UNPACKING CURRICULUM DOCUMENTS

We’ve all been in situations where we need to unpack quickly and efficiently: perhaps it’s
your vacation and you want to get that swimsuit out of the suitcase and hit the beach; OR you’ve just
moved into an apartment and really need to find the coffeemaker.
Beginning teachers often face a particular KIND of “unpacking” ~ they are
sometimes hired just before the schoolyear starts or are dropped into an LTO
situation. In either case, they are faced with many tasks, including going through all
those grade resources!
TIPS:
1. ASK another teacher in your division to run you through the key points in each resource
2. Are you the ONLY teacher in your division? This is often the case in smaller schools. Ask your
principal to link you with a teacher from another school who’s teaching the same grade. Ask them
for advice.
3. Divide and conquer: link up with other grade-level teachers in the system. Each person takes on
ONE of the subject resources, unpacks it, and then reports back to the group.

Looking at each resource binder:

NEED: highlighter, Post-Its = 1 hour

a. Scan the Table of Contents
a. Teacher Manual
b. Student Book
b. Skim Teacher Manual Opening Notes, Programme Overview, Components* ~ ad Post-It’s for any
page you want to quickly access
c. What do you NEED for coming month? Don’t try and absorb whole year at once.
d. Go to Unit Planner selected for coming month. Photocopy the Unit Planner ~ you will mark this
up, highlight, write in reminders and questions, etc. If you’re teaching the same grade next year,
you can pull this out and re-use
a. Key expectations: these will drive your assessment and reporting
b. X-curricular suggestions = saves you time = “2 for 1”
c. Materials you will need to gather [most should be in the school …!]
e. Look at the Student Book for first two lessons. Some Teacher Resources have student pages as well; many
don’t.

* You will need to check that all the “pieces” are with the resources. Unfortunately, CDs and DVDs and whole
sections of the manual often go missing. Many TMs are now online, so you don’t have to lug huge binders back-
and-forth and you can access missing sections.