FITTING IT ALL IN USING BENCHMARK ADVANCE
A course for navigating, planning, and implementing your ELA units
(...made by an actual teacher who used the program!)
✨ Five years running, hundreds of teachers served. ✨
Gain confidence and save time planning your ELA units. You will gain clarity on how to prioritize your ELA lessons, how to integrate other content areas into your unit, and creative ways to enhance your unit! You will walk away with a deeper understanding of the program and learn ways to make it more practical and teacher & student-friendly.
This is a fully digital, online course that is pre-recorded. There are six modules, each with at least 5 lessons. While there are differences between the different editions of Benchmark, this course mainly contains tools and strategies that can be applied to any edition. The majority of this course is general because this isn’t about teaching you how to use the program (that’s Benchmark’s job!). It’s about sharing how a teacher put a practical spin on everything to make it work in a real-life classroom!
It is self-paced and the course content does not expire, so enroll today and access as needed!
This course is for you if you...
- Are a teacher who’s brand new to using the program and are hiding the materials in the cupboards because you don’t know where to even start.
- Have been using the program but haven’t implemented it fully because it is too overwhelming.
- Have been using the program confidently but want to find ways to plan more efficiently and make the content more engaging.
Lifetime Access
You’ll get lifetime access as long as the program is available. The workshop is self-paced. Complete on your own terms and go back whenever you need a refresher.
Practical Application
This workshop includes strategies based on my actual experiences in the classroom. These tools + strategies can be used with ALL editions of Benchmark Advance.
By the end of this course, you will learn...
The Ins + Outs of the Program
You will understand all the areas of the program and you will be able to learn how you can make them work for you and your class. I’ll show you strategies and give you ideas for making each part of the program more manageable and doable.
Easy-to-Implement Planning Strategies
You’ll learn how to plan more efficiently using specific strategies designed to help you prioritize and save time. You will be able to determine what lessons are essential for you to teach and which ones you can skip if needed.
How to Set Up + Run Small Groups
You’ll learn how to create dynamite teams that work and run independently while you pull your small groups. You’ll establish routines and norms, learn how to keep students accountable during centers, and you’ll learn how to plan for guided reading groups.
The Recipe for the Perfect Anchor Chart
You’ll learn how to design the perfect chart to use to preteach unit concepts, scaffold complex vocabulary and big ideas, and how to integrate social studies and science into your ELA unit using this chart.
How to Extend + Enhance Your Unit
You will plan a unit extension activity that enhances and enriches student learning, while also incorporating things like project-based learning, STEM, research, and genre writing.
Organization + Tips
This bonus module is designed to help you get organized! You will learn how to best organize your resources both physically and digitally.
DISCLAIMER: I am not affiliated with Benchmark and this course DOES NOT replace your formal training given by Benchmark Education Company. This course will not train you on how to formally implement this program.
"This made it easier for students to be successful, which is our true WHY.
One of the best things was looking at how you can go through the teacher edition, using some of the materials they’ve created, to make this way more teacher-friendly…”
LARRY PATTERSON
This course is a compilation of all my tips and strategies I’ve been teaching others over the years.
It is suitable for brand new teachers using Benchmark to teachers who have already been using it a while!
By the end, you will have information you can use to help you dive deeper into the components, plan out your units, and scaffold and extend student learning.
Please note that I am not affiliated with Benchmark and this course DOES NOT replace your formal training given by Benchmark Education Company. This course will not train you on how to implement this program.
This is a fully digital, online course. There are six modules, each with at least 5 lessons.
This is a video-based course that allows you to “work” alongside Toluca. Plus, customizable templates are provided within each module. Your actual unit planning will be taken care of by completing the activities in each module!
By the end of this course you will:
- Be able to plan efficiently and quickly with specific planning strategies
- Have templates you can use to streamline your planning
- Integrate social studies and science standards into your ELA block
- Learn engaging ways to pre-teach unit topics and vocabulary
- Have strategies for supporting your English Language Learners
- Learn how to use projects and to extend students learning
Every person will take their own amount of time to complete the course and work through planning the unit. However, as you go through the course, you will have usable templates, your own anchor chart, and planned project ideas at the end of the course that you can use in your classroom as soon as you are ready.
You can come back to review or re-work any part of the course. You are welcome to skim each module once and come back to plan when you are ready or use it as often as you like to plan future units, too.
What's Inside the Course?
Put the TRS down.
You’re the expert. You know the standards, and you know how to teach them. Throughout this course, we will be using Benchmark as a tool—while still honoring the program’s fidelity. You’ll learn how to incorporate your own teaching style and make those units truly YOURS! Let’s make this both effective and enjoyable!
What if it's not for me after all?
This course was designed for Benchmark teachers by an actual teacher who used the program, so it is full of tips and tricks for even experienced Benchmark teachers. If you end up changing your mind about the course (we’ll be sad to see you go) we have a 3-day return policy from the start day of the course.
If you need to cancel your enrollment for whatever reason, please contact us within three days of your purchase.
