My cooperating teacher has a huge back-catalogue of resources and curriculum maps from decades of teaching experience. The lesson plans themselves have all of the necessary ties to state and federal standards plotted out, with each part of the process laid out clearly in the event that a substitute needs to be involved. However, my CT has covered these lessons and projects so thoroughly that they’re able to plan and implement them with relative ease, and has an intuitive understanding of what needs to be adjusted for a class or differentiated for a student with specific needs.
They follow a definite ‘quality over quantity’ approach, planning a limited number of projects for a given class that they can complete on time and achieve lasting success with results they will be proud of. They’re given room to make adjustments to the curriculum if things are taking longer than expected, and allow students to work at a pace that suits them best. Projects may be swapped in or out as the class proceeds, and if a student really doesn’t care for an assignment adjustments are often made. Each assignment is at it’s core an opportunity to learn more about design principles, aesthetics, or an underlying message like advocacy, and as long as the student is coming away with these learning objectives concessions are allowed.
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