There are a couple of things we need to clarify before we start to look at planning in practice.
The first is what do we mean by the word 'planning'? Teachers tend to equate 'planning' with 'lesson planning' but even then it frequently means different things in different schools. TM4T is very specific about what planning means, and what is-and-isn't included under 'lesson planning'.
To avoid confusion, if you haven't read the Background section of this website, read more here.
This web-page is named basics, but the important techniques in planning are basic. We are dealing here with the four big secrets of plannning - get them right and you really can't go wrong. We call them secrets because so many teachers don't seem to know about them.
The first secret is one we have already leaked here. The secret is 'do not confuse planning with preparation'. Planning can be done at any time: if you are doing it way in advance, we simply omit all the detail; if our planning is just before the actual event, then our planning blurs in with our preparation. That's OK, but mentally we need to keep the two things - planning and preparation - separate.
The second secret is 'plan the big things' first. Simple to the point of banality, right? Simple, but really important and frequently ignored. For an explanation, click here. What this means in practice is this: you have some big-ticket items to deal with in your planning: biggies like 'lessons' and 'assessment'. Plan these first. Then fit the little stuff around it. Occasionally in life 'something has to give'; when it does, you want it be one of the little things that you can't fit in, not one of the big things.
The final secret is 'choose carefully when to plan and prepare'. This means that preparing-too-early or preparing-too-late are equally unproductive. Prepare too late, and you lose many psychological benefits, prepare too early, and your plans are fragile. This decision needs to be based on how many disruptions you anticipate - how many rocks you have in your river. For an explanation of this cryptic statement, and some insight into what 'fragility' means, click here.
The last secret is to differentiate clearly between high-level or low-level planning. To understand the difference between High-Level and Low-Level Planning, click here
Now, here's the thing: I could have started this page with a simple step-by-step recipe for Planning in TM4T. However, I worry that busy teachers will just read these steps and regard them as too simple to merit much thought. I have therefore asked you to plough through the discussion stuff first. I apologise. Here are the steps:
Step 1 Purpose
Be clear what you are trying to do. Planning vs preparation. High-level vs low-level. In practice, this means work out how much detail you can confidently predict and include.
Step 2 Timing
Assess the fragility of your plan (the likelihood of disruption) and decide on the timing of your planning so that you will be aware of disruptions but able to resolve or overcome them. If you're unsure, plan early.
Step 3 Sequence
Stop. Check: am I planning things in the right order? This means 'big things first'. You should always ensure that your bread and butter courses and lessons are planned before any pet projects.
Step 4 Do it
Produce a plan. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, use a QI template for every activity. This means planning & preparing something, doing it, and then reviewing how well your planning and doing went. If the mention of 'QI' prompts only a vision of Stephen Fry, read about Quality Improvement here.
As far as possible, you should write down your plans, but you should write them in a form as close to point-of-use as possible. If you are using the FT2T method, the meaning of this will be clear to you. If not, click here.