The Exploros Social Studies curriculum provides full coverage for each course. The courses are divided into units, and each unit contains a set of learning experiences. A learning experience is a ready-to-teach lesson that is meant to take about one class period to teach.
Your school Scope & Sequence and pacing guide likely determine what general topics and learning standards you should be teaching in each block of planning. The Exploros courses are designed to help you pace your teaching across that Scope & Sequence.
We recommend teaching with Exploros at least two or three times a week. This consistency will help you implement student-centered learning that engages your students and guides them to achieve depth of learning. In addition, it will build a reliable dataset for the reports.
Here are some hints on choosing which Exploros experience you will assign to your students.
You may choose experiences for topics that are generally difficult to cover in class or require significant differentiation.
You may choose experiences that integrate a wide variety of standards in a single lesson or that cover specific standards prescribed for a given week by the pacing guide.
Work with your team to choose which experiences to teach so that all social studies teachers assign the same Exploros experiences. All the department teachers will then have a common conversation and focal point for PLCs and grade-level teams. You can discuss and share pedagogical strategies knowing that you are all delivering the same content using the same 5E learning model.
Choosing Exploros Experiences
As you plan your curriculum teaching, you can navigate through the Exploros program in different ways:
Review the Exploros library for the courses you teach, choose a relevant unit, and preview the learning experiences available. Use the standard badges in the library or the learning experience itself to preview standards coverage.
Search the Exploros library using the search box at the top right.
Use the Curriculum Mappers to look up learning experiences by standard. Optionally choose a Unit, then a Standard and Expectation, and see what learning experiences are applicable.
Discussing Exploros in PLCs
If all teachers in your school or district are using Exploros regularly, you have a common conversation point for working toward improved classroom instruction.
Compare your class metrics to those of other teachers.
What strategies are working on your campus to drive student engagement and produce better outcomes?
Teachers who are tech-savvy or innovative can share creative Exploros implementation ideas with others. Teachers who have more teaching experience can share instructional strategies.
Some questions include:
How much scaffolding do you provide students?
How do you motivate students to progress through the experience?
What sort of feedback do you provide individual students and the class as a whole?
How do you use exemplars and how do you reinforce thoughtful responses?
Additional Curriculum Planning Resources by State
Texas
California
North Carolina
Alabama
Ohio