Why is the new school curriculum so bloated?
Current curriculum modules are packed with an overwhelming amount of material that still fails to provide what teachers actually need. This forces educators to spend excessive time sifting through files and hunting for substantial content to keep students from becoming bored.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1bring in and assign extended texts from the modules to stretch these lessons outDid this help you?
- 2fill the gaps in with something substantialDid this help you?
- 3Rewrite the curriculum using age-appropriate languageDid this help you?
- 4Explicitly teach the vocabulary, use examples, and create a word wallDid this help you?
- 5Allow students to fail the tasks to show the inadequacy of the curriculumDid this help you?
- 6Translate abstract objectives into "I can" statementsDid this help you?
- 7spot checking homework instead of grading everythingDid this help you?
- 8taking a day off in the middle of the week to catch upDid this help you?
- 9limiting work to a set amount of time and stoppingDid this help you?
- 10using projects so more of the work falls on studentsDid this help you?
- 11Supplement elsewhere and do not use the curriculumDid this help you?
- 12Grading while students are working independentlyDid this help you?
- 13Learning to call good enough work done and setting time limitsDid this help you?
- 14Sharing planning duties with colleaguesDid this help you?
- 15Hiding during planning periods to avoid interruptionsDid this help you?
- 16Ignoring the required lesson plans and teaching the same content in a better wayDid this help you?
- 17Fixing and adjusting the curriculum as you go while still meeting standardsDid this help you?
- 18Using the required district curriculum to protect your job even if it lacks engagementDid this help you?
- 19Stripping out the parts that work, moving them to digital docs, and scaffolding around themDid this help you?
- 20Resisting new textbooks by pointing out how current teaching consistently meets standardsDid this help you?
- 21Using pre-made templatesDid this help you?
- 22Trying AI slide generation toolsDid this help you?
- 23Doing notes by hand and finding alternative worksheets onlineDid this help you?
- 24Heavily editing or entirely rewriting the provided curriculum and textbooksDid this help you?
- 25Modifying the pre-made curriculum content to make it reasonableDid this help you?
- 26Making teaching materials and content completely from scratchDid this help you?
- 27Sharing materials with other teachersDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Our reading curriculum requires slides that are ridiculously inappropriate for first grade.”source ↗
“I find that incredibly abstract for first graders”source ↗
“I hate this curriculum. It’s inappropriate for six year olds and they’re obsessed with it. We can’t change a thing.”source ↗
“I took a six year break from teaching and the school I teach at now buys their curriculum from a dumb company that makes really mediocre content filled with errors.”source ↗
“I just modify it to make it reasonable and no one complains but its a little more time consuming than just making stuff from scratch.”source ↗
“one of my preps, as it turns out, has curriculum that’s so difficult for my students to understand that I have to pour so many hours into making guided notes, review guides, and practice tests for them.”source ↗
“I realized how much they struggle, so I had to change up how I teach last minute to ensure a basic sense of comprehension, but now, that’s led to last minute curriculum designing and now I’m literally taking a day off last minute in the of middle the week just so I can catch up.”source ↗
“Not only is there an absolute encyclopedia’s worth of modules to sift through on my end, but it’s unnecessarily bloated.”source ↗
“They’re going to be SO bored if I don’t fill the gaps in with something substantial.”source ↗
“it’s my first year teaching and I am really struggling with planning. It takes me like four plus hours to plan for one period.”source ↗
“The issue is - we are using standards based grading! If you use HMH, I’m sure you know that with all of the spiraling, is is impossible to sit here and try to teach one skill at a time for a week or two in order to assess just that skill.”source ↗
“I am at a LOSS!”source ↗
“So I’m asking, pleading really, is anyone out there using HMH, and focusing on a skill or two at a time? If so, how do you make it work?”source ↗
“How do you handle teaching curriculum that you know sucks?”source ↗
“I’m stuck currently teaching a class where I love the content but the lesson plans, assignments, and assessments are all not very good.”source ↗
“everything just doesn’t not flow well. The students know this and really dislike the course because of it. But I can’t change it because we’re expected to all be teaching the exact same thing the same way.”source ↗
“Yeah, I've had the same issues.”source ↗
“My AP Lang content gave students the wrong definition of ethos 🫣”source ↗
“New curriculum is weird... it simultaneously gives me way too much stuff while at the same time not really giving me what I want or need.”source ↗
“First year teacher (SPED). I have five preps.”source ↗
“To say I’m overwhelmed is an understatement, just trying to ensure everyone’s IEPs are being followed is stressing me out and I still am concerned I may be overlooking something.”source ↗
“Finding source material, creating the student resources and activities, it all takes time.”source ↗
“I’m a first year teacher working with a new curriculum and I’m struggling at time management.”source ↗
“Lesson planning takes me absurdly long- like minimum 2 hours a lesson 😭.”source ↗
“I would LOVE to be a “work is work, home is home” person but right now my life is more like work…. home and lie down for 2 hours….. work til 11:30 PM!”source ↗
“I HATE the textbooks that my district has for math, I don't even think they can be called textbooks since they're just consumable booms with pages that can be torn out.”source ↗
“I’ve literally never had a textbook or curriculum that I didn’t have to heavily edit, if not entirely rewrite.”source ↗
“Even now, in taking a break from rewriting the PLTW curriculum. It’s a mess of click through and jargon that makes it hard for most students to navigate.”source ↗
“Some of the content in my curriculum isnt even accurate.”source ↗
“I am so tired of spending Sunday evenings rebuilding based on the new activity.”source ↗
“It's filling them, finding examples, moving things around when one class needs more handholding than another, then doing the same thing again next week.”source ↗
“The problem was I spent enough time correcting, cutting down on the content that I wasn't sure I'd saved much time.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 9How do you pace a new curriculum when you're forced to move too fast?
- 4Why is classroom quiz software so cluttered now?
- 4How to teach high school reading with elementary literacy curriculum
- 6Why is my school teaching schedule so impossible to follow?
- 6Why do mandated teaching methods fail in the classroom?
- 21Why does teaching involve so much paperwork and useless bureaucracy?