A Planning and Teaching Tool for All

The Common Core Lesson Planner is a remarkable tool. It can produce highly engaging lessons in less than 10 minutes that are supported by sound instruction and built on the Common Core College and Career Readiness standards. But building an amazing multi-day Common Core lesson in 10 minutes is only the start. I am most excited about the potential of this resource. Allow me to explain.

The Common Core Lesson Planner is prime for collaborative teams. Teachers can build lessons together during our already short lunches, during after school planning, or during collaboration time (if your schedule allows for that these days). Another way the planner lightens the planning load for teachers is the sharing feature. One teacher in a team could build a lesson and share it with the other members. Each member could take turns building a lesson. This will significantly reduce the amount of time teachers spend planning for each class. Teachers could also use lessons that have already been created by other teachers. This type of teamwork can really help reduce the amount of work we balance everyday.

The Common Core Lesson Planner directly solves some of our toughest problems, too. For example, when a student leaves for a week, the parents or guidance team requests work that the student can do while away from school. (One of my AP students just informed me today--Monday-- that he will be gone for one week. We just got back from Thanksgiving break. He is leaving tomorrow and wants classwork.) The Common Core Planner (CCP) helps out tremendously in this situation. If I use the CCP to build my lessons, I can direct my students to the Student section where they have access to all my lessons and skills I use in the classroom. The directions, handouts, activities, and reading resources are all there.

All the student has to do is go online (they have access even if it is through their phones) and complete the lesson. You can assign multiple lessons to the student or just the one he or she will miss. Students who are sick can also benefit from this resource. When they walk up to you and ask, "Did we do anything yesterday?", you can smile and say, "Go online and look at our lesson. We made it to X activity. Please print out the activities, complete them, and turn them into me by tomorrow." You will smile all the way back to your desk. I promise.

Lastly, the Common Core Planner helps with keeping the students informed about what they are learning and why they are learning it. Giving students access to our lessons before we teach can help them prepare for the learning. We can ask them to review the lesson before class or ask our students to complete a task the night before a discussion. And if students don't understand our lessons, they have the freedom to go back and review what they missed or didn't understand.

The Common Core Lesson Planner is a teaching tool built by teachers for teachers. We had you and your students in mind when we built it. We wanted to help with the transition to the Common Core and equip teachers with a state-of-the-art resource that makes planning easier and teaching more enjoyable. Let's work together and build some powerful lessons. I have built a number of lessons this year. Use them. They were built for all LiteracyTA Team Members.