Ayana's Site On Teaching and Learning!

Teachers are constantly planning.  Depending on your school climate, planning instruction can be a solitary, micromanaged, punitive chore or it can be a hopeful, invigorating, interesting task done with friends.  I hope the latter applies to your school! Here are documents I've used to help me plan for instruction.  For actual units and lesson plans, check out My Favorite Sites.

Planning the Beginning and the End

WhatINeedInOrderToTeach.doc  Right before school started one September, I tried to list everything I needed to have.

FirstDaySignInSheet.doc  For when families bring their kids.

Firstletter913.doc Here's my first day of school letter for families.  I'll give it to parents with a supply list when they drop off their kids on Monday and I'll send it home with kids whose parents I don't get to meet.  I agonized over whether to include my cell phone number (in the past I have) but I eventually decided that this year I need to find ways to leave work at work.

EndOfYearActionPlan.doc  All those end of year details.

Long Term Planning - Best done with friends!

LongtermCalendar0405.doc  The whole year on two pages.

Long-termPlan-Blank.doc  Jotting down units for each subject across each month.

Long-termplan'04-'05-2nd.doc - Sample. 

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Sample Unit Plans

A picture is worth a thousand words.  Thus, when I'm teaching teachers about unit plans it always helps if I have a sample one.  The thing is, here's how I generally plan units:

    --I modify existing units from teacher's guides or downloads; this usually involves lots of post-its or penciled-in notes.

    --I plan in my head (it gets pretty intuitive by the time you've been teaching longer than your students have been alive!)

    --I sketch out the unit in Ayanaese on a piece of looseleaf paper. 

Nevertheless, I did find a few typed up unit plans.  Most of these are written using an understanding by design approach (a.k.a backwards design from Wiggins & McTighe).  Pacing charts, assessment tracking sheets, and lesson plans are generally not included.

Reading_Is_Delicious Beginning of the year reading unit, grades 2-4.

Personal Narrative Unit Overview.doc Second-grade writing, transition to publishing.

Kwanzaa Unit Overview.doc Social studies and language arts, grades 2-4.

Human Body Unit Cover Page And Survey.doc I was working with a group of second grade teachers and my job was to plan a textbook-based science unit (yuck, inquiry-based units are better).  I surveyed them to find out what resources they had, or didn't have, in their rooms.

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Lesson Plan Forms

You decide how detailed you want to get.  Also feel free to rename sections based on your preferences or your school's norms.

LessonPlans-1lesson.doc  One lesson on the page.

LessonPlans-2lessons.doc

LessonPlans-6lessons.doc

LessonPlans-1Day.doc  All the lessons for a day.

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A Few More

SubPlans.doc I wrote these for a third grade in the off chance that there was actually a substitute to cover the class.

WeeklyLessonPlanGrid-nosched.doc  One week on one page.

WeeklyLessonPlanGrid-scheduled.doc  I think I taught 2nd grade the year I used this.

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