In everything there is a process and, lets be honest, as artists/teachers sometimes our process can be a little chaotic and all over the place. So let me just give you a little glimpse into how I create lessons for my classes.
As with everything I sometimes work a little backward...I see an art project or a piece of work from an artist and take that an apply it into the lesson. So for example I might see a beautiful piece of carved wood and think... "How can I use the standards/curriculum and teach this to my students? What is the objective? Whats the history behind it? What is the necessary vocabulary? What materials would I need? How will I store this? What does the finish product need to look like?"
SO MANY QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER! But we make it work don't we?
At the end of the year I create a very rough outline of what the next year will look like for each grade level K-5th. I use this template here. (The link leads you to a livebinder, which I think is pretty awesome, and you can download the template if you want, like I said its a very BASIC template for a rough outline.) Then I fill it in with the criteria that we have in our curriculum and also certain artists and shows/deadlines for the new year. I like being able to see the BIG PICTURE.
|Blank 6 weeks outline template.|
My lesson plans have changed a lot over the past five years, here is the one I was using last year for my K-5th classes. I really liked having it all on one page; schedule of times, objectives, TEKS, everything across the board. It also helped me visualize scope & sequence.
This year I wanted to do something I learned in a book called Teach Like a Champion. It's called Double Plan(click the link for a very brief summary). Basically you write in the lesson plans what the students expectations are at certain times in the lesson/while you're teaching.
|Very basic double plan lesson.|
Just before school ended I found a binder with my previous lesson plans and I think I want to go back to the six columns so its easier to see everything that's going on right in front of me, now the question is how do I incorporate the Double Plan method which I've come to like...decisions, decisions.
What do your lesson plans look like? How do you prepare for a new school year?
Thoughts on the new TEKS?
Check back next week for how I updated my Educator Portfolio.