Jenny Yurky- The Secret of Planning

I think a lot of the planning secrets contained within this chapter relate very closely to the UBD method of lesson planning and to strategies we have been taught throughout our methods courses.  The chapter talks about over planning which is embedded into the UBD model as “if time activities.”  The chapter mentions that these activities should be meaningful and not simply worksheets.  This corresponds to how we were taught to use UBD- that is, making sure the if time activities are just as meaningful as the procedures part of the lesson.  The chapter also mentions the importance of having clear objectives.  Planning objectives is part of stage one of the UBD model.  This not only forces you to clearly state the objectives of the lesson, but also ensures that the activities you plan match up with the objectives you intend to reach.  The ideas of being flexible and proactive are ones that were stressed throughout our methods courses.  Our class discussions closely follow what the text suggests.  That is, good teachers are flexible teachers and that it is okay if everything does not go exactly as planned as long as effective learning is still taking place.  We also learned that we need to teach out students how to learn in some cases.  For example, if planning a lesson that involves learning centers, we need to first teach our students how learning centers work.

I think that a lot of these topics will be helpful when planning lessons for my classroom.  I can follow a lot of these tips simply by using the UBD lesson planning model.  One tip that I particularly liked came from the section on how to manage time.  I really liked how it suggested planning in 5 minute segments.  This helps you keep pace while you are teaching the lesson and it helps your students stay engaged throughout.