Victor Hugo’s words were always in eyeshot when I was raising and educating my children:
“He who every morning plans the transaction of the day and follows out that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through the maze of the most busy life. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidence, chaos will soon reign.”
September is just around the corner.
It’s time to start sketching out a plan for next year—yes, NEXT year!
And we’re here to help.
Tip Number 3.
Planning Leads to Follow Through
Winter officially began December 21st. Spring will arrive March 2nd with summer on its heels!
Fall will arrive in the blink of an eye!
Now is the perfect time to begin thinking about the journey forward. As you get into the rhythm of winter, looking forward to spring, stretch your sights just a wee bit further toward the fall of 2024/25 and begin to outline for the coming school year! Begin by taking a peak at next year’s curated Grade Level Collection, or, if you are creating your own collection, make sure you choose both CORE and APPLICATION materials to round out a complete ELA course of study.
Here’s How:
1. CHOOSE 6 CORE Integrated Literature and Writing Guides
Blackbird & Company Integrated Literature+Writing Discovery Guides are CORE to our curriculum offering.
Our guides are tied to exceptional classic and contemporary novels across a broad range of genres. All levels — Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and 4 — are structured to guide students into the act of reading and the art of writing. This CORE offering follows a weekly format with ample room for students to catalog their unique observations and bring shape to their ideas.
2. Choose APPLICATION materials according to your student’s grade or skill level.
Skills are presented systematically from Phonics in the primary years toward Vocabulary Development (through high school). Grammar and Punctuation are thoroughly introduced in elementary, moving toward a four year exploration of Rhetoric in upper elementary and middle school.
Research Writing is introduced in late primary early elementary, and continues on through the first year of middle school. Creative Writing is formally introduced via Storymaker and again in the middle school three units exploring the art of poetry.
Compositional Writing, exploring essay form, is covered over 5 units beginning in middle school and culminating in the second year of high school. In the final two years of high school, students will put everything together that they have learned and practiced in the Long Research unit.