Introduction to Level 1 Lesson Planning: "What am I doing tomorrow?"

We all start out at level one. We might be told by our college professors that we’ll be better than the teachers in the field, but actually, we’ll be much, much worse for a few years, and planning is the reason why. I’m uniquely qualified to make this assessment, because I simultaneously teach in a real-life middle school, and I teach a 200-level college course as an adjunct professor of education.

My real-life toddler (probably much older whenever you're reading this) sharing my feelings about daily lesson planning.

​In college courses, the “lesson plan” is something of a summative assessment. In my own course, it is the third of four major technology-based assignments, and is by far the most difficult, because it incorporates the elements of assessment, and effective technology engagement from the previous assignments. A whole semester working towards and scaffolding one lesson plan! ...and my course is not unique. EDU students leave college having written maybe a dozen lesson plans, thirty plans at most over four years, most of which being assigned and assessed by professors who have never taught in a K-12 setting.
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Then, they’re put through the crucible of actual teacher practice, sometimes starting out the gate in September of their first teaching year with three lessons to plan, prepare, and assess EVERY SINGLE DAY!  Naturally, our young teachers are deep, deep underwater through their receiving tenure, and often beyond. I work with some teachers who are almost halfway through their career and still can’t tell you with any accuracy what students will learn next Wednesday, or how this week’s work advances students’ learning towards the summative assessment, or when the summative assessment will be, or how to gauge whether students are ready for the summative assessment...

DO NOT be embarrassed to find yourself seven years deep into a teaching career and still at Level 1 of lesson planning. Instead, buckle down, and take intentional action to climb the ladder to level two, enjoy a few years from the new vantage point, and then raise yourself to level three, take in the views for a few more years, and eventually move towards level four. Each level requires more prerequisite planning and “front loading” of material, as a colleague of mine calls it, but the payoff is a calm, predictable classroom for yourself and your students, and MUCH higher student output with MUCH less teacher input at each level. I would like to reiterate: you cannot jump to level four instantly, no matter how much you like the prospect of higher student output absent teacher input.
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Teachers start with "OMG!?! What am I doing tomorrow?!?! Ideally they end up with predictable learning structures for themselves and their students. Read on, and learn how to join the enlightened masses.

The next four posts will take you on a journey through the classroom, and decision-making process, of a level one lesson planner. We’ll look at the timeline of lessons, the planning focus, some possible material sources for beginner teachers, and we’ll examine how students tend to spend time when lessons are planned this way. I cannot state enough, level one lesson planning is not “bad,” as level four is not “good.” A career in education is a journey, and it’s only through consistent practice, being an actual teacher of actual students, that any meaningful learning can occur.