I’m looking at your curriculum, but I need more information. Could you explain the daily lesson plans layout and exactly what subjects they cover?
Thank you,
Rachel
Because we get variations of this question all the time, below is a little background about why and how we created our Daily Lesson Plans. along with a page by page look at our Daily Lesson Plans’ layout and what subjects they cover. You’ll see the Middle School-1 plans in the example graphics, suitable for 7th or 8th grade students. However, our other grade level plans are laid out exactly the same way.
Why and How we Created Our Daily Lesson Plans
We initially created our Daily Lesson Plans because our Unit Program moms asked us to! They loved our Unit Programs:
- covering “Creation to Modern” every year…
- integrating history, language arts, science and fine arts…
- excellent books suggestions…
- teaching language arts, science and fine arts simply using copy work and narration from those same books…
- creative assignment and project ideas….
But some of our Unit Program moms wanted more structure than our Unit Programs provide.
What they actually said was, We want an open and go version of the Unit Programs! Can you make that for us?
They wanted:
- particular history and science books picked out for each unit with reading assignments listed for each day
- narration prompts and discussion questions over each days’ reading
- spelling and vocabulary lists provided for each week
- memory work in history and science created for each week
- specific assignments created for each book read
- answer keys and hints for evaluating each assignment
- copy work already picked out to teach language arts
- grammar lessons and writing assignments spelled out for each week
- specific poetry, art, and music listed to go with each unit — and lessons for those, too
So that’s what we did. We took our Unit Programs and used them to create our Daily Lesson Plans.
Here’s our Daily Lesson Plan Layout
I’m showing you screenshots of each page of the first week of the Middle School plans and explaining the layout of each page. You can print the one week sample here and follow along if that’s easier.
Page 1
This is the first page you’ll see every week. At the top of the page is the header, which is on every
page of the plans. No matter where you are in your school year, you’ll know the age level you’re teaching (Middle School) the unit you’re on (Ancients), and which week of the unit you are in (Week 1) . On the top right are the days in the school year that this week covers. The days are numbered cumulatively throughout the school year so you don’t have to worry if you don’t do school Monday through Friday every week. If you take breaks, simply pick up with the next day.
Under the main headings are the headings of Unit, Week, History Theme for that particular week as well as the Science Theme for the week. That’s followed by the book list divided by Independent Readers and Listening books, which could be audio books or read-alouds.
Next is the bottom of the first page showing the Listening/Read Together books and there is a “Watch Together” heading for this particular week, but we don’t have that every week.
Also there is a Supply List/ Resource Books list for that week that lists whatever you need to complete that particular week’s lessons. It includes any supplies you need to do the projects that are listed for that week.
Page 2![daily lesson plan layout]()
We call the second page the Themes and Objectives page. This page you the specific topics you’ll be covering in History and in Science,
Additionally, on the Themes and Objectives page shows you exactly what your objectives are for every week in science, language arts, and fine arts. Note: We cover geography in with history because it ties in better there.
Knowing what you are covering up front and what your objectives are for each subject gives you a clear road map to follow for each week.
Page 3
Page 3 begins your student lessons, starting with History, Reading and Geography. We call this the History Page but integrate all three subjects on this page. Here you’ll see each day’s reading assignment, along with any discussion or narration prompt on the right. At the bottom left of each day’s assignment, you’ll find a block for a Poetry and or Fine Arts assignment, as well as a Project assignment to the right. Note that not all of these boxes will be filled in each day. We tried to assign tasks as they related to the subject rather than listing “busy work” just to fill a block.
Page 4
Page 4 is the Science and Memory Work Page.
The first science block includes any science reading for the day, as well as related discussion.
Under the first block any Projects/Experiments are listed or described that pertains to that day’s science reading.
Thirdly, the Memory Work is listed for each day. (Unless we need to squeeze some vocab in like we did in this example.)
Page 5
Page 5 is the Language Arts Page, since here is where we might suggest a written
narration, particular copy work from a book your student is reading, or perhaps dictation over a certain passage.
In the second column you see Grammar and Writing Skills practiced and Vocabulary lists and lessons in the third column.
Note that even though this is the Language Arts page, we include Poetry on the History page because the poetry we read in the daily lesson plans is usually integrated with the history you’re studying.
Supplemental Pages
Depending upon the unit, you might also have extra pages at the end of the usual pages. This might include project directions or a chart to use for taking reading notes. Sometimes there is additional background or reference information we provide for you to read about a particular event or person to help you better understand it. If we have additional information to support you as the teacher, we put it at the end of the week’s pages.
Hopefully that fully answers Rachel’s question, as well as any you might have about our Daily Lesson Plans.
To see the rest of our Daily Lesson Plans, you can navigate to them from here.
To learn more about teaching Middle School and High School, click here.
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