7 years in, and I still write a lesson plan for every day. Yep, It’s true! It might seem like a lot of work, but it doesn’t have to be! I’ve developed a system for weekly lesson planning. And yes, in only 10 minutes a week!
This method comes in handy for a lot of reasons:
- It holds me accountable to making a strong, objective- aligned class period for students.
- If an administrator, coach, or colleague asks to see it ( or I’m being observed) I’m golden.
- If I need to take an unplanned day off ( or a week , hello COVID).
- I can be more flexible with class periods, knowing what’s coming ahead and having a solid plan for the foreseeable future.
- My downtime can truly be downtime. I’m planned and prepped when I leave the school building on Friday afternoon.
Wait, how does being more explicit about weekly lesson planning allow me to be MORE flexible?
I always know ( and hold fast to) the end dates of my unit, so I always build in a few flex days at the end when I create my unit map. This way, I have some extra days to play with. If students need an extra day to complete a task, and I have the next week or so laid out, I KNOW I have the time budgeted and can easily shift my plans.
I like to think of it like a household budget. I know how much money is coming in and when, and I know what major bills have to be paid. If I map that out before my paychecks come and money is deducted from my account, I know what money I have left to play with for the next two weeks. If I didn’t do that, I would either spend like crazy, not worrying about my account at all and run into trouble when I overdraft, or I might not spend anything at all, even if I really needed to buy bread or milk, because I didn’t know what I had available.
Writing out daily lesson plans is like keeping that budget for me.The problem is, writing a whole lesson plan the way we were taught in teacher school can be more than a little tedious to do every day ( and honestly, I never really felt like any of those fit my brain). I’m going to show you below the steps I take to create a week of daily lesson plans in under 10 minutes. Are you ready?
How I Do My Weekly Lesson Planning in Under 10 Minutes:
1. Start with a solid foundation
If you don’t know your destination, you can’t make a plan to get there. These days, teachers are mostly held accountable to a summative assessment that allows students to demonstrate mastery on several learning standards. Make sure that you have a unit map that defines what the summative will be and which standards students will be required to demonstrate mastery on. Then, work backwards to plan your quizzes, mini- lessons, etc.
2. Use a template
Even having a detailed unit map, your unit is not going to go as smoothly as you want to, because you’re working with the ultimate uncontrolled variable: youths. So, in addition to my unit map, which includes the essential question, focus standards, weekly objectives, summatives, formatives, and mini lessons, I create a daily plan using a template that I created years ago. You can snag a copy of my lesson planning template here!
The template details:
- The sequence of the lesson ( or date)
- The student- facing learning objective and the standard being practiced
- Materials needed ( including student and teaching materials, like slide decks)
- The three main tasks and pacing ( soft start, instruction, activity, and exit ticket)
- Any notes I have for myself ( like scaffolded questions)
3. Batch plan, then shift things as needed
I keep this all on one document ( you could even use a spreadsheet!) and can insert rows as needed when I have to shift things around. As type- A as I am, I tend to forget things like holidays, pep rallies, etc. so I do end up adjusting my plan often.
4. Take notes!
I like to add to my notes after the lesson happens and reflect on what went well and what I might need for next year.
What I love best about this system is that when I start planning for the same unit next year, I can take a look at my notes and be better equipped to add/ cut/ change things as necessary.
Another timesaver for me is that I stopped grading homework/ formative tasks. Do you have a lesson-planning system you love? Tell me about it in the comments!
