Lesson Planning: What do I use to sit down & plan

Let me start off by saying I am not an elaborate lesson planner. I put enough in my plans to jog my memory on what I want to do, but I do not script out my plans or put too many details. I have found that the way I teach if I write too much in my plans it actually 'bogs down' my style and I will really just skim over it when it's all said and done.

With that said...

STEP 1: GET MY MATERIALS TOGETHER

Planbook.com **This is a school requirement for me to use, but actually it is way better for me personally as I hyperlink all my materials as links to the plans. It also makes my teacher's heart happy in the way that I can color code my classes. *dreamy sigh*
Google Drive **I create all my materials digitally in Google Drive. I then copy the shareable link and hyperlink them into my lesson plans. It cuts down on the time having to search for the materials later in my drive and also gives access to my SPED team so they can also view them (as they also have access to my Planbook lessons)
My School Calendar **When planning I always keep a copy close by. It's always so annoying when you plan out a week perfectly only to find out later that it is shortened by parent-teacher conferences, one of those unexpected half days, etc.
Monthly Printable Calendar **My favorite calendar is from this site: CLICK HERE. I'll explain later why I don't use a Teacher Lesson Planner with a calendar anymore.
Reference Materials **For my 6th-grade class (476-1700AD) I use "The Story of the World Vol. 2" and "Medieval to Early Modern Times" for reference. For my 7th-grade class (1500-1840AD) I use "The Story of the World Vol. 3" and I am still looking for a good textbook reference for this class as it is a new prep to me this year. I also use the Ducksters Website and Eye Witness to History Website regularly in my planning.
Grade Level Standards **I use my Social Studies Standards Reference Sheets (CO 6th grade / CO 7th grade) to help me keep track of which standards I have addressed and which ones I still need to address.
Erin Condren Teacher Record Book **This will be a new edition this year! I want to use it for keeping documentation together, communication logs, standards check-off, and quick reference standardized test scores to help with any grade-wide low-level areas (we use CMAS & MAPS).

Now that I have all my materials together it's time to start getting a plan in place.

STEP 2: YEAR PACING

For my History classes, the course is broken down by month to a specific set of timeline dates. I think this helps me plan dramatically as it helps to break down such a large topic of World History into easier chunks to research and plan. I research the major events, people, ideas, etc during that specific time period to help me not get overwhelmed.

For example, in my 6th-grade History class, our overall topic is Middle Age History. Our monthly breakdown, or pacing, is the following:

August: 476AD (fall of Rome) to 500AD
Septemeber: 500AD to 600AD
October: 600AD to 700AD
November: 700AD to 800AD
December: 800AD to 1000AD
January: 1000AD to 1400AD
February: 1400AD to 1500AD
March: 1500AD to 1600AD
April: 1600AD to 1700AD
May: 1600AD to 1700AD

It roughly works out to about 100 years per month with a few exceptions. You might also be wondering if I made a mistake with April and May being the same...nope, that's correct. We really end around the late 1600s. And with state testing and the end of the year, I find it's better to give myself a little wiggle room for things not to go as planned.

STEP 3: MONTHLY OVERVIEW

With a year pacing guide in place, the next thing I will do is at the end of the month I sit down to write down an overview for the next month. This is where my Monthly Printable Calendar and School Calendar come into play.

I first go through with my School Calendar and write any dates on my Printable Calendar that might impede a lesson day, such as no school dates, half days, or anything else (like MAPS testing, Fun Run, Parent-Teacher Conferences, etc). Then after all those have been marked I start to look at my timeline dates and what topics within that time period are the big ones I want to touch upon in my month. I don't write out specific plans at this point, just major events or names of people I want to focus on. I use my Reference Materials to help guide me on what those topics are.

The 1st picture is from my 6th-grade History class from last year (my first year teaching History).

The 2nd picture is my 7th-grade History class that will be a new prep for me this year.

Now, why don't I use a traditional Teacher Lesson Planner instead of my Printable Calendars? For two reasons... since my school requires me to use Planbook.com I don't see a reason to do double planning by writing it down on paper (especially since I can print out my plans in a number of different formats).

The second reason is a little embarrassing but it's the truth. I get so obsessed with how beautiful my planner is (I take weeks/months picking out a planner) and how I don't want to "mess up" in it that I never use it! I know, embarrassing. Especially for a person with an Instagram dedicated to planners. But that's the reality. I fixate so much on making it look pretty that it takes me so long to get my plans down on paper that I just don't use it. So I use a Printable Calendar instead, which I can mess up on all I want and I don't have the same hesitation because I can just print another calendar.

STEP 4: WEEKLY PLANS

About a week ahead of time (2 weeks if I am on a roll) I write my weekly/daily lesson plans in Planbook.com.

What I truly LOVE about Planbook is that I can hyperlink all my materials from my Google Drive directly into my plans. It is a HUGE timesaver day of the lesson to just be able to click and go! (See example)

Since I have my monthly overview completed and I know what topics I will be teaching about, it's just a matter of figuring out what standards can be addressed, what kind of lesson/activity do I want to do to achieve my objective for the lesson, and if I can add any Primary Sources into the mix.

I try to do a variety of lesson types and activities to keep things fun and not too repetitive. But there are some staples I have in a semi-regular rotation to help maintain a sense of routine:

Stations (7 stations, 3 minutes per station) with Kahoot Review - once every 1-2 weeks
Google Slide Presentation - about 1-2 times a week
Primary Source Document Based Questions (DBQs) - once every 1-2 weeks
Reading Passage with Narration - once every 1-2 weeks
Informal 4 Corner Discussion - about 1 per month
Socratic Seminar - once a quarter
Escape Room - about 1 per month
Group Project Google Slide Presentations - once a quarter
Institute of Excellence in Writing (IEW) History-Based Writing - once every 1-2 weeks
Jeopardy or Kahoot Review Day - about 1 per month

My school is based on the Classical Education Model with Charlotte Mason inspiration. So once I have some of my staples in place I look to add in any of these elements into my lessons to help round out my week (such as cross curriculum integration, narration, nature study, picture study, music integration, living texts, etc).

STEP 5: DAILY BREAKDOWN

My classes are in 50 minute periods with 5 classes per day and an additional homeroom/study hall class (45 mins) and an elective class (25 mins).

For my 50-minute history classes, I have to plan out my minutes because time management is an area I need to be careful with myself. So in my lesson plans, I always give myself a minute breakdown to keep myself on track and make sure I'm not over-planning (which used to be a continual struggle of mine).

I usually break down my 50-minute lessons as such:

Bell Ringer (5-10 mins)
Mini-Lesson (10-15 mins)
Activity (20-25 mins)
Closure (5 mins)

The minutes will vary slightly from the different lesson types I use, as excepted since the activities are different.

Here are two examples...

For my Station days, I break my lesson like:

Bell Ringer (5 mins)
Activity (21 mins)- Stations with Cornell Notes
Informal Lesson Assessment (10 mins)- Kahoot Game
Class Discussion (10 mins)
Closure (5 mins)

You'll notice my activity and lesson time have switched places here. This is because my students are self-guiding themselves through the stations and then we come together to review what we have learned and what they put in their notes.

Versus our Socratic Seminar days, which I break it down like:

Bell Ringer (5 mins)- Review Expectations, Procedure, Purpose
Set-Up (5 mins)- Pick pairs, fill out observation forms, etc
Group 1 Discussion (15 mins)
"Reset" (5 mins)
Group 2 Discussion (15 mins)
Closure (5 mins)- Self-Reflection

But on a normal day basis the 4 main components of Bell Ringer, Mini-Lesson, Activity, and Closure are there to some degree.

And with Planbook I created a lesson plan template so I can just plug in my details. It makes planning that much faster!

Then once everything is plugged into Planbook with the Bell Ringer, Mini-Lesson, Activity, and Closure with hyperlinks included I fill out the rest of my lesson template:

Topic (comes from my Monthly Overview)
Objective
Key Words
Timeline Dates (these will be the ones that align with my giant wall timeline)

Lastly, I select my Standard in Planbook and check it off on my Standards Reference Sheet (CO 6th grade / CO 7th grade). I have to say the checkoff list on these reference sheets really engages my list-crossing-off, competitive side and is like the ultimate competition to get all my standards checked off. LOL.

STEP 6: ERIN CONDREN RECORD BOOK

This is the newest edition to my planning system! This Erin Condren Record Book won't be an everyday item but more of a supplemental material.

Since I stopped using traditional Teacher Planners I began running into the problem of keeping a central location for communication logs, tracking testing scores, Socratic Seminar participation, etc.

I also think this would be a great resource to track my student's writing progress in our IEW program.

So even though it won't be directly linked to my plans, it will be in my tracking for my classes.

And that is what I do for my lesson planning! It's simple but allows me flexibility within my lesson, while also allowing anyone on my team (such as SPED teachers) to know exactly what I will be doing in our lesson.

I hope this helps you in some way with your own lesson planning style!

All the Best,

Emily