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| I know, it looks like a mess, but it will come together! |
Lesson planning is a huge part of teaching. We need to assess our students needs and design curriculum to meet those needs. I have used many different forms of lesson planning over my career. I am excited that I think I have finally found a way that works for me! Since my day is divided into subject specific chunks, I am easily able to separate my lessons for Math and Language Arts. I’ll talk about Social Studies, Social Skills, Science, etc. another time since they’re a whole different beast!
I have recently been introduced to Publisher and have LOVED using it to create. I especially like it for planning lessons. The first thing I did was divide my students into 3 groups based on their needs. From there, I created a year long curricular map. In this map I decided what to teach students and when it would be taught. Here’s an example of my high group’s year long curricular map from January to the end of the year.
From here I make my monthly lesson plans based on the curriculum I have outlined as well as reflecting on my assessments from the previously taught material. I like to use a story from the Core curriculum to aid in all comprehension and language tasks. I find it gives my students a connection to the Gen Ed classes and provides a nice basis for our learning. I like to use open ended resources I find on TPT. Now, here’s my favorite part. When I create my monthly lesson plans I link directly to the TPT item so I can pull it up and print straight from there. Then, if I get confused later I am able to quickly reference. Check out my February plans for my high group.
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| See! It cleaned up nicely. All materials for the week are at hand! |
And viola! Of course things get changed and moved around at times but that is the basics for how I lesson plan! I then print materials for a week (I get overwhelmed with paper if I do more than 1 week), prep as needed and file away in a binder for Math and Language Arts groups. This is what is working for me at the moment.
Hi, I think your lesson plans are fabulous! I would love to see a sample of your middle and lower level plans and curriculum map. I find it incredibly helpful to see what other people are doing, mostly because other people are so much more organized than I am. And your lesson plans with your TPT sources linked is pure genius. I copy them all out at once for the month and then it becomes a snarled mess (ok, I might be exaggerating a little) but I frequently then have to go back and re-copy portions, which is a waste of a good tree. And I definitely have to check out publisher. I am not exactly computer savvy, but I will look at stuff if someone says it's worth checking out.
Jannike
http://www.anautismconnection.blogspot.com
Thanks! I'll post some old lesson plans that I have saved over the weekend (maybe, I'm trying to get better at this blogging business!). But it is on my to do list!
And publisher is super easy, you want a text box, you got it! You want a table, you got it. And it's so much easier to move things around than in Word.