Without a doubt, lesson planning is daunting and can be stressful at times. It is well know the numerous time consuming responsibilities teachers have to juggle and lesson planning (in hand with creating the resources to go along) is for sure one of the most predominant.
I believe planning is the cornerstone to effective learning. Through my time so far, I have trialed many different methods and approaches to tackle such a crucial responsibility. It is in these plans that the learning journey for the pupils starts to take place. Below are some of my top tips that I have chose on reflection from my planning experience so far:
1. Joint planning
On placement last year, when teaching my first few lessons and to get familiar with at this point unknown territory to me, I began to adapt my class teachers planning and worked through it together. Through this, I began to understand key points and what was expected and how to jump from plan to lesson. After this, we began to plan together. Using the expert knowledge and working collaboratively helps you reason ideas and apply them in the plan correctly. As well as this, joint planning for your own lessons if perhaps you are in a two or three form entry school, planning with colleagues in your year group will not only help you manage your workload but to share and bounce ideas with each other to make the quality of your teaching content better.
2. Follow a pro forma
When starting to independently plan, in order to ensure you have every area covered, following and working through a detailed structure allows you to reach all requirements through the ability to reflect throughly when doing so. As you can see from the image above, the planning layout I used was quite comprehensive and detailed. I personally like to use one with such detail as it allows me to feel fully prepared and in control of the lesson. My university provided a great pro forma that I will definitely take though my career. It allows you to plan through multiple sections to ensure all your lesson objectives and expectations are met. Listed below are the areas I use to plan:
- Prior knowledge
- Learning objectives / success criteria
- Teacher inputs
- Independent/group work (differentiation)
- Resources
- Key vocabulary
- Key questions
- Assessment (what you will assess?, how you will assess?, when will you assess?)
- Evaluation
3. Don't apply pressure to your plan
Putting pressure on your plans and to stick to all specific points written, can actually cause a disservice and hinder pupils learning. Yes it is great to have all elements planned out, but take the lesson as it comes and the earlier you realise it is okay to steer away from your lesson plans at times the better. For example, you may have assumed a the class knew more prior knowledge so when it got to the lesson you may have to take a step back and recap previous learning. Your starter may take 15 minutes instead of 10, but that is okay. Follow the lead of your pupils understanding and shape your plan around this.
4. Having resources and curriculum points prepared
When planning my lessons, I always find it useful to make my resources at the same time, if not even before I put the plan in writing. I find having your resources such as worksheets and powerpoint slides at hand when writing the stem of the lesson is handy particularly when planning for assessment as you can cross reference these opportunities and where they will occur. Also on this note, having your specific curriculum points and objectives that you aim to use to hand is helpful. Having a copy of the national curriculum and highlighting and deciding the point and the exact expectations for what you would like to cover, allows you the most freedom and creativity when planning lessons to achieve the curriculum point.
5. Reflection (from your plans to inform future ones)
Reflections is vital. It is not only a necessity to be able to inform the content and requirements for the next lesson, but also for you as the teacher and your continued professional development. On all of my planning documents, underneath I have an evaluation sections which is made up from strengths and weaknesses. Having the opportunity to self reflect allows you to use your strengths again, and act on your weaknesses to ensure they are improved in your next plan. As well as your teaching, you can use this area to reflect on individual pupils progress and how to plan for specific pupils in your next lesson.
To end todays page, I think this quote by Otis Kreigl perfectly sums up what a good lesson plan is to me and how to incorporate this into teaching:
"A good lesson plan is a living document. It is not set in stone, but rather it is a guide that keeps you - - the classroom practitioner - - engaged and thinking about what you are teaching."
- Miss Yeoman
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