Your Back-to-School Checklist: Organizing Around Montana Standards for Maximum Classroom Impact

Getting Organized Around Montana Standards This Year

We're all familiar with that August feeling—the mix of excitement and overwhelm as we prepare our classrooms. But here's what I've learned over my years teaching in Montana: the teachers who feel most confident and organized by October are the ones who spent a few focused hours in August understanding which standards they're teaching and what that actually looks like in practice. This checklist will help you do exactly that.

Step 1: Pull Your Montana Standards and Read Them Like You Mean It

Don't just skim them. Print out the Montana standards that apply to your grade level and subject area. If you're teaching first grade ELA, you'll want L.1.5 and its sub-standards (L.1.5a through L.1.5d) right in front of you. Sit down with a cup of coffee and actually read what L.1.5 asks: "With guidance and support from adults, demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings."

That phrase "word relationships and nuances" should jump out at you. Circle it. Underline "with guidance and support." These aren't throwaway words—they're telling you something about how you need to teach this standard. You're not lecturing; you're guiding. Students need your support built into the activities.

Do this for every standard you'll teach. It takes time, but you'll understand your year in a completely different way.

Step 2: Create a Standards Overview Document for Your Class

Make a simple spreadsheet or document listing each standard you're responsible for teaching. Include the standard code, the full text, and leave columns for:

• Which units or time periods you'll teach it
• Key vocabulary students need to master
• How you'll assess it
• Which materials/resources support it

This becomes your reference document all year. When you're planning a unit in November, you can look at it and say, "Okay, I'm teaching L.1.5a—sorting words into categories. What do I already have that addresses this? What do I need to create?" This prevents gaps and prevents teaching the same standard five times while missing another completely.

Step 3: Identify the Verbs in Your Standards

Look at L.1.5d: "Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs differing in manner (e.g., look, peek, glance, stare)." Notice the word "distinguish." That's a thinking verb. Your students aren't just learning words; they're comparing and contrasting subtle differences. That's cognitively different from L.1.5a, which asks students to "sort" words. Sorting is organizing. Distinguishing is analyzing.

Go through each of your standards and highlight the action verbs. You'll see patterns. Some standards ask students to identify things (lower-order thinking), while others ask them to analyze or demonstrate understanding (higher-order thinking). This helps you build activities at the right cognitive level and ensures you're not accidentally oversimplifying or overcomplicating instruction.

Step 4: Map Standards to Your Curriculum Materials

Look at whatever curriculum you're using—textbooks, reading series, online resources, units you've created. Go standard by standard and note which materials address each one. Be honest about gaps. If you're teaching L.1.5c—"Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., note places at home that are cozy)"—but your current materials don't have activities that ask students to make those real-life connections, you know you need to either find something or create it.

This isn't about perfection. It's about awareness. You can't teach what you don't intentionally plan for.

Step 5: Consider How You'll Assess Understanding

Before the year starts, think about how the Montana state test assesses these standards. While you're not teaching to the test, understanding the format and types of questions helps you know what proficiency actually looks like. If the state test asks students to distinguish between similar verbs in a multiple-choice context, your classroom assessments should include similar thinking—not identical formats, but the same cognitive demand.

Create quick formative assessment tools for the standards you'll teach. A checklist for observing whether students can sort words into categories. A short written prompt where they identify real-life connections between words and their use. These don't need to be elaborate—they just need to tell you whether students understand before they see the state test.

Step 6: Set Up a Standards Reference for Your Classroom Wall or Notebook

Consider posting your main standards (maybe in kid-friendly language) in your classroom. Not every sub-standard, but the big ones. When a student asks "Why are we doing this?", you can point to the standard posted on the wall and explain what you're working toward. Transparency about standards helps students understand the purpose of their learning.

Put This Into Practice Now

Spend the next few days before school starts working through these steps for your priority standards. You don't have to do every single standard the same week you start school—focus on the first unit you're teaching. By October, you'll have systems in place that make the rest of the year feel manageable instead of overwhelming.

Your organization around Montana standards now directly translates to student clarity and achievement later. That's worth the effort.