This is a perfect example if good intentions run amok. None of these are bad ideas.

But the time demands are absurd. And much of this is simply teaching. Of course you link the content to your students lives. Of course you emphasize key vocabulary. Teaching does not need a lengthy formal plan for every hour and a whiteboard filled with sprawling objectives that sometimes intimidate students. Those students who struggle to keep up with grade-level objectives may look at that whiteboard and tune out instead of tuning in.

Education cannot be run like a car factory. Our students are not products. They are people. When the masterplans become too detailed, some of the kids in the mix don’t fit the plan. That’s where learning first starts to go wrong. But lost learning piles up, eventually becoming an insurmountable mountain for less lucky students.

Eduhonesty: The more detailed the plan, the less flexible it often becomes in spite of attempts at differentiation. In the end, a 50 minute period is only 50 minutes — and the items in the plan that don’t fit in those minutes then become part of the rising mound of things that never were taught.

The crucial question that begs an answer: If there are never leftover minutes — when will remediation ever happen?