Section IV: Daily planning to support meaningful learning for all students

The purpose of daily plans is to help lessons go more smoothly and to highlight important teaching moves that you may forget in the heat of the moment. Writing out a lesson, even in a sketchy way, can help you recognize and address trouble spots — both in terms of management and student understanding — before you begin teaching.

Writing out plans need not be time-consuming:

• Templates (either on the word processor or photocopied) can reduce the amount of writing necessary.
• You may also find that taping lists of questions or points to remember to the overhead or your desk helps you be more prepared.
• Some teachers use their daily plans to help them visually walk through the next day in their heads. This rehearsal allows them to ensure that all needed materials are ready to go

Following are ideas that can help you streamline your planning to help each day go smoothly and to enhance student learning:

Writing daily or weekly lesson plans

Questions to ask during lesson planning

Designing learning activities for group work

Evaluating styles of learning activities

Choosing challenging learning activities

Observing the mental challenge of learning activities

Writing differentiated lesson plans