One of the key areas that I have developed as I become an expert teacher is planning clear lessons. When I first began teaching there was some type of graphic organizer I was expected to complete for each lesson. After my first few years I began to plan with other teachers and we developed a less formal outline for each lesson. As I transitioned to City High, and I began to work closely with AnnaMarie Akhand, we decided to create a single running Google Doc for each level of Spanish class for each trimester.
Click here to see Spanish 9 trimester 1 team A 2017. This document is in reverse order, meaning page one is the last couple of days of the trimester. The first day is the last page.
Each page is a day’s lesson, with the objective at the top of the page. Each activity is timed, and all resources and materials used in the lesson are hyperlinked for quick and easy access. Often I write a script of what exactly I need to say to be clear to students. (I find that scripting my directions helps eliminate student’s confusion and therefore misbehavior.) Sometimes we assign each other specific roles to complete for each lesson.
Through this comprehensive design we are able to keep communication open and stay organized in a variety of ways. We use this document to debrief a day’s lesson as well as plan for the future lessons. We highlight items that are newly edited, or things we need to pay attention to the next time we teach a similar lesson. Sometimes we also comment on the side of the document where we discuss purpose/execution of activities. There are groupings of students based on what they need to be working on.
We use the Google Doc from the previous trimester to help us plan for the current trimester. Each time we modify the lesson a bit more, such as typing directions that can be projected as well as spoken, identifying specific students who may need additional support/ challenges. I have found that through creating lesson plans in this manner I am able to visualize the outcomes I want to see from my students, and carefully think through every step of getting them to that outcome.