Lesson planning for the not-so-organized (yet still very motivated)

There has always been a piece of me that wished I’d had a little more type A personality- Most often this thought crosses my mind when we are about to have company. I look around and realized I haven’t maintained my cleaning routine- or even straightened up for ten minutes everyday like I had promised myself in the new year. As a teacher, I procrastinated on making copies, creating answer keys, and, yes, even planning discussion questions. However, I would argue my students didn’t suffer as much as one might think because I still planned lessons- I just did it differently.

Keeping in mind what I wanted my students to accomplish- I explored possible strategies I could teach my students to use. After choosing the strategy I thought would best suit the text we were reading and get students more able to do the target skill, I thought about what steps students may take. For example, if students created questions during reading, I considered what made a good question:

• Consideration of the main idea
• Observation of author’s opinion
• Questions that moved beyond asking for answers “right there” in the text
• Connection to the title or heading
• Use of vocabulary within the question beyond simply asking for a definition

This simple list may have been scratched on a sticky note and slapped in my guided reading book. It most likely was not used as a grade or to collect classroom data. I can tell you for certain I didn’t add to this list every year as I developed as a teacher (see paragraph one).

But I did develop this type of planning as a teacher over my years in the classroom. I was blown away when I learned about anchor charts- where the teacher lists strategies or steps toward a specific objective. This was how I had been planning and now there was a representation and name for it! As a teacher leader, the idea of teachers brainstorming these types of lists excited me! Possible mini- lesson ideas- YES! Possible entries in the grade book as formative data- YES! Possible compliments and teaching points during Guided Reading- YES! Possible look-fors during professional shared classroom experiences-YES!

I would propose brainstorming possible compliments based on strategy instruction can spur professional discussions, clarify objectives, and even become student-friendly language.

A turn from Madeline Hunter lesson plans, or a scripted unit, to this dynamic and evolving lesson planning technique better fit my not-so-Type-A personality. It might just work for you.