s/o Question for teachers - why do you rewrite your lesson plans each year?

[Anonymous]

Flexibility is really key and like the PP said, we're teaching students, not just curriculum. I work in classrooms with some teachers who send in all of their work to Copy Plus in August for the first two quarters and they're all smug about it. They have files on their computer organized by week so that they can just pull it up the week before and they're all set for the upcoming week because they don't change a thing from year to year. They don't reflect on what actually worked because they have a "this is what we're doing this year because this is what we have done every year" mentality. Is it easier for them? Sure. But they always have excuses for why students aren't grasping certain concepts and they don't question their own rigidity and one size fits all style as a contributing factor.

Well said. Just as kids are different, teachers are, as well. I'm no longer teaching, and, by nature, I am kind of a "wing it" person--but, I did learn when I was teaching that I was more effective when I was prepared. I usually stayed very late one day a week (Thursdays)to prepare lessons for the following week. I would write the plans (which included evaluating the needs of each child) and prepare for each group. And, the reading lessons for a group that had already read the same book might be quite different. I would make lists of what I needed for each lesson and be sure I had it ready. As a first grade teacher, you also need to prepare for the kids who are working on their own while you were doing direct instruction with others. That requires a lot of creativity to be sure you do not just give the kids busy work, but activities that are challenging and productive. (I often found this the most difficult part of preparing lesson plans.)

I had one colleague who had everything planned to the second. She told me once that she would fall apart if she didn't have everything "just so". (I did see her fall apart once on a field trip. Then, I understood.) I had thought she was just a control freak, but then I realized that she just could not adapt to unexpected events. (Not a good trait with teachers, but she actually was a very good teacher.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am an elementary ESOL teacher and teach different grade levels pretty much every year. Also, I'm asked to support different content areas pretty much every year. The model in which I teach (plug in vs. pull out) can also change from year to year. So some years I might have access to technology like a Promethean board and some years everything has to be in hard copy. My students rarely have the same needs from year to year. Since we don't have a curriculum or resources provided, I've mapped out a general progression for my newcomers that I can follow from year to year but their needs can be so different. This year I pull out three newcomers in the same grade level. One can decode and write pretty well in English, but can't speak or comprehend. One can speak English fluently but has zero literacy skills. The third has some literacy skills in his native language but is in his silent period and won't practice anything having to do with speaking. Every lesson has to be differentiated for each student's needs. Then once I get into a groove a new student will arrive with completely different needs than the ones I'm already teaching.

OK, the FIRST year you teach, you have to write something for each student.

But over the course of many years, don't you get a TON of students who speak English fluently, but can't decode anything? I'm also an ESOL teacher and every year I get at least 2 or 3 students with this particular skill set. So I pull out the lesson plans for this type of student. Cut and paste into the planner... done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I usually stayed very late one day a week (Thursdays)to prepare lessons for the following week. I would write the plans (which included evaluating the needs of each child) and prepare for each group. And, the reading lessons for a group that had already read the same book might be quite different. I would make lists of what I needed for each lesson and be sure I had it ready.

I do this, but because I am reusing the same lesson plans from year to year, it only takes me about one hour per week to review the progress and needs of all my students, and prepare materials for them. Where I don't have to spend time, is retyping the same thing over and over for each student or reading group. I can just cut and paste from the prepared lesson plans, matching the skill the students need with the prepared lesson plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an elementary ESOL teacher and teach different grade levels pretty much every year. Also, I'm asked to support different content areas pretty much every year. The model in which I teach (plug in vs. pull out) can also change from year to year. So some years I might have access to technology like a Promethean board and some years everything has to be in hard copy. My students rarely have the same needs from year to year. Since we don't have a curriculum or resources provided, I've mapped out a general progression for my newcomers that I can follow from year to year but their needs can be so different. This year I pull out three newcomers in the same grade level. One can decode and write pretty well in English, but can't speak or comprehend. One can speak English fluently but has zero literacy skills. The third has some literacy skills in his native language but is in his silent period and won't practice anything having to do with speaking. Every lesson has to be differentiated for each student's needs. Then once I get into a groove a new student will arrive with completely different needs than the ones I'm already teaching.

OK, the FIRST year you teach, you have to write something for each student.

But over the course of many years, don't you get a TON of students who speak English fluently, but can't decode anything? I'm also an ESOL teacher and every year I get at least 2 or 3 students with this particular skill set. So I pull out the lesson plans for this type of student. Cut and paste into the planner... done.

Sure, but figuring out a lesson plan that meets the needs of not only that student, but the other two in the same group takes a little more thought. Not to mention using materials that are appropriate for 1st graders vs. 5th graders (the two grade levels where I have newcomers so far this year).

[Anonymous]

I also teach elementary ESOL and my administrators love to change our grade levels frequently. It suits their purposes even if it makes a lot more work for us. We don't have a curriculum so I have to come up with my own materials every day. They do pay for RAZ kids subscriptions which does have some pre-written lesson plans but I spend a lot of my planning time finding materials. We do have a guided book room but most of the time, my students have already read those books with their classroom teacher. It would be nice if my students each had their own device and I could assign books to them in RAZ Kids depending on what skill we are working on (ex: books with short a sound) but I only get the use of iPads maybe once a week. So I end up printing off a lot of paper books. I spend a lot of money finding materials. But our school has a laminator so what I do print out, I often laminate it so I can reuse it. Sometimes I am jealous that the classroom teachers teach the same grade year after year since many of them copy and paste their main lessons and then just tweak them to meet the needs of that year's class. But they also have a lot of other responsibilities I don't like homeroom stuff.

[Anonymous]

We rewrite them each year because they keep changing the stupid format and want us to include different things. You don't seem to understand that the people in charge of stuff like this are insane and either were complete failures in the classroom or have never taught.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We rewrite them each year because they keep changing the stupid format and want us to include different things. You don't seem to understand that the people in charge of stuff like this are insane and either were complete failures in the classroom or have never taught.

OP here ... THAT I understand. Rewriting every year for stupidity I do understand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Although to be clear, this takes me about 5-6 hours every Sunday to write my guided reading plans. This is for 24 plans though for six different reading groups.

I must be missing something.

You make these plans for 6 different reading groups. Some are lower and some are higher.

You can't reuse the higher ones, for the lower reading groups, when they reach that level?

Say your higher kids are reading "The Big Fluffy Giant" book. You write detailed lesson plans for "The Big Fluffy Giant" book.

When your lower group reaches that level in March, you can't just reuse the guided reading plan for "The Big Fluffy Giant" book, for those kids?

Next year, your 1st graders will be so different, that none of them will be reading "The Big Fluffy Giant"?

In three years, all the kids will be so different and will have such different phonics needs (because phonics changes so much each year) that none of them will need to learn to read "The Big Fluffy Giant"?

You really need to do all this work?

Yes, for guided reading, you do have to write totally different plans for every year for every group. Here's an example. So, I have 6 reading groups. Year 1, my low group is reading a level B book. That group is really struggling with sight words. So I do sight word instruction with them. But year two, my low group is at a level A. Those kids need to work on using the first letter and the picture to figure out the words. Year 3, my low group is at a B again. I can re-use the plans from 2 years ago, right? Not a chance. Because this group doesn't need much sight word work. This group needs sounding out and blending work. And add to that, this year I have a kid in the group who masturbates while in the group. I'm not being crass. This has actually happened to me in a first grade room. Or maybe I have the kid who howls like a wolf the whole time unless I sit next to him with my hand on his shoulder. Or maybe I have the kid who has extreme adhd and now needs his own group.

[Anonymous]

And add to that, this year I have a kid in the group who masturbates while in the group. I'm not being crass. This has actually happened to me in a first grade room. Or maybe I have the kid who howls like a wolf the whole time unless I sit next to him with my hand on his shoulder. Or maybe I have the kid who has extreme adhd and now needs his own group.

And, this is what people don't understand makes teaching so difficult. Haven't taught in years, but I had those kids, too. So, it is not just today. However, all the other demands on teachers today magnify these issues.

I only taught one of the first one you listed. It was a real challenge. I kept giving him things to hold in order to distract him--but, nothing worked well. It was ALL the time. This was years ago--thanks for reminding me? It brought back the vision to my mind. I hadn't thought about him in a long time.

The kid I taught who howled was autistic. It was an extremely sad case. Hand on the shoulder did not help. It was hard to predict what would set him off--sensory overload, I guess. He was pretty sad when he was not screaming, too. No eye contact--that type of thing. But, the howling affected the whole class.This was not a borderline case and it was also a long time ago. Much progress has been made in this field since then. But, I'm sure it is still very difficult for a classroom teacher--not to mention the child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We rewrite them each year because they keep changing the stupid format and want us to include different things. You don't seem to understand that the people in charge of stuff like this are insane and either were complete failures in the classroom or have never taught.

OP here ... THAT I understand. Rewriting every year for stupidity I do understand.

It is sad to say but completely true. We could be doing so much more with our time if we didn't have to spend so much time cutting/pasting into formats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Although to be clear, this takes me about 5-6 hours every Sunday to write my guided reading plans. This is for 24 plans though for six different reading groups.

How long does it take you to do your other lesson plans?

[Anonymous]

I will say that new teachers and teachers of a new curriculum do have to make that investment on the front end. However, guided reading lesson plans can be used over and over without a lot of tweaks because you are focused on a specific skill. I used the Reading A-Z plans and would go throud and highlight and annotate the portions I would use for each of my reading groups. It still took prep work/pre-planning but not rewriting a lesson plan each time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes it is a lot of hard work but I am baffled how you think it is a waste of time. My kids consistently make a huge amount of reading progress, year after year. I do this because it works.

My kids make huge amounts of reading progress as well, but I don't have to spend hours and house Sunday evening writing lesson plans.

I think some teachers make more work than they need to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Although to be clear, this takes me about 5-6 hours every Sunday to write my guided reading plans. This is for 24 plans though for six different reading groups.

How long does it take you to do your other lesson plans?

that's insane!

[Anonymous]

A person after my own heart <3

Anonymous wrote:We rewrite them each year because they keep changing the stupid format and want us to include different things. You don't seem to understand that the people in charge of stuff like this are insane and either were complete failures in the classroom or have never taught.