TM4T Setting Up Your System 2.1.7 - Understanding Lesson Planning

Logically, the optimum time to plan is the start of a new school year. Armed with our new timetables, we know exactly what courses we are going to teach, which classes, which rooms, which text books. So, logically, we should indulge in a frenzy of planning each September - and that is pretty much what TM4T recommends, but with two important qualifications:

a) most teachers know roughly what their timetable will consist of before the new term starts. Some planning can therefore take place in advance.

b) regardless of how clever and flexible we are, we will inevitably get some things wrong, and there is merit in delaying some aspects of our 'start of year' planning until we are confident what challenges our classes offer.

For the average teacher, the start of year planning therefore breaks down into three chunks:

1. Stuff which you should ideally already have done by start of term: lesson-script templates, room plans

2. Start of year routines, which you can really only do when you have a finalised timetable: gardening calendars, timetable analysis, first schemes of work, unit plans, seating plans

3. Stuff which you should delay a little till term is underway: behaviour and differentiation plans, most unit plans

At the very least, you need to be clear about which planning activities you are going to do when (ie which ones you are going to start early, which you are going to do at the start of year, and which you are going to leave till term is underway.

You also need some kind of method to follow in your lesson planning. You can choose any method, though TM4T recommends an umbrella method called FT2T.

You need a structured method of lesson planning, which you can use quickly and comfortably. When we say 'structured' we mean that we do things in a standard, consistent way.

You should follow your lesson planning method, creating the necessary documents. If you are following the magpieplanning method, you should add lesson scripting sessions to your Yearly Plan each time you complete a Scheme of Work. When you do each lesson-scripting session, you should then additionally add assessment and other sessions to your Yearly Plan. 

Full details of the magpieplanning method can be found on the FT2T website, here...