Lesson Plans

Lesson Planning

It is the responsibility of each classroom teacher and instructional specialist to develop lesson plans based on the curricular goals and objectives of the Clay County School System.

Lesson plans must:

Provide teachers with a management tool to facilitate continuity and sufficiency of instruction;

Provide building level administrators with a tool for assuring that curricular goals are being addressed;

and,

Provide substitute teachers with a guide for implementing effective instruction in the absence of the regular classroom teacher.

Lesson plans must be completed at least three (3) days in advance of instruction and should be dated. (Ex. A plan book checked on Friday should include plans in advance for Monday and Tuesday.)

Plans must include the following components:

1) Objectives: Objectives specify the purpose of the lesson(s). An objective should indicate what the student will learn as a result of planned activities, and must reflect the goals and/or learner outcomes specified in county curriculum guides, and must reflect the instructional goals and objectives (IGO's) specified in state and county curriculum guides.

Teachers may reference objectives to a numeric code in the curriculum guide, to a page number in a teacher manual, or may write their own objectives based on approved curricular goals or use a checklist of IGO's to show which ones have been taught.

Objectives may be written for each lesson or may be prepared in advance for a group of lessons or an instructional unit.

2) Procedures/Materials (Resources): This section of the plan should be written daily to describe how objectives will be attained. The description of procedures should be clear enough for a substitute teacher to follow.

When the adopted text is used as a resource for procedures, teachers may reference this section to pages in the teacher manual. Many of the IGO's to be covered in the curriculum are not found in the textbooks. At this time, teachers are expected to use additional resources and instructional materials.

3) Assessment: It is assumed that evaluation is an ongoing process accomplished through a variety of informal procedures which need not be described in plans. This section of the lesson plan will describe formal evaluation procedures such as tests, quizzes, classroom assignments, and homework which are designed to measure mastery of objectives. Alternative assessments such as performance-based testing, journal writing, rubrics, and portfolios are encouraged where applicable.

Formal evaluations may follow a lesson, a group of lessons, or an instructional unit.

4) Each principal will be responsible for establishing school policy or plans to assure that books are available for substitute teachers in the absence of the regular classroom teacher. Building principals will also be responsible for establishing school policy regulating the use of the codes and/or abbreviations in plan books. Although codes would generally be considered acceptable, the plan book must be clear enough to be used by administrators for evaluation or instructional content, and by substitute teachers for implementing instructional activities.

Plan books must be kept available for periodic review by building level and central office administrators. Plan books will be checked by principals at least three times a year, preferably at the conclusion of each grading period or at the time when classroom observations are made. Comments concerning each teacher's lesson plans will be provided by building principals at least one each semester.

Daily plans should be checked and/or dated when the lesson has been completed.

Teachers will retain possession of plan books at the conclusion of the school year, however a new plan book must be completed each year.

Each principal will be responsible for establishing school policy or plans to assure the plan books are available for substitute teachers in the absence of the regular classroom teacher.

Building principals will also be responsible for establishing school policy regulating the use of codes and/or abbreviations in plan books. Although codes would generally be considered acceptable, the plan book must be clear enough to be used by administrators for evaluation of instructional content, and by substitute teachers for implementing instructional activities.

Approved: May 20, 1985

Revised: February 17, 1992