Looking for some lesson planning tips to make your life easier this school year? Perhaps you find that you’re running out of time at the end of the school to cover material that students will be tested on. Here you will learn about the best way to plan your lessons for the year.
If you’re like me and teach a class that has a set date for the end of course examination, it is essential to start planning for this class with the end in mind. One of the best lesson planning tips is to make a list of all of the dates that you will meet with your students and focus on the day of their examination. Then begin to plan backwards.
Best Lesson Planning Tips
Plan with the end in mind.
In order for your students to be successful on this test, not only do you have to cover the content, but you also need to cover test taking strategies as it relates to their examination. For example, if it’s got a multiple choice component, you will need to teach them how to eliminate erroneous answers right away so that they can at least narrow it down to give themselves a 50-50 chance that they’ll choose the right answer. You should also focus on teaching them techniques to maximize the amount of points they can earn.
For the particular math class that I teach, they are awarded points based on the amount of problems they get correct and often times get points for having the correct method to solve the problem, even if they have the wrong answer. Let’s suppose that you have to solve x + 4 = 7 and then use that value to evaluate 3x – 2. In the first equation, the value of x is 3. But let’s say that the student made a mistake and said the value of x is 11 for example. If the student then shows their work and how they are substituting the incorrect answer of 11 correctly into the expression 3x – 2 so that 3(11) – 2 = 31, then the student would be awarded 1 of 2 points. This is important as every point counts! So I have to leave enough time in my curriculum to not only teach my students all of the concepts that are going to be on this test, but also leave time for them to take practice exams and learn test taking strategies.
Therefore, one of the best lesson planning tips is to ALWYAS plan with the end in mind. On your calendar you should input the date of the actual examination and then input the number of practice exams that you want to make sure your students take prior to sitting for the actual examination.
Then you should plan out the topics/concepts that you have to teach them knowing exactly when it is that you have to be completely done so that you have enough time to review and give them some practice examinations to prepare.
This probably sounds very logical, but it’s very easy to lose track of time in the school year. Sometimes the weather calls for unexpected school closures. Or sometimes life happens and the teacher is out sick or has to take a few days of unexpected leave. All of a sudden, without having the end in mind, the teacher falls behind and it’s a ripple effect. The testing date does not change, so not running out of time is very important.
So what happens if you do fall behind?
It’s definitely happened to me. I’ve had my beautiful, perfectly thought out lesson plans for the year disrupted by unexpected assemblies, pep rallies, field trips or other unforeseen circumstances. In that case I try to see how I can cover content faster or move into alternate forms of assessment. Perhaps instead of a quiz that’s given in class and takes 30 minutes, I assign it as a take home quiz and then try to make use of that time.
Luckily, there are also many online resources available for students such as virtual tutors, Khan Academy, and YouTube that can be leveraged as supplemental material to the take-home assignments. And when all else fails, you can assign your students a buddy so that they can study together.
As you can see, keeping that end in mind is absolutely critical in order to best prepare your students to succeed.
Leave a Reply