Clarity Works | A Practical Guide to Theme-Based Planning for Diverse Classrooms

Whether you found your way to this course through Clarity Works, through a workshop, or through a colleague, you've landed in the right place. This is a space to slow down and get clear about your teaching, in your own words.

Every strong classroom starts with a belief about what students deserve. In this lesson, we look at where a teaching philosophy comes from, and you'll begin reflecting on the moments and experiences that shaped how you teach.

Your philosophy is a living, breathing part of your classroom. In this lesson, we look at why naming what you believe changes the decisions you make about curriculum, lessons, and instruction.

Let’s bring it all together! You'll draft your teaching philosophy. We will use this as your guide for the remainder of the course and your own planning.

Find the discount code to take the remainder of the course here.

Structure creates freedom. Before adding anything new, we take an honest look at your current teaching style, as well as what structures are in your room to support your students.

Let’s take a look inside your classroom. In this lesson, you'll inventory your students, your instruction, and your expectations, then reflect on how these demonstrate the philosophy you just wrote.

Predictability lowers the stakes and raises the accessibility for students. We look at four routines that build safety and independence, as well as the signifance behind the arc of learning throughout a week.

We will build two sustainable routines for you and your students. You'll choose the ones that make your beliefs visible and plan exactly how you'll launch them with students.

This is the module where your unit planning actually starts to take shape. We will explore and develop your theme-based unit that you can implement with students at the end of this course.

Start messy! We dump everything out first, then organize it into something you can build from to create your theme-based unit.

Your Anchor Theme, Anchor Vocabulary, and Essential Questions are what hold a unit together. In this lesson you'll choose all three.

Name your final project, write the blurb students will read on day one, and map the unit in weeks. Plan with the end in mind!

Your philosophy becomes visible in what you do every day in your classroom. This module is about the moves and strategies that you implement to show your beliefs about teaching, learning, and supporting students in action.

Students can't show their learning if they haven’t seen how to do it first. We look at two kinds of modeling, yours and your students', and why a model is a valuable support for learning.

Think in phases, not days. You'll give one week of your unit a shape students can feel, and check that it moves them toward the Essential Question.

One structure, every lesson. We will put together a simple rhythm you can run again and again, so students always know what to expect.

A strong beginning gives every student a way in. This module is about laying the foundation before diving into content and heavier text.

Students need background knowledge before they need text. We look at why a shaky start costs you, and how many days to spend building it.

Personal connections, word webs, anticipation guides, and more. You'll choose the word-based activities that open your unit.

Picture sorts, freeze frames, and simulations give students another way in. You'll sequence your opening days and check that the launch reflects what you believe.

Everything you've planned now goes into practice. This is where students move through the work and arrive at the destination.

Why are students reading this? You'll choose your annotation approach and the organizer that structures their thinking toward the final project.

Creative assessments that ask students to demonstrate their learning in new ways. You'll plan one individual and one group activity, and how you'll set the group up to succeed.

Models, scaffolds, a timeline, and considerations for celebrating their final product. You'll build the guide that carries students to the project you planned for in Module 3.