What's the hardest part about planning for class?
There are so many demands on teachers right now. I want to know how you're making time to lesson plan.
Schools are open but we’re burnt out. The job of a teacher was already hard, but now it’s infinitely more challenging. I was a teacher for ten years in New York City, and I remember March through June being some of the hardest months.
I’ve been thinking a lot about what it’s like to lesson plan right now. Is it even happening? Under these insane conditions? Isn’t it just good enough to make it into the building?
I want to hear from you. Reply to this email by answering the question: “How are you lesson planning right now? What’s the hardest thing about it?”
So how does one find the time to create engaging class materials while balancing all of the demands on your plate? How do teachers find the time to prep for class? And if teachers are out sick, how are subs prepared to make sure kids are learning and working on activities that are actually… good?
Here’s one idea to make lesson planning easier: use newspaper articles as close-reading lessons.
Before I share my idea to make lesson planning easier, share this newsletter with a colleague or friend!
When I was a 9th-grade teacher in Brooklyn, I taught reading and writing through close reading and rhetorical analysis… and the kids loved it. Stay with me.
At the beginning of every class, students answered multiple-choice quizzes on current events news articles. Stuff that was happening today. Stuff they cared about. Stuff that could help them understand what was going on in the world. Within the first 10 minutes of class, kids were quietly involved in a task that mattered to them while inadvertently practicing close reading skills.
After the quiz, we’d go over each answer and, because the questions were challenging and rich and interesting, we’d have lengthy and stimulating class discussions. Here are some possible question stems:
What does the speaker believe?
How do they want their readers to feel?
What’s the central problem and the proposed solutions?
Are they persuasive?
Was there ever a time you felt this way?
These discussions required students to be text-dependent, to justify their answers with evidence from the text and to assure their comprehension was accurate. At the end, I’d throw in a writing prompt, something to synthesize the discussion and their understanding of the topic.
And the students were obsessed. They loved reading about what was happening in the world, and building a habit for reading the news.
So to recap….
🗞️ Find an interesting article on current events
📚 Create 5-10 multiple choice questions to test reading comprehension
🗣️ Have students respond to a ✏️ writing prompt
For a 55-minute period (which is standard at most schools) this could be an entire lesson!
Make your lessons predictable and easy to repeat. Don’t reinvent the wheel every day.
If this was helpful, please share this newsletter with a colleague who wants to make lesson planning easier. I will be sharing more ideas in the coming weeks!