What To Teach, What to Teach

This post is mainly for those teachers that have the privilege to teach reading.

There is so much involved with teaching reading and literature, just like all the other subjects.  But, the best part about being a Reading/Language Arts/English teacher?  By the time students hit middle school, reading is a review.

By 7th grade, most students have been taught elements of plot, characterization, mood, tone, and theme.  The majority of students have also learned the basics of reading functional, expository and persuasive texts.  In my opinion, this gives reading teachers a little bit more leeway in planning their reading lessons.

The best way to approach what to teach is to incorporate a few tools: 

1)  State standards
State Standards are a overview of what teachers are expected to teach and what students are expected to learn.  A lot of districts take their own state standards and make a pacing guide or curriculum map for teachers.  Most teachers are expected to follow these pacing guides.  I DID NOT!  I really, really tried to.  But, other factors were more important than following each story during each quarter of the year.

A lot of times, the persuasive, expository, and functional texts were left until the end of the year, when I tried to incorporate those texts throughout the entire year.  And the story choices were horrible.  My students didn't like most of the stories that were selected by the district.  So, I picked stories that I thought they would enjoy more.  I taught the same literary elements that I was supposed to teach with the other stories. 

2)  Textbook

This is the most obvious answer.  Every subject has a textbook or curriculum.  Become best friends (or BFFs as I like to say) with your Teacher's Edition and any supplemental materials.  Take them home during the summer when you're planning out your curriculum map for the rest of the year.  A lot of times they have lots of worksheets (I'll talk about worksheets later!), but they also have unique project ideas.  Lots of ideas for hands on activities, discussion topics, team projects, and suggestions for instructional differentiation, especially for gifted and lower level students.  The more familiar you are with your instructional materials, the better you'll be able to implement those activities. 

A lot of time I think teachers take for granted these materials, but these supplemental materials are written by education experts.  However, you always will know what's best for your students, so if some of those ideas don't work for your classroom, then don't feel obligated to do them.  Remember, teaching is all about experimenting, tweaking and trying again.  Teaching should never be perfect---if it is, how will you be able to grow? 

3)  District Pacing Guide or Curriculum Map

Try it out.  If following the district pacing guide or curriculum guide doesn't work for your students, then make your own.  I did not have a guide like this my first year teaching!  It would have helped so much!  I had no idea what I was doing, just kind of following what the other teachers were doing and looking at the textbook a week, (sometimes a day) before I was teaching the topic. 


I just realized that some teachers may not be familiar with a pacing guide or curriculum map.  This is a document that shows what you will be teaching throughout the entire school year.  It is usually divided up by quarters or semester, and it is specific.  My curriculum maps always had the name of the story, page numbers, standards, objectives and key ideas and literary elements that I was teaching.

If your district does not provide you with a curriculum map, I would try to meet up with other teachers that teach the same curriculum as you, and make complementary curriculum maps.  It's always a good idea to get ideas from other teachers, especially those more seasoned teachers.  :) 

4)  Student results from previous state tests and pretests

As always, assessments should guide instruction.  The objectives you write, should be geared to your students and their needs, not what you, as a teacher are supposed to teach.

If a class is better with tone and mood than plot, you'll just need to review tone and mood a little bit.  You'll most likely have to cover plot a bit longer for your students to get a hang of it.  There will always be discrepancies between students--- No two students have the same exact level and ability!

NO matter what I was teaching, no matter how far behind a student was or how far ahead a student was I always pushed my students to keep reading and to keep going.  I'm a firm believer that anybody will become a better reader the more they read.


Figuring out what to teach can be emotionally, mentally, and even physically exhausting.  The important point is to keep moving forward!  You can do this.  Even with all the problems that education is having these days, know that you are making a difference in the lives of your students, and they are our future!  You are doing a wonderful work---just keep going!