ePlanner and Planning

Guide In Go Math!, the Planning Guide and ePlanner go hand in hand. The Planning Guide is the paper copy, and the ePlanner is the digital copy of the same information. For the purpose of this overview, most of the information will come from the ePlanner.

Before beginning to look at the ePlanner, spend a few minutes looking through the beginning of the Planning Guide because it helps to clearly set the tone as to the purpose and direction of Go Math!. Pay special attention to the sections on Content Standards, Standards for Mathematical Practice, and Supporting Mathematical Practices through Questioning.

When you open ThinkCentral and log in, click on Resources. You should have the icons of all resources available to you. If you teach more than one grade, make sure you choose a specific grade level, or the ePlanner icon will not appear. The icon is a yellow star that says Go Math! ePlanner G- and a number to indicate the grade. This yellow star icon is also used for Bilingual Math Boards and iTools.

One of the advantages of using the ePlanner over the Planning Guide is the ability to click on the icons of the various components and go directly to the resource for that specific lesson.

The ePlanner should open to the Table of Contents and from here you can choose the chapter. When the chapter opens, a split pane should appear that shows the chapter information.

The smaller pane on the left will have the critical area and standards being addressed in this chapter. Scrolling down the pane will bring up a Daily Pacing Chart that will give you an idea of the time frame needed for each chapter. Further scrolling brings you to the key for the Digital Path icons.

The larger pane on the right hand side has several boxes that correspond to the number of days needed in the Daily Pacing Chart. The first and last boxes are red and show the 2 CH-°©‐GO4 resources needed for opening and assessing the chapter. The rest of the boxes are blue and correlate with the number of lessons within the chapter.

Let’s look at the Opening Resources box first. The Opening Resources box provides the teacher with many tools for assessing student’s knowledge pre-chapter. The first icon shows a red square with a white “P” inside. Clicking on this will bring up the Critical Area Project box which has two options Teacher’s Edition TE and Student’s Edition SE. Under the TE you have two options “VIEW” and “SCHEDULE”. “VIEW” allows you to see the resource, while “SCHEDULE” allows you to add the lesson to the ThinkCentral online teachers planner. The (SE) allows you to “VIEW”, “SCHEDULE”, and “ASSIGN”. “VIEW” and “SCHEDULE” are the same as in the TE while “ASSIGN” allows you to assign a task to a particular students account.

If you click on the Print Resources for each lesson, a list will appear that shows all the print options you have available for that lesson. When you click on Print Resources, you have many options from either the TE or SE. You will have the same options to “VIEW”, “SCHEDULE”, or “ASSIGN”.

Clicking on the icons in the Digital Path will open the various electronic lessons and take you to the activities needed for that particular lesson. When you click on a digital resource, you have the same three options “VIEW”, “SCHEDULE”, and “ASSIGN.”

The blue boxes have the same options as the Opening Resources box. The main difference is they are linked to a specific lesson. The standard addressed and the objective for each lesson are listed.

One of the valuable Digital Path options is the podcast. Podcasts are designed to give a further explanation of the content being taught in the lesson. Clicking on this icon will bring up the same 3 options.

The last box on the page is again red and gives you access to the material for assessment. Using the e-planner will save you a great deal of time and help keep you on track throughout the year.