Procure the most recent copy of your state standards. Your district or school may have a supplemental list of standards as well, or a calendar for breaking down the standards by report card period.
Establish your year-end curricular goals according to state standards. You should have a clear idea of skills your students need to master in every curricular area by the end of the academic year. For example, one goal in writing may be that second-graders write a complete sentence with correct capitalization, punctuation, spelling and grammar. A third-grade writing goal may be writing a paragraph with these features. Write these goals in your lesson plan booklet for the end of the year.
Schedule your units to meet your year-end goals. If your fifth-graders must know facts about state history, for example, use a unit from a state-mandated textbook that introduces the geography, features, timeline of significant events and other key aspects of your state. If you do not have a textbook, use primary resources such as oral histories, maps, historic objects and local field trips.
Break down your units into individual lessons. Units may vary in length, depth and complexity, but they should feature day-to-day lessons that introduce standards-based concepts and repeat them to mastery.
Align your assessments with your lessons, units and end-of-the-year goals. Standards-based assessments may differ from your state-mandated standardized assessments, but there should be significant overlap in the content.