This post *could* be lengthy, but I’ll try to be brief, because it’s 12:15 in the morning who knows if what I’m saying right now makes sense.
I’m teaching Geometry next Fall for the the first time ever, and there are numerous blog posts that I could make to describe the events that brought that about, but I’ll leave those for another day (or not). To make a long story short, my school has offered a normal track Geometry class in the past, but it wasn’t actually in any course sequence, hardly any students opted to take it, and it most definitely wasn’t CCSS aligned. Well Geometry is my baby now, and it IS a required class in our school’s math sequence, and as of tonight, it is aligned to the Common Core State Standards.
I have unit titles and everything!
I leaned heavily on the Scope and Sequence Draft by Patrick Callahan and Brad Findell. I think they had some excellent ideas in the arrangement of the standards, and in most cases I kept their work in tact. The only major change I made was moving the the Trigonometry unit earlier in the year, as the students will need exposure to those standards well before the PARCC PBA and EOY exams. A minor change I made was to combine the the Geometric Measurement and Dimension unit with the Modeling unit. I think the standards read very closely together, they are very “calculus-y” and being a Calculus teacher, I think I can take the opportunity to point the students toward the direction that the math will be going when they leave my class and move onto Pre-Calculus and Calculus.
One more thing I should mention. My Geometry class will be a third year course for HS students. Our traditional sequence is really not so traditional in that students take Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and then Geometry. I think it’s going to work out great for me, in that, my students should be well-versed in Trigonometry, will have dabbled in some of the conics, and should have a great handle on coordinate systems by the time they reach my class. Because of this, I’ve included the (+) standards in the arrangement, even though those are not tested by PARCC and are usually left for a fourth HS course. I’m going to give them a shot.
Anyway, here’s how I have the units arranged. Critique.
Geometry Unit and Standard Arrangement DRAFT
Edit: The coloring of the standards is from the PARCC Blueprints. Green is major content, Blue is supporting content, and Yellow is additional content.
This training is being hosted by Achieve, Inc. and will focus on their EQuIP Rubrics and Student Protocols. I don’t know much about the latter, but the rubric is a great tool to evaluate current offerings in textbooks and lessons to see if they are really “common core aligned.” It can also be used to supplement/aid your own original curriculum and lessons to make sure you’ve covered everything in the right amount and way.
What is TeachFest?
War and Piecewise Functions 