Topic of the week: Advice for lesson planning and pacing.
I’m going to be completely honest – I don’t think I knew what a pacing guide was my first year teaching. I definitely did not make my own or even use district guides effectively until at least year 4 or 5. I just followed what my coworkers were doing (and they knew what they were doing, thank goodness!) But, the more you know…
Resources probably already exist.
Last week we covered content knowledge, and I encouraged you to at least locate your state’s standards. In many cases, your state – or your district – might have a pacing guide that you are expected to follow. A pacing guide is essentially your roadmap for the year. It tells you what to teach and when to teach it. That way your year is paced appropriately without rushing or running out of time.
Before you spend your precious time planning out your year, check your state, district, and school websites and talk with your grade level team (if applicable). Chances are you’ll have a great starting point!
Make Pacing Guides
If you end up with too much freedom (aka – no pacing guide), make a really simple one for yourself. It’ll save you in the long run, promise!
This may be tricky for your first year, but do your best, make edits as needed, and make notes for yourself to refer back to next year.
Here’s an example of my 3rd grade team’s science/SS pacing for one year, a simple Word document:
My Lesson Planning Preferences
At my school, I’m required to turn in lesson plans on a weekly basis. (We do this digitally via PlanbookEdu.)
Because I’m already creating digital lesson plans, I keep them ALL. It’s not always helpful to use old lesson plans because curriculum, standards, resources, and best-practices are constantly changing. However, old plans do come in handy sometimes and can at least serve as a good starting point instead of starting from scratch.
I keep all of my lesson plans neatly in folders, labeled with topics. This makes it easy to use the search function in your documents!
The rest of my files are DEFINITELY NOT this organized – Don’t get it twisted, ha! But it pays off to have my old lesson plans labeled and organized well. It’s also nice if you ever find yourself in a situation to pass off your plans to another teacher. They’ll appreciate the organization!
I’m a paper+pencil girl.
The lesson plans that I have to turn in online are SUPER SUPER detailed. Standards, objectives, differentiation, assessments, small groups, guided release model minilesson… It’s a lot. And that can be overwhelming to look at when just trying to make it through the day.
So, I have a paper planner that I write skeleton plans in to refer to throughout the week. It’s enough for me!
Ultimately, as with anything else, I can give you advice for lesson planning but you’re going to have to figure out what works for you. To be honest, it took me a few years to figure out a system for myself. Trial and error, and when in doubt, don’t delete!
If you haven’t already, see if you can find pacing guides online for the subject(s) you will be teaching. Definitely check your district and state websites first. Save them to refer to later!
Check out my teacher lesson planner here.
Teaching a combo class? Here’s what worked for me.
