Lesson Planning Questions

Sorry, I've been posting on this forum for a little while, but most of it has been non-specific, woe-is-me, feeling sorry for myself, etc. Now, I'm actually trying to ask specific questions that will hopefully get me clearer more specific responses.

Okay, I've student taught and worked as an ESL teacher and regular "teacher" at a youth center, but I'm still confused about how to plan lessons when there is no set structure, such as a weekly pacing guide, already provided. I did take a look at the district website, and I feel like I can do better at planning than I was doing at the beginning of the year, but I'm still often caught short.

I think part of my problem is that it is ELA, and I just do not know how to teach writing. To me, writing is just something you do. It's related to reading and it's required to do well in almost any subject in the upper grades. I guess a lot of people don't look at it like that, but I need structure when I plan my lessons. I need to know what model I'm following---until recently I naively thought the gradual release model was the only model of instruction, and that might explain some of why I was having so much trouble. Unless I'm doing this wrong, some ELA concepts just won't fit into that model.

Teaching grammar and vocabulary are easy, but the kids won't sit through a 60 minute vocabulary lesson. Sorry if it seems odd for me to be having this much trouble with something that is supposedly simple, but English and foreign language were my best subjects, and, to me, learning English / Language Arts takes very little work. I have trouble relating to my students who struggle, and I don't know how to translate the teaching strategies I've learned into something that will fit the ELA classroom.

 

I'm still not sure that you're going to get any better answers this time. "I don't know how to teach writing" is every bit as broad as the previous questions you've asked. And the answer is still the same as before. There are plenty of sources that will walk you through the whole process.

I teach middle school language arts. I have to cover reading, writing, language, and speaking/listening skills in 55 minutes a day. We don't separate those skills. Most recently, we have been working within a topic of the Civil War. We have read all kinds of nonfiction articles. Each week we focus on a different standard. For our final assessment of the unit, students will be writing an argumentative essay.

We did not have a pacing guide provided either. We made our own. It wasn't particularly difficult. We have the standards. I know how many days I have the kids and how long each day I have them. And the good thing about language arts is that I can teach pretty much any standard with whatever piece of text I want.

I'm quite capable of creating my own lessons, as I've been doing this for 25 years. However, I'm also not going to reinvent the wheel, so I look for sources anywhere I can. I use many things from ReadWorks and CommonLit. Our textbook also has many resources. I sometimes buy things from Teachers Pay Teachers, but it's not my favorite source.

 

I don't know what's wrong, really, but when I use resources off of the internet, I usually end up not teaching the state objectives required. I tend to pick stuff that seems easy to me but is way above their heads.

 

In situations like this, it would probably be up to you to revise the online lesson. Of course, we can help you make that happen. (A little more specific information would be appreciated.)

 

Our state standards are based on Common Core Standards, as are many other state standards. When I'm looking for something particular, I will search the standard number.

 

Teaching writing isn't supposed to be easy. Frankly, I think it is the most difficult subject area of all to teach.

 

I would then google the specific objective when you are looking for lessons online. You should also revise the online lessons to meet state objectives.

Can you give an example of a lesson that was too challenging for your class?

 

I'd look into the book Creating Writers by Vicki Spandel. It's all about how to teach, model, and evaluate the Six Traits of Writing (Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, and Conventions.) Most state standards grade based on some variation of the six traits, and they're a good way to evaluate writing in general.

You also might want to look into Write Like This by Kelly Gallagher. He suggests a lot of different activities you can do with students based on the purpose behind writing (express, explain, evaluate, persuade, etc.) I also like Write Beside Them by Penny Kittle, which is a guide on how to run a writing workshop class.

If you're teaching those traits and those purposes behind writing, and getting students to write regularly, you should be working towards the state standards.

As far as planning goes, try a sort of backwards design approach. Consider the learning goals for your students (overarching understandings, background knowledge, and skills) and look for standards that apply to those goals. If none do, tweak the goals so that they do work with the standards. Then find activities that work towards that goal.

 

You can also start with the standard and set a learning goal from there, which may help you identify what it is exactly you're teaching.
For example, here is a set of 9th-10th grade writing standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3.A
Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or events.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3.B
Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3.C
Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3.D
Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3.E
Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative.
​

Looking at that first one seems a bit vague - that's the overarching standard. The learning target for this unit would be to write a narrative of real or fictional events using well-chosen details and a structured sequence of events.

Those sub-standards, A-E, would give you learning goals for individual lessons or mini-units within your overall narrative-writing unit. So A could easily be several days: find mentor texts (which could be literally ANY narrative book! Go with whatever your students are familiar with or what you're reading as a class) to identify where the writer sets out the problem, how the characters or situations are introduced, and how the story flows from one event to the next. This fits easily within a gradual release model: You model your own thinking about those features. Have the students work together to identify those features. Then they could choose a "style" or gather some ideas for their own writing, and begin writing their own narrative with those things in mind.

And so on. By looking at each standard, you find your starting point for the lesson. Writing can follow a gradual release model quite well actually - you model it and explain your thinking, have them practice with you or in groups, and then set them to work on their own using the skills they've observed and practiced.

 

I'm in a reading specialist program and 4.0'd the course on "teaching writing'' and guess what... I still don't feel any better or more prepared to do it. I think teaching -- and ASSESSING -- writing is very difficult!

 

First I would say you want the students to be quite familiar with the different genres of writing: opinion, informative/ explanatory, and narrative. I think teaching writing is a combination of modeling writing for them and how it should look, responding to texts and using them as models and then letting students write and taking what they give you and tailoring instruction. I definitely agree that "writing is something you do'' and the problem is we don't give students enough time to authentically write! There's a reason it's called the writing process and it doesn't just happen in twenty minutes. Yet I go into classrooms ALL THE TIME and ''writing'' is merely the students copying what the teacher has on the board and then making it look ''pretty.'' You should become familiar with the 6+1 writing traits (if you aren't already) and really focus on those as you model and guide students through the structure of writing and refer to mentor texts as you do. I think it really helps to teach writing if you READ writing and deconstruct what authors have done. But the students need ample time to write, collaborate with their peers, make those revisions / edits, and revise their papers. But take what mistakes they're making or things you notice could be better and turn those into mini lessons. In my grad class we had to do a project called "read with a writer's eye'' where we tied texts to the 6+1 writing traits and analyze how we'd use them to teach WRITING. Usually we think of books as just teaching reading and reading comprehension, but the focus of the course was to use them to teach writing.
But I think if you focus on a standard and grab yourself a GREAT mentor text to model writing, it's a great start!

 

It seems like you need long-term plans. Sit down with a calendar. Put in dates for things like: standardized testing, field day, end of grading period, etc. Then, count and see how many days you have left in the year. Then, look in your textbook and see how many units you have left. Divide those up into the days you have left. Then, choose the most important parts of each unit. That should give the rest of your year more structure.

As far as vocabulary and grammar, those should never be whole-day lessons. They should be 10-minute warm-ups at the start of class. It may be old-fashioned, but good old Daily Oral Language (DOL) gets the job done. You can mix up how you do this. Sometimes, I have them edit each others' sentences. Sometimes I let students come to the board and write them and we all edit them together. For vocabulary, you could do "word of the day" or focus on a word part a week. These should be quick mini-lessons, not a whole, big formal lesson.

My class period is 55 minutes, and this is what a typical day in my class looks like:
10 minutes - AR reading
10 minutes - Grammar/vocabulary warmup
25 minutes - Core activity of the day (close read, writing, group project, game, etc.)
10 minutes - Closure/test prep review of the day

These times are approximate, and we don't always do each part. Usually if anything gets left out, it's AR reading, though on library days we have more time for that so it evens out more.

 

Here is a lesson planning tip that my student mentor teacher told me: Use the Yearly Overview to plan each week. For example, let’s say I have to teach unit X in three weeks, which is comprised of standards, A, B, C, D, and E. To accomplish this, I should allocate week 1 to teach standards A and B, week 2 for C and D, and week 3 for E.

Do you see how it makes lesson planning easier? To make the Yearly Overview, print out the state standards and use a calendar to map out each unit. This will make your life so much simpler.

The moral of the story is to not think about your lesson planning on a daily basis, but a weekly and even monthly basis!

 

This is really helpful to me! Thanks!!

 

You’re very welcome!

 

I'm sorry. I think I would benefit better if I could watch a video of people planning out units. I'm missing minor details that are making me tell myself, "this is really complicated!" I guess it isn't really as difficult as I think, but for some reason, when I sit down with a list of standards and textbook, I draw a blank.

 

Maybe you should look on Youtube and see if there is a video that fits your specific need.

You might even want to join some of the education websites that provide teaching videos, if you think that is how you will learn best. That said, if you aren't specific enough in your questioning, you will probably finding yourself walking in the same circles similar to your current plight.

No, it isn't really easy - it takes constant work and attention to detail. I believe the request for a video sounds like we are back to "train me."

 

What are you teaching tomorrow?

 

Use a lesson plan template. It should include the objective (e.g. Students will learn to... by using/doing...), anticipatory set, lesson of the day, guided practice, checks for understanding, standards covered, student accommodations (if any), homework, and materials used.

 

I don't think a video of my process would help you. Lesson and unit planning requires creative thought and problem solving. My process involves lots of sticky notes, white out, and a bunch of tabs open on my browser and a bunch of books and binders open on my table. Unless I literally narrated every thought I had, watching me plan a unit would not be very helpful.

 

I'm planning on having a short grammar lesson on verb tenses and then allowing the students to compare and contrast real world happenings with the tales found in myths and folktales in their textbooks as an attempt to bring in some cross-curricular instruction. It's going to be pretty dry, mostly filling out a worksheet. I may divide the questions among pairs to make the work go faster.

For the afternoon, I'm planning on going over citing sources in MLA format. I wanted to find some kind of board game so that it didn't seem like work to the kids, but that's kind of short notice. We're going to be moving into writing research papers very soon, and I want them to know how to use MLA format correctly. If we have time, I may also go over APA format, even though I'm sure that's not required!

 

I have no shortage of creativity, but I'm inexperienced and don't really know what works. I also don't always know what material to cover. The "pacing guide" is actually just a list of standards to cover over a series of six week periods, and it's not very clear to me.

 

Don't you teach middle school? Just that last sentence is hugely problematic to me. I remember how hard it was for me just to keep MLA format correct when I was taught that in middle school. I couldn't imagine being taught two conflicting ways to cite things at that age. I never did APA until college. I teach HS math, but even I know that's a disaster recipe for middle school English.

And with the folktales discussion, do you have someone ways to guide that comparing and contrasting if the kids aren't sure what kinds of things you are looking for? Do you have plenty of good examples of what you would like them to be thinking about as they compare and contrast?

 

What type of worksheet are they filling out and what type of comparisons are they looking for. I agree that you should consider modeling an example with a class so they know what they are looking for. I think working in pairs is a good idea. Are you planning on assigning partners or having them choose their own? Are you going to have students share out when you are done with the activity?

For the afternoon, you should definitely stick with just the MLA. You might also want to have a discussion about why citing sources is important. What are you going to have students do after you go over citing sources?

 

Standards are made of verbs (what students should be able to do) and nouns (what students need to know). That is your material to cover.

Pick a standard. Find the verbs. Find the nouns. If there’s a skill needed in order to be able to do what the standard is asking, teach that first (if you’re comparing and contrasting, do students know what those words mean? Do they know how to find main ideas in order to compare and contrast the important parts of two or more texts?). Those are the foundational skills. Then work your way through the standard.

Also go back and read my last post in this thread because I explained it with a sample standard there that may be helpful, though it’s a high school standard and you teach middle school, but I went through the process of backwards planning with it.

 

Dont most students use online resources for bibliographies? Easybib is highly used in my area.

 

Yeah, I was thinking about including a link to citation machine so that it didn't seem difficult. I also wanted to turn it into sort of a game, but I'm not sure how. I could make flashcards with the MLA material on it, but what would I do after that?

 

The worksheet is self-explanatory, really, and the myths are in their reading textbooks. It doesn't require much outside research, and the only time they would need to spend is just reading the story and maybe looking up an unfamiliar term or concept or two.

 

Your lessons seem 'thin'. Not a lot of teaching going on, teaching MLA format when they could easily use an online tool, filling in a 'self explanatory' worksheet. Where is the critical thinking and creativity? Where is the engagement? Where is your excitement for the lesson so that your kids will be excited?

 

That's pretty helpful, and I doubt the Texas TEKS are really that much different from Common Core, even though I was cautioned not to use anything but TEKS standards.

 

They are "thin," because I just do not know what I'm doing, and I'm trying to keep the kids busy, to be honest.

 

I have to ask this question because I am having trouble understanding OP's difficulty. In my state, we have district curriculum guides and maps that are in compliance with state standards and guidelines. Having just worked on some of these for revision and updating, there are fairly well defined time periods stated to cover the material. The maps also align with state standards. I know that Texas isn't NJ, but I would be willing to bet that the school she teaches at has something like this available - the state monitors schools, and this is one of the things they would expect to see. If OP has never asked for a curriculum guide/map that has been approved by the district, there is no time like the present, even if it is overdue.

An example on the curriculum guide, for instance, may be for students to master MLA formatting. You may not find any suggestion or need to muddy the water with alternate formats at this grade level. If you haven't looked at the curriculum guide/maps, you wouldn't know that. Trust me when I say that people have invested a lot of time and energy creating those guides and maps, and that they are there for the benefit of everyone involved, so that student learning proceeds without glaring gaps.

The pacing guide tells you how much work you need to master in a set time frame. With that information, as the teacher, you are tasked with creating lessons within that education arc that create learning sequences which will allow your students to master the goals. If you just wander through material without a map or plan, your students will suffer because most can't be counted on to teach themselves. It is bad enough if OP is wandering in circles, lost, but even worse if OP's students are wandering in circles, lost, because of inadequate planning and understanding by their teacher. If this is you, OP, you need to be the grownup and figure out how to divide the number of days by the lessons that need to be taught, teach them in sequence, and then make sure that your students can demonstrate mastery of the skills you are tasked with teaching them. To do less is failing your students.

 

I don't know how to do that, and no one will show me how. Sorry, but I'm used to structure. In the state where I received my teaching license, the schools had pacing guides for teachers to follow, and they showed us what we needed to cover each week. It wasn't perfect, and it still left a little guess work for me, but that pacing guide was like a bicycle with training wheels compared to this. I can't make sense out of it!

 

You don't have a pacing guide?

 

You are the adult in the room - do the math, spend the time with the guides and maps, and figure it out. Please - don't let your next words be "train me." You have, according to your post, been exposed to pacing guides. You will need to invest more time and effort to do the same task in your current job, but you can't say you aren't familiar with the concept.

I find it incomprehensible that you have NO pacing guide of any kind in the teacher's edition of your texts or that you would be so clueless that you wouldn't ask admin where to find such a thing.. If you need structure, create it. If you can't create it, you may quite possibly be incapable of doing the job for which you were hired. Sorry.

 

"WHAT ARE WE PAYING YOU FOR??????????????????????????????????????????????????"

Love,
The Texas Taxpayers

 

Like I said earlier, if I knew the teaching profession was going to be like this, I don't think I would have signed up for it. In your own education and in college, you have people to help and guide you; they would never allow you to go in not understanding what you're supposed to be doing, but when they actually hire you? If you fail, that's on you. I've asked for training, and I've been pretty upfront with my principal and one other teacher about the issues I'm having. I still feel like I'm expected to know what I don't know, so I've mainly just been "surviving" and hoping things somehow turn out well.

I hate my lessons, though. They come out of the textbook, and they are usually dry and boring. When the kids talk, I get really upset, because I'm actually trying here, even though my progress has been terrible because I'm pretty sure I don't have the right to ask a more experienced coworker to share a lesson plan. I'm just learning as I go and doing the best I can, but it's so frustrating to spend hours staring at a textbook, flipping through a website, and then finally just resorting to Googling a standard and picking a pre-made lesson plan.

 

If all I need to do is put in a few more hours of additional work to be successful, I'm certainly willing to do so, but I think I'm missing some fundamental skills. Truth be told, I had trouble coming up with lessons during student teaching. Is it supposed to be like this?

Short of asking someone to sit down with me and help me plan out the rest of my year, I don't think I could do any better than I've been doing, but I realize I can't do that, because that would be asking someone to do my work for me.

 

Honestly, no. I am student teaching now and I am planning all of my lessons from scratch. We have a curriculum but my mentor doesn't like it and we do not use it very much at all. We do not have a textbook. Lesson planning is time consuming but I do not have trouble coming up with lessons. My friends feel the same way. I am not doing any long-term planning now but I would be comfortable doing it at anytime. If you want to stay in teaching, I would highly recommend taking more education courses. I really don't mean to be rude, but I'm not sure how you graduated from a teacher prep program or student teaching without knowing how to lesson plan.

 

I'm in NJ. I have no pacing guide. Never have had one. Don't have teacher's edition except for in math and even with that we have some freedom.
"If you need structure, create it. If you can't create it, you may quite possibly be incapable of doing the job for which you were hired." Truthfully, as asked above, one wonders how the OP was hired.