Throughout my years of teaching, there have been moments where we have had a smaller class size (occasionally from illnesses a lesson ended earlier than expected, or inclusion minutes), and these moments were perfect times for enhancing lesson objectives from our curriculum. My team and I also took advantage of these days to work on IEP goals and objectives and re-teach curricular lessons that the learners struggled through or give them another opportunity to learn them differently with different materials. In this post, I will share ways to review your curriculum and work with your team to enhance activities. 

The first place that my team and I start is reviewing the district’s pacing guide. Reviewing this outlines the timeline for academic parts of the day as well as other important dates. My team added to our unit themes and other modified curriculum topics such as SEL lessons, executive functioning practice, and increased time for practicing functional routines. After reviewing this information, we sort out all of the classroom materials to match the lessons throughout the year. Organizing the classroom in monthly order increases our time management when switching out materials or needing to grab something quick for 1:1 and small group opportunities. I also take data on these moments to add to our progress monitoring dates to increase trials and data opportunities. 

We have had some learners who are missing pre-requisite skills for curriculum lessons. In these cases, the learner benefits from a modified curriculum for a part of their day. This is when my team and I dive deep into the curriculum and review past, current, and future lessons and their objectives. This takes time, however, it is important to review the curriculum in-depth each year. This ensures the team’s understanding of upcoming lessons and can pair them with the state standards appropriate to each appropriate grade level. My team and I match lesson objectives to activities for both enrichment and differentiation per our learners. 

I am a believer that the best practice and expansion of skills that have been learned is to engage in those activities where our learners can use the skills within the community and school building. Embedding opportunities for our learners to work on their skills within different environments is a great way to take data on generalization and maintenance of skills! My team and I also organize and set up independent work tasks for extra practice. Meeting as a team and organizing lessons and activities within the classroom and through special services can be a bonding time!