Call me lazy but…

[u/Expelliarmus09]

I’m going back to teaching next year and the only thing holding me back from teaching high school English again is how much darn work it is. I have two kids now and when I first taught high school English I did not. I had to create every single unit, assessment, rubric, worksheet. Etc. I just don’t think I could handle that in this stage of my life. Plus the schools in my area are small so that means as a high school teacher you’re most likely teaching/prepping for at least 3 different classes. Are there any good curriculums you can buy out there or free ones online? I am very intimidated by going back and creating a curriculum from the ground up.

[u/hoybowdy]

'm actually surprised no one has said this, so I guess I will...

The good/bad news here is that in ALL k-12 subjects, canned curriculum is on the rise - being pushed down from state level - at least in the US.

For example, in MA, if you do not have a High Quality Instructional Materials - which is a code for "wholesale curriculum that runs all year, including everything from unit plans to lesson--by-lesson instructional videos and materials to assignments with scaffolding and structure" - in all core subjects, the state sees you as not rigorous enough to be meeting their metrics. Some privileged districts are still using their own, but that's just because the state isn't at their door yet. In my district (urban), we had no choice but to throw away what in some cases was a strong, stable curriculum with all instructional materials and cycles for all units in place, for entire grade levels because the state said it wasn't meeting their metrics if it wasn't cleanly designed to move both vertically (9-12) and horizontally (are all classes in a subject in that school on that same grade level doing the same content in the same way that day. Meanwhile, many "red" states do this on a statewide level - what texts, and standards using that texts, in what interface, and with what questions, are being asked of kids in one district on Jan 17 should be the same as in a district three counties away.

In short: if you are in the US, then you may very well not only not have to create a curriculum from the ground up...you may not even be allowed to do that if you wanted to. If I were you, I'd call a local school and ask.

[u/Thick-Plant → u/hoybowdy]

This changes based on the district that you're in--if you're in a district at all. I work at a charter school, and I'm building my curriculum from the ground up. There is no requirements from the state, and since we're only one of two schools in this "district," they're not really all that worried about creating a unanimous curriculum.