Summer Slow Down: How I create lesson plans.

This post was written before I set out for Africa, hopefully I'll be able to add some images while I'm there!

In everything there is a process and, lets be honest, as artists/teachers sometimes our process can be a little chaotic and all over the place. So let me just give you a little glimpse into how I create lessons for my classes.

As with everything I sometimes work a little backward...I see an art project or a piece of work from an artist and take that an apply it into the lesson. So for example I might see a beautiful piece of carved wood and think... "How can I use the standards/curriculum and teach this to my students? What is the objective? Whats the history behind it? What is the necessary vocabulary? What materials would I need? How will I store this? What does the finish product need to look like?"

SO MANY QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER! But we make it work don't we?

At the end of the year I create a very rough outline of what the next year will look like for each grade level K-5th. I use this template here. (The link leads you to a livebinder, which I think is pretty awesome, and you can download the template if you want, like I said its a very BASIC template for a rough outline.) Then I fill it in with the criteria that we have in our curriculum and also certain artists and shows/deadlines for the new year. I like being able to see the BIG PICTURE.

Blank 6 weeks outline template.

My lesson plans have changed a lot over the past five years, here is the one I was using last year for my K-5th classes. I really liked having it all on one page; schedule of times, objectives, TEKS, everything across the board. It also helped me visualize scope & sequence.

This year I wanted to do something I learned in a book called Teach Like a Champion. It's called Double Plan(click the link for a very brief summary). Basically you write in the lesson plans what the students expectations are at certain times in the lesson/while you're teaching.

Very basic double plan lesson.

I also included the skills that are mastered or should be mastered in this lesson as well as a little check box so that I can keep up with which classes miss a day because of field trips or other things that come up during school. It's really helped me keep up with how well my students are retaining the information and mastering the techniques.

Just before school ended I found a binder with my previous lesson plans and I think I want to go back to the six columns so its easier to see everything that's going on right in front of me, now the question is how do I incorporate the Double Plan method which I've come to like...decisions, decisions.

What do your lesson plans look like? How do you prepare for a new school year? 

Thoughts on the new TEKS?

Check back next week for how I updated my Educator Portfolio.