Protecting the Planet: one text, five lessons, one color code
A week of English for third graders, built so that a teacher who did not design it can deliver it with confidence.
- Context
- Curriculum specialist assessment, K-12 school network
- Learners
- Grade 3 · groups of 25–30
- Standard
- Cambridge English, Grade 3
- Scope
- 5 sessions × 50 min + exam review
- Year
- 2026
The constraints
Mixed-level groups with little English outside school. No devices for students: notebook, board, projector and printouts. And the classroom teacher often changes, so the plan had to work in someone else's hands.
The design idea
One short story, reused all week. Every word in it has a color: green for actions, blue for things, yellow for "special verbs" (should, must, have to). Students meet the colors on day 1 and use them to read, analyze, rewrite and play.
Five days, one story
Everything a substitute teacher needs
Reviewing an existing exam
I analyzed a Grade 3 end-of-block exam for structure, content and overall effectiveness. I found score totals and item numbers that did not match between documents, a writing task that asked for more than the standard expects, and a grammar section measured with a single item.
I proposed fixes for each, plus two of my own: allow clues in writing, since the standard says "with support", and let students record the spelling bee on video so large groups move faster and practice more.
