Lesson Planning...

[jordancatalano4ever]

We have a new lesson plan format this year and to me it's a little overwhelming compared to what I'm used to doing...    Do you think this is a lot for a daily lesson plan in secondary, or whether it's normal.

1. A hook
2. Teacher provided input (video, notes, lecture, etc...)
3. Guided Practice
4. Independent practice
5. Check for understanding
6. Closure (mini assessment)
And added to this would be descriptions for how to accommodate gifted learners, struggling learners, and English language learners.

Looking at it for the first time, it just looks so time consuming to produce for every day. Especially as a science teacher I look at these activities from a 5E lesson cycle perspective where this will take place over the course of a lesson cycle that could last multiple days.

I don't know. I just need a different perspective. I know my coworkers are probably feeling the same way. Thanks

[imimahoney]

I pretty much do all of that but I don't need to write it down. I never have to produce lesson plans, only have my stated objectives and guiding question posted for each class.

Does someone check these daily? That sounds like a miserable job.

[mmp]

That's pretty much the flow of my lessons, but I don't write anything down. There also has to be some flexibility, and it may take place over a few days.

Do you have to submit daily lessons plans? Oy.

[UMaineTeach]

I was just at a conference and a woman there said they have to submit all lessons a week ahead and someone actually reads them andissues feedback. To which I responded, if the administration is reading and grading lesson plans, who's chasing the kid swearing and destroying property in the hallway. I got a blank look. I guess that's just us.

That format seems reasonable, I wouldn't want to write it out. I would probably continue using your multiple day system and just note on the new form that it's not a daily plan and put projected dates for each step.

[nsl]

Unless writing things out in that format is helpful for your own planning purposes, it looks burdensome to me. Not to mention that it's sometimes difficult to do both guided and independent practice in a single 45-minute period, especially when you're introducing a new unit. And WTF is the difference between a check for understanding and a mini assessment?

Do you have a strong PLC? At one point my last school required extremely detailed plans (multi-pagers), and the only way we made it manageable was the divide up the work between team members. It required all of us to stay roughly in sync, but since we were already moving in that direction it wasn't a huge problem.

[Jalapeñomel]

This is what I have to do in all my LPs.

We have to post daily lessons plans, unit and curriculum maps in our classrooms everyday. We get feedback on them twice a month from our principal and AP.


I thought this was something all teachers did throughout the country. I'm surprised many of you don't have to do this!

[Jalapeñomel]

Aug 16, 2017 8:59:06 GMT -5 UMaineTeach said:

I was just at a conference and a woman there said they have to submit all lessons a week ahead and someone actually reads them andissues feedback. To which I responded, if the administration is reading and grading lesson plans, who's chasing the kid swearing and destroying property in the hallway. I got a blank look. I guess that's just us.

We have deans to do this job.

[jordancatalano4ever]

Thanks for the feedback. This is the new academic deans project. She must think our low scores are a correlation to lack of engagement in the classroom and not from our poor school management. Sigh. You would think that after an entire administration turns over in one year that maybe the problem isn't with the teachers. Oh well. I guess we will have to do our best as a PLC. I just think I will have to emphasize that this structure won't always work in science. Labs take time! And I want to do more stations this year. I appreciate halls input. Especially those of you who do this already. That helps tell me that it can be done. For those that write out thorough plans, how long does it take you on average?

[Jalapeñomel]

Aug 16, 2017 16:14:01 GMT -5 jordancatalano4ever said:

Thanks for the feedback. This is the new academic deans project. She must think our low scores are a correlation to lack of engagement in the classroom and not from our poor school management. Sigh. You would think that after an entire administration turns over in one year that maybe the problem isn't with the teachers. Oh well. I guess we will have to do our best as a PLC. I just think I will have to emphasize that this structure won't always work in science. Labs take time! And I want to do more stations this year. I appreciate halls input. Especially those of you who do this already. That helps tell me that it can be done. For those that write out thorough plans, how long does it take you on average?

It really doesn't take me too long (maybe an hour?), but it definitely was more time consuming the first year.

I also make daily guided notes for each class, and that is much more time consuming.

[flamingeaux]

Does this have to be for each day or each lesson/mini unit? Because that's almost the exact template we follow, and if something is going to take more than a day, I usually would just review previous steps taken for my hook.

[Jalapeñomel]

Can you refresh my memory on what grades you teach? I may be able to help you with some plans that follow this format.

[taratru]

Writing that all out for every lesson seems extremely unreasonable.   It would take me hours; hours that should be spent grading and development of curriculum.  I mean, I *do* all those things, but half the time, I'm winging it based on the personality of the class or what I learned the first time I taught the lesson.  

What happens if you don't?  Like, we are supposed to post essential outcomes and learning outcomes every day, but I'm not going to.  What's it going to do, knock me down a point in my evaluation?  Okay, whatever.  I'd much rather put my time toward things that have an actual effect on kids.   

[jordancatalano4ever]

So we were given a template for daily use for these requirements. It actually has a few more text boxes but yes we're supposed to utilize it daily. We have a brand new academic dean and this is her project. She wants us to produce these weekly. She is having us meet with her once a week to "show our homework". It's going to be interesting that's for sure. This year I will be in 6th grade science.

[nellgirl]

I haven't lesson planned for years. I mean, I know where we're going, but nothing is actually written out. That sounds exhausting.

[Jalapeñomel]

Clearly, I'm in the minority here, but I think daily lesson planning is a very effective tool when planning curriculum, tracking data, developing labs, etc. It also forces me to think about multiple entry points as well as modifications for my SpEd and ELL students.

I don't see this as an unreasonable expectation.

[dizzycooks]

That would drive me crazy. I write our main activity and my check for understanding in my plan book daily. I "plan" as I collect my supplies weekly and put my activities in order. My assessments are mid and end unit. My objectives are on the board daily as well as a note about the ccs they connect to. I turn them in to no one.

[erbear]

That looks pretty standard. 

I don't do both guided and independent practice every day (I teach social studies) - some days, it's all guided and others all independent - but that's my basic structure for a lesson.

[erbear]

Aug 18, 2017 14:46:52 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

Clearly, I'm in the minority here, but I think daily lesson planning is a very effective tool when planning curriculum, tracking data, developing labs, etc. It also forces me to think about multiple entry points as well as modifications for my SpEd and ELL students.

I don't see this as an unreasonable expectation.

I agree with you. Writing it out makes my lessons better all around, and it only takes me 10-15 minutes at this point for most lessons.