Setting the Pace in California Classrooms

The consistent and easy-to-use materials in Eureka Math² California® were made with pacing in mind. Each grade level in Eureka Math² California has 120–140 engaging and accessible lessons, leaving plenty of days available for assessment and responsive teaching. Ideally, this means you can teach it all, but you’ll need to set pacing benchmarks on your calendar to make sure you’re on track. Here are some things to consider as you plan your year.

Use your school calendar to map out days.

Before planning your Eureka Math² California lessons, mark up your calendar. Consider holidays, meetings, field trips, assemblies, testing, or other events that might affect instructional days. Taking time to anticipate these dates at the start will help establish your pacing. Next, map out your Eureka Math² California lessons on the calendar. You can find the number of lessons and topics within a module on the module’s home page in the digital platform or in the Table of Contents in the Teach book. Eureka Math² California lessons and assessments each take one day. Add up both the instructional days and assessment days (Topic Quizzes and the Module Assessment) to get the total days in the module. Count these days out on your calendar to map out the anticipated timing for each module. Think of the end of each module as a benchmark that you can refer to later to see if you’re on track. Now you have a calendar for your year of Eureka Math² California lessons.

Leave space to be flexible.

Build room for flexibility within each module. Even the best laid plans can go awry, and there will be unpredictable interruptions like weather days and teacher absences. Make notes on your calendar where you can leave yourself this wiggle room. Consider what changes you are okay with and make decisions based on your district priorities. Are you okay with getting as far as you can in the curriculum, but maybe not covering it all? Are you okay with omitting some assessments? For instance, you might leave a note that you could omit the final Topic Quiz in each module. The Module Assessment assesses the essential learning, and it will be given the next day. There are also times when Topic Quizzes address similar Achievement Descriptors. This is another opportunity where you could note the potential to omit or combine Topic Quizzes. Both options will allow you an extra day of flexibility.

Use your yearlong pacing calendar to periodically check if you’re on track.

It is easier to make up a few lessons than it is to make up a lot of lessons. If you find that you are behind, rely on your calendar notes about flexible days and benchmarks to help you get back on track. Remember, Eureka Math² California lessons are designed to be taught in one class period and proficiency builds over time. There may be times when you continue to the next lesson even though there are students who cannot demonstrate proficiency yet. This is to be expected. If students finish early on assessment days, consider having them work on number sense and fluency or to revisit previous content. Focus on your priorities as you adjust your approach to maintain the pace of your calendar.

When you create a plan to teach the Eureka Math² California curriculum that aligns with your school calendar, you are laying the foundation for covering all content coherently. But this is just the start. You will also want to be intentional with your daily lessons to maintain this pace. When you consider your classroom and school priorities along with events on your school calendar, you can set the pace for implementing Eureka Math² California flexibly and effectively, and you'll find success!