one of the greatest gifts we could give our students is the ability to think well. Jeremy Sauder discusses how to teach students to become critical thinkers.

When students tell you they can�t do something, what are they really saying? What�s behind the expression of defeat? John Mark suggests three possibilities: the student may be expressing a belief about people in general; the student may be dealing with a unhealthy reliance on the teacher; or the student may be expressing a fear of failure. He also gives suggestions on how to respond.

You have just presented the best project of the year to your students. The students start working, and automatically you see that they are not motivated. They might not say "I don't care," but their actions tell you otherwise. John Mark explores what is going on when students say or act "I don't care."

When faced with a difficult concept or task, students often ask, "When will I ever learn this?" What is behind this familiar and frustrating response? In most cases, John Mark suggests, the question signals confusion or a lack of stimulation.

What tests should a Christian student pass to be a graduate from a Christian school? Are high GPA and SAT scores the sole metrics for success in Christian education? Lyndon discusses the breathtaking opportunity and accountability in teaching character, developing work ethics, and instilling kingdom values beyond the books. This breakout is presented from the heart of a grades 7-10 teacher and dad.