After completing long term planning and unit plans with colleagues I create emergent lesson plans based on collaborative planning with special educators, my grade level partner, specialists and related service providers to design and jointly deliver learning experiences to meet unique learning needs of my students. These emergent lesson plans utilize the 100 languages of children to give them a plethora of modalities to express their thinking and demonstrate their knowledge. I intentionally plan around service delivery for my students to make sure they have the required support when I am instructing. As a part of my lessons, the cultural context and personal interests of students always forms the basis for my lesson planning. Since we're a Reggio Emilia-inspired school we are encouraged to utilize a constructivist approach to education and constantly revise lessons based on children and family input as well as changing learner needs.
In my weekly lesson planning each part of the day is planned to align with the framework set out by the long-term and project/unit plans. As seen below a lot of detail goes into planning from time children enter the classroom until the time they leave. Reflection questions are also embedded in my weekly planning template that was co-created with my grade level partner. I focus on one reflection question per week depending on what I feel like needs the most reflection for that particular week (page 5). Important events, intentions and hopes for the week are outlined and each part of the day is divided up into tables and on a weekly basis I create the plans to implement for each section. This particular week is from the beginning of the First Six Weeks of school unit. It primarily focuses on routines, procedures, opening centers, guided discoveries and building community. Since children need a lot of structure and a focus on routines in the beginning of the year to feel safe and secure that is what our focus is on. I collaborate with Specialists each week (Music, P.E., Library and French) to connect the learning in their classrooms to our own classroom to support their learning goals. This specific weekly lesson plan below was developed and differentiated to address the need for children to learn routines and procedures to safely and effectively navigate the classroom learning experiences. For example, I utilize interactive models to teach the Morning Greeting (Fuzzy Wuzzy), lining up, how to take a break, how to put away books, etc (page 1).
Daily Lesson Plan Example
The below daily lesson plan focuses on the Social and Emotional domain of learning and specifically the objectives of: managing feelings, responding to emotional cues and balancing the needs and rights of self and others. It involves a diagnostic assessment that consists of observational notes as well as an end of lesson formative assessment. It outlines the type of guided and independent practice provided to the children as well. This lesson was designed to address the above objectives since so many of my Pre-Kindergarten students needed additional supports in the Social and Emotional domain.
Student Observations and Reflection
Based on observations during group meeting and choice time while children were interacting with each other I realized that some students need more one-on-one help managing their emotions, especially those who cried or got very angry in a social situation with another student. I would push-in and have them go to the cozy corner to take a break and calm down, once calm we would discuss what their request was and go and make it to the other child: "I didn't like it when...it made me feel...next time...do you agree?" In addition, I noticed some students weren't getting any opportunities to practice responding to emotional cues and balancing the needs and rights of self. Those children were often at centers by themselves and so therefore had no peers to engage with. The following day I gave the children less options for centers so that every center had at least 2 children so that they were forced to engage with someone else. If they were still in the parallel stage of play then I or my assistant would push-in to help the children engage in productive play with each other. (Student's names covered for privacy)
The weekly and daily emergent lesson planning I develop in the classroom is entirely related to student needs, interests and assessment data. That way I can differentiate as needed on a regular basis and make sure that the lessons I create are relevant and engaging to students. Throughout the process other professionals like my grade level partner, the Atelierista, Specialists and Special Educators are consulted to adapt the lessons to align with their expertise and observations as well. They were able to provide additional research based methods, resources and materials to enhance my lessons.