How to Organize Lesson Plans and Materials: Day 5

Nothing troubles us more than the challenge of organizing our materials so we can find, use, and improve upon them each time we use them. I have tried it all: all on the computer, file folders (color coded!) for each handout, each unit, each class. This year I have arrived, after twenty years--twenty years!--at a system I love and which has improved not only my organization but my teaching, giving me a feeling of pleasure and control. I plan to write a bit each day about the images included here, telling you what each is and how to do it--and why you should.

Step One: Get a binder. I use sturdy binders from Office Depot with plastic slip covers and locking tabs (the red tab ones). I am a bit picky: they are all the same, all white. Some units work fine with a 1-inch binder; others need a 1.5- or even 2-inch binder. Each binder is a unit, in this case the unit for Heart of Darkness. I organize each unit I teach around a big question (see my new book just about to come out: What's the Big Idea?). I take some serious time to craft these, then type them up on stock and slip them in the spine as you see here. Each binder has three dividers, which I will explain below.

   

Step Two: Use three dividers. Each binder has within it three sections, each of which is crucial. All the way at the back, behind the third tab, go all the lesson plans, handouts, articles--everything--from the previous year. I just move them all back there, moving through and finding whatever materials I need to create the current lesson plan for this year. Over the course of the last year, I have likely added notes and articles, printed versions of websites to consider. Behind the second tab are the lesson plans for this year, each lesson written up (pictured) and clipped to it all handouts, samples, student or professional exemplars, transparencies, images, or notes. These are in chronological order. Behind the first tab goes notes on binder paper or annotated editions of readings I need to access for several days. For example, I have a packet of about six readings for Heart of Darkness in there now that we read and discuss each day. Keeping it here is efficient and helpful. And on top of all the tabs, you see my day's lesson plan, written for that day, and clipped to it all the handouts, samples, overheads, or printed editions of websites I may refer to.

 

Step Three: Keep all papers related to your lesson plan together. Each day's lesson plan, which I write up on the form listed at the end of step three, has attached to it any of the following: clean copies of handouts to run off, my marked up versions of the same handout; transparencies, notes, and printed copies of webpages to which I will refer; student exemplars or professional examples. When the day's lesson is done, I jot down in the Notes section of the lesson plan any ideas for the next day or for the next year when I do this about how to improve up on it. I then move the day's lesson plan, with all supplemental pages clipped to it, to the area behind the second tab. Within a day or more later, if there are examples of assignments done on this day, I will copy those examples and, returning to this day's lesson plan, attach them for future reference and use.  Download TDB_Daily LP Prototype 1

Step Four: Organize Electronic Files to Find. All these handouts we create, this lesson plan template I use--I need to be able to find and revise and reprint them after I create them. (My father was in the printing business for 38 years; I have a passion for document design: it matters!) I have finally arrived at a completely useful system after years of trying different approaches. Here is a screenshot of a section of my AP Lit folder. The gist is: Class_Unit_Name (of Doc)_.doc (or .pdf, etc.). I standardize the heck out of it so they are all right there. If a handout is more generic, say a graphic organizer, then I have a folder titled Tools and Techniques and the docs in there have filenames like: Tool_Venn Diagram_3-Circle_doc.

Step Five: Reflect, Refine, Revise, Return. Once the unit is finished, I put a few sheets of binder paper on top of it all and write "Notes" across the top. I take a few minutes to jot down whatever ideas, questions, concerns I have at that time for how to improve it next time I teach that unit. I might say simply, "Find different article to replace the Brantlinger" or make a more detailed note about what went well or wrong and how to improve it. The whole point is to do it better next time. Over the course of the next year (until I teach that unit again), I may read something that gives me an idea or which I want to consider adding to this unit. I just copy it off and slip it into the back section (behind the third tab) of the binder for future reference.

While it would be easy to look at all this outlined above as a manifestation of my OCD--I do not have OCD, just a very well-developed need and ability to be organized after writing all these books while teaching--it is really just a strategic approach to creating, organizing, and revising units that is best compared to a compost pile for no two units are ever the same, just versions on their way toward the next iteration. Next year events in the world may conspire to make the essential question for teaching, for example, Heart of Darkness, very different from this year; in which case, I would keep everything in this binder, but replace the Big Question and use this year's cloth to make a new text, which is, ultimately, what each year's unit is: a text to teach, to read, to live and learn from.

Comments

[Shethra Jones-Hoopes]

Dear Jim,
It looks like one of your entries overwrote all the rest in your organization category. It's there five times. (It's a great system, though! I would not be scared to sub for you any time.)

[Teresa Bunner]

After 19 years, I'm still aspiring to be organized. You give me hope, Jim, that maybe next year will be the year:) LOL!

[Linda Carneiro]

A couple of years ago, our admin. informed the teachers that we must have our lesson plan book in the front of the room for easy access. Well, of course I obeyed. Not ONE person came by to check my plans all year long. "How annoying, and a waste of time and energy," was my initial reaction. Then I thought, well, if I have to do this anyway, why don't I make this useful to both the students and myself. I started creating what you outlined above, and it really has tremendous benefits. The students know where to find all the notes, journals, handouts, etc, when they're absent (less work for me), and I have an organized system of lessons for the next time I am asked to teach that level/type of ELA class. I have modified it over the years, and love your idea about listing the electonic files, and the response, reflect section. I'm also thinking of adding tabs (for units). PS: After 4 years, I have yet to have anyone check my lesson plan book. Ha!

[Talkforfun]

Perhaps I just like color, but I've found keeping materials in different colored folders for different ESL classes quite helpful. I'm also still old-fashioned enough that my tall filing cabinet has separate drawers for speaking, writing, and grammar exercises - and old student records and samples.
Yet your idea of 3-ring binders seems like a logical step. But when will I find the time?

[Kristin Seed]

Great system! I was part way there with the binder and tabs but I especially like the template you included and the reflection piece. We do this informally but it is nice to have some formal piece to add to the binder so when we look at it again, we will actually remember those important points. Thanks!

[Kate]

I know you like matching white binders. I must tell you, though, that last year I discovered the most amazing 3-ring binder ever. They are hardbound, and I've only found them on sale through Calloway House - a school supply catalog. The rings are really neat and you can open them at any depth and the pages don't slither out. They are $18.99, which goes completely against my frugal sensibilities, but I've got to say they are worth it.