In numerous districts across the country teachers are required to submit their lesson plans each week. This is to show that they are properly planning and executing their lessons to meet district, state and national standards. But the requirements for lesson plans vary greatly amongst districts and even building. Some teachers plan their lessons and activities meticulously making sure that each minute is carefully utilized and that no moment is wasted in the classroom. While some teachers have very loose lesson plans to simply meet the requirements of their building or district. In many cases teachers plan their lessons based on pacing guides either they themselves have built or purchased with pre-built curriculum. the problem with these purchased curriculum guides is that they don’t allow for creativity in students. The planning of each teachers lessons should be left up to individual teachers, but some basic and consistent content should be prescribed by districts and the administrative teams.

Lesson Objectives

Lesson objectives should be the driving factor in all education processes. These objectives should be based on national/state standards and if needed include teacher or department written substandard. This inclusion of standards serves several purposes, first it it builds in clear learning objectives of what the student should be able to accomplish. Standards based objectives also build clear data points in which the teacher can build student growth data. These is also a great time to consider how to differentiate the lesson and materials for students (IEP and 504 students). The differentiation of lesson objectives and materials will look very different depending on the students.  Finally, it creates a framework in which lessons can be chunked and built around.

Agenda

The agenda should be used to help drive the progression of the class period. Similar to how an agenda is used in meeting the agenda should help to pace the class period and keep everyone on track. I typically also like to build in a break time for students which is simply a short five to ten minute period where students can stop working and chat with each, put their head down to or other means of short restful activity. Typically I will also build in some work time for students to work on their lesson materials during class when they have access to me as the teacher/subject matter expert. I try to give as little “homework” as possible, since many students who are struggling will not be able to do the work at home or they have after school activities. If there is a large amount of practice material, I will build this into our daily agenda and work one on on one with those students who are struggling. As I am doing this, try maintain a consistent mood in the class, usually during work time we are playing some type of music that the class chooses, but at a lowered volume to not impede class conversations.

File and Activity Links

Lesson plans should be the master document for the week. When I talk about an assignment or activity in the lesson plans, I link to the activity or assignment’s files. This allows me to get to the activity or assignment quickly. I typically will also post all of my class materials to our LMS (learning management system) as a way to deliver the materials to students. Over the past several years our school has moved to a 1-to-1 computing method and now all of our students have Chromebook. While in the beginning of the year, most students didn’t bring their Chromebook to class, I made it a daily requirement for students to bring their Chromebooks or other computing device to class everyday. As way to support this I keep a couple of extra Chromebook chargers and USB-C chargers in my classroom as well, because inevitably students will forget to charge their devices. I have been building many of my courses out for several years and each course has materials related to the course and curriculum that I can swap in and out depending on the needs of the students and how well they are grasping the material.

Why Lesson Planning Is What Builds Success!

I believe that of all the “things” that teachers do unit and lesson planning is that one thing that can set you and your students up for success. I say that because it is going to reduce your stress level as the teacher by giving you a plan that you can work through and adjust as needed. It also gives your students, parents and administrators trust in you and your abilities to lead, plan and follow through in the execution of the plan. The consistency that comes with planning a units, lessons and courses is also really good as it builds your confidence. Additionally, if you are integrating your lesson plans into your unit plans over time you will build a whole playbook for every unit that you teach through out the year with differentiated lessons and materials. Having a whole year planned out can give your so much time to for other professional duties and allow you to grow in the ways that you want and to try different duties/tasks in the teaching profession.