I am sure you have all seen the Five Minute Lesson Plan created by Teacher Toolkit, but have you actually used it? It is one of those things that I often retweet or drag on to my desktop, but have never actually used. However, it's a new year and time for some changes!
Although created to help teachers create lessons quickly, especially last minute, it can be used for more detailed lesson plans. I deliver all my courses through iTunesU and have the main objectives and resources on there, but they are written for the students. I use the Five Minute Lesson Plan to complicate these lessons, putting them in teacher friendly terms, helping me to understand my own objectives and to have a stronger sense of the class' structure!
As I am teaching two grades a unit on coding, where they will not only learn to code, but will teach coding, I have started to think more about how I plan my lessons. I've gone back to basics and have been looking at lots of resources shared with me over the last few years and have found the five minute lesson plan to be the most useful. I have added it into the course I am teaching and will get students to refer to it when planning their coding lessons and tutorials.
At we are at the start of a new year, I have started using it myself. I think that people who have been teaching for a while automatically cover all the elements from the plan, but by having them written down in front of me means I definitely make a more conscious effort to check that students are learning exactly what I want them to learn, and within the lesson.
For me, the most important thing is to think about the key words, as I often just assume students already know these or pick them up easily. By noting down the words I want students to learn I can refer to them throughout my lessons. I am thinking of using them in a short test at the end of each unit, where students create their own glossaries with them. It would be done in the same format as a spelling test, but with more time for them to write down the definition.
By writing down how I differentiate will help me too, as I can refer back to this after a lesson and question if this is really working or not - If not, I can look at other ways to differentiate.
By documenting my lesson plans I can take them with me when getting advice and ideas from other teachers, even those who have not observed a lesson I am having trouble with.
Lastly...I am hoping it helps me with my handwriting! I do everything on my iPad or computer, so my handwriting is horrific! Writing out my plan a few times a day should help improve this!
I am going to try and continue using the Five Minute Lesson Plan for the next few weeks, just to get me back into good habits. Let me know if you have used it, or have your own similar resource.
You can download the 5 Minute Lesson Plan from TES here.
No comments:
Post a Comment