What's Your Lesson Plan Format?

As a middle school teacher, it's difficult to find pre-made lesson planning pages that work for me. The hard-copy lesson plan books that can be found at teacher stores seem to be designed with elementary teachers in mind.  There are literally thousands of cute templates online, but they also seem to better fit elementary classrooms.  I truly wish I could use some of these adorable, pre-made templates. Why reinvent the wheel, right?

      

Creative Teaching Press

Cute Lesson Plan Template

But I only teach one subject, and most lesson plan books/templates have spaces for multiple subjects. While they cover multiple subjects, they often don't have the detail that my school requires.  When administrators observe in my classroom, they are looking for certain key elements in our lessons.  They want to see a clear learning goal and an assessment of that learning goal - everyday. We should also list the state standard that our learning goal correlates to, and make sure that all of our activities are aligned to the learning goal.  Our school does not, however, have a specific lesson plan format.  That leaves it up to us to create our own lesson plan forms.

I decided to put my lesson plans into a Google sheet which I could share with my grade level/subject cohort and administrators.  This makes collaboration easier and allows administrators to know what to expect before visiting my classroom.

I type my lessons into the form, but I also print a hard copy to keep in a binder on my desk.  The bottom row, entitled "Reflections," is for me to make notes which will influence my future lessons.

Mrs. K's Google Sheet Form

Does this look like something that could work for you?  Or maybe it needs just a few small tweaks to fit your specific requirements?  You can make a copy of my Google Sheet and use it as you would like.  Just click on the link above and then choose "make a copy" under the "file" menu.  It is currently set up for nine weeks of plans, because I keep a separate file for each quarter.  You could choose to have all 36 weeks in the same file if you wish.  Just duplicate the tabs!

Feel free to leave a comment below.  What are the essential elements that you need to include in your lesson plans?  Do you design your own template or have you found one that works for you?