Lesson planning for the first time? Don’t get frustrated. The process takes years, but these lesson planning tips will help.
My first (or maybe second) year teaching, I approached a coworker during a break. My class had a paper due soon, and after thinking, “I wonder if my class could use a revamping/revision/extra help day.” I asked my coworker as much.
She laughed. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure they could use it. Don’t you have such a day scheduled in?”
No. No I didn’t.
Like many lesson plans my first years teaching, accommodating needed to be your mantra. Next year would be smoother, next year, my lessons would be different. As I offer up these tips for language arts lesson planning, know that my tips for lesson planning were hard won.
What should I know about language arts lesson planning?
Writing lesson plans should be a fluid process. I spent too much time my first years bothered that my plans changed so much. It takes time—but if you’re a new teacher, language arts lesson planning ideas are here.
1. Don’t wing it.
My biggest of all tips for lesson planning? Don’t walk into a classroom with no plan. You need a plan. If you don’t approach the class with a tidy, typed plan, that’s fine. Write out bullet points of the steps for the day.
Don’t abandon formal lesson plan creation. Instead, walk to the front of the classroom those first years with a guideline, with a reminder of what to do.
If you have a language arts curriculum to follow (state or school required), you may have less freedom.
2. Have a back-up and over-plan a bit at first.
Language arts lesson planning can be hard to evaluate, especially with all of our nuances—paragraphs, grammar, public speaking, and on.
My first year, I had a literary terms BINGO ready in case we finished too early. (I stashed it in my desk.) For another class, I read to them from a young adult book every day and planned on reading five minutes every class period. If I needed ten minutes, so be it. Ready something that will fit at the end of your class, just in case.
Do you pull out your emergency plan too often? Follow these lesson planning tips:
- Reevaluate your lesson plans.
- Are you over- or underestimating prior knowledge?
- Find what is going quickly. Ask domain-specific questions. (Could you encourage more discussion?)
- Ask a coach or mentor to provide feedback with lesson planning.
- Record yourself and watch it later. Discover if you are moving at too fast of a pace or if you truly need more information.
Pacing in teaching takes time to develop.
3. Think through possible pitfalls.
This process will be easier after you know your students. Those first weeks, consider what could happen (without driving yourself crazy), and your lesson plans will be better prepared.
For instance, if you are covering a short story, have activities, standards, and a plan for it. Keep quick extras on hand as well, maybe comprehension checks or defining meaning of words.
Then ask yourself: is anything about this story confusing? what is the main idea? is the theme complex? is the vocabulary more difficult than normal? could students switch characters? are the symbols evident, or will they require extra study?
The better you can predict areas of potential struggle, the better your lesson plans will be. After you know your students, you will be able to predict where they will need support.
4. Schedule in advance, but not too far.
My language arts lesson plans follow a “loose” schedule, one that I know the order of the biggest assignments —papers, reading assignments, assessments, and speeches. (My school breaks down CCSS standards by semester, so I am allowed to arrange my material as long as the assignments meet standards.)
Your lesson planning might look different, but I prefer a simple word document, nothing fancy. As the dates approach, the schedule gets “tighter.” It’s a long, never completed document. The next year, I copy and page into a new file (the file’s name is the school year) and alter as we proceed.
This long document helps with teamwork too. We work on it together and can share it with coworkers in the building. When I went on maternity leaves, this document was invaluable.
One time I decided to bulk lesson plan—to plan detailed lesson plans months in advance. I had to scrap the majority of them. Sure, some of the activities were salvageable, but I unfortunately wasted time redoing many of them. I could have saved time by working slowly and planning in smaller chunks.
Of course, I never teach everything the same way—no class is the same. Restricting a topic to two weeks isn’t fair to classes that need more time. Similarly, it isn’t fair to stretch and bore students when they understand a topic. After a few years, it is helpful to reflect and see that most classes need 3 weeks on ___ project, rather than two.
Final ideas about English lesson planning.
My own point of view: Like so much those first years of teaching, lesson planning takes practice, experience. It will take errors for you to craft better lesson plans, to have smooth days where you accomplish your objectives.
From kindergarten to high school, students learn the components of language arts. If you are ever in doubt where a topic belongs, which standards to use, or what material is available to you, ask! Your school should be happy to support you.
Hopefully these lesson planning tips put you on the right track for lesson planning.
Would some editable pacing guides help you as you begin planning your first language arts classes? You can make a copy of these materials and edit as you wish:
- English 9 (typically, freshmen language arts)
- Creative Writing
- American Literature, unit one and unit two
