It wasn’t that long ago that many teachers were working to design a lesson plan template that they could easily fill in using some sort of software. It made life a little simpler and, because plans were stored on the computer, it saved us from purchasing a new plan book every year. Now, there are a number of online options for developing lesson plans. One of the newest is called Common Curriculum.
As you begin to sign up for a free account on the site, you’ll designate the subject(s) you teach (also referred to as classes) and decide whether or not to turn on the Common Core Standards Search for that subject. While you’re creating these classes, you might consider adding one for Sub Plans or possibly APPR since any parts of your lesson plan can be duplicated to another class. By adding the Sub Plan class, you’ll be able to share your lessons online so that all your substitute teacher will need is a web URL.
How is your lesson plan designed? Using Common Curriculum, you’ll be able to add sections to your lesson plan by clicking on Edit Template. As you edit the template, think about the pieces that you might want to share with your students or parents. This might include projects, assignments, homework, upcoming events, etc. Once your template is completed, you’re ready to begin your lesson planning. If you’ve turned on the Common Core Standards search, begin by searching for the standard that aligns with your lesson. (See this video that explains the standards search.) Now you can begin to enter information into each section of your plan. When you mouse over the upper right corner of each section, you’ll see a globe that you can click on to “broadcast” that section. Now, click on Broadcast (upper left corner under the subject name). There you’ll find a URL that you can share with others and you can set up automated emails to go out to specific email addresses.
Here are a few thoughts about the instructional benefits of using this tool.
- planning online gives you the ability to access your lessons from any web enabled computer
- flexible template design makes it easy to personalize your lesson plans
- alignment to the Common Core Standards helps teachers to start with the goal in mind as they plan
- sharing features help parents and students to keep track of assignments, projects or anything else you want to share from your lesson template
- click and drag to copy helps you easily move elements from one class to another
- unique URL for each class makes sharing certain elements with each class easier (this is where it could be an advantage to have a Sub Plans class set up. Click and drag your plans to that class then share the broadcast URL with your sub.)
How do you think Common Curriculum can benefit your planning for instruction?