How I plan now I’m an RQT
So I’ve had a couple of years now to get to grips with lesson planning and work out what style of planning works best for me and benefits the children I’m teaching. Thankfully after completing my PGCE, doing ridiculously detailed plans for every lesson is not necessary!
Photographed above are the 3 ways I use planning to teach now and since lesson planning concerns are what makes up the majority of my ask box (keep sending in your lesson planning asks here btw), here’s a quick guide to day-to-day planning.
Utilise different sorts of planning - I write my own medium term plans, write daily lesson planning notes in my academic planner, and use maths and English plans from Hamilton Trust to teach my lessons. I find that this combination works best for myself and my class to teach the best lessons possible and in a way that suits my teaching.
Get an academic/teachers planner - This has been an absolute lifesaver for me and has greatly reduced my planning time. Mine is seperated into 5 sections/lessons and I use each box to roughly outline the main points of the lesson, any differentiation notes, groupings and learning objectives. All the planning for each lesson is condensed into as many or as few words as you need and it can easily sit on your desk/in your classroom for quickly referencing.
Use your planner to best suit your style of planning - I use the first column for lesson objectives, the second for differentiation and the final column for reflective notes after the lesson has finished which suits me and my style of teaching. I have collegues that prefer to write across all the columns or use a typical day page for a whole week instead. Whatever you use it for, the layout of a teacher’s planner is very flexible!
Don’t be afraid to use/edit planning - I scrawl all over the Hamilton English and maths plans to adjust to my class of children (the above photos is one of my more neater efforts!) If you borrow planning from collegues or schemes then always make it your own. The children it was written for will be different from your own class and adapting it to suit the pupils needs will definitely help in teaching the subject.
Medium term planning that covers all the objectives - (See my science plan above) Find all your objectives FIRST before even begining medium term planning. Use the national curriculum or your school’s long term plan to find all the objectives you need to cover and build your lessons around that as well as the number of lessons/weeks you have to cover a topic (tip: always plan one less lesson that you’ll think you’ll need, as trips, events and rescheduling always ensure you’ll rarely need all lessons!).
Although PGCE and other teacher training courses are often quite strict with the style/type of planning you need to do whilst on placements. However, hopefully this helps with refining your planning and making things quicker whether now or in NQT/RQT years to come!
