On this episode of the Teaching Middle School ELA podcast, we're taking a closer look at our proven lesson planning framework. You'll hear how we developed this framework and its different components: Into Lesson, Through Lesson, and Beyond Lesson!
Once we determined the ingredients needed in the recipe for a successful lesson plan, the entire planning process became much more simple and efficient! To begin, we'll share exactly what makes an "Into Lesson" unique and why it's so important to use this style of lesson at the beginning of your ELA units.
After you listen today, you'll know exactly how to identify an "Into Lesson" and have a better understanding of when to utilize them within your lesson plans!
Tune in to hear more today!
FREE RESOURCE: Curious about trying Batch Planning this summer? Simply click the link below to grab our 10 Tips to Get Started Batch Planning and take a look at how easy it can be to begin!
Batch Planning is the ONE thing you can do now that will have the biggest impact on your entire school year!
BIG NEWS: The EB Teachers' ELA Portal will officially be open for enrollment this summer! If having access to ALL of the items below sounds helpful to you, then we invite you to take a quick moment to add your name to our priority list today! Are you ready for:
Hundreds of ready-to-go ELA lessons
A robust Core ELA Curriculum that includes reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary covering all of the ELA standards
Innovative digital lesson planning software
Hours of on-demand PD videos
A community of thousands of supportive ELA teachers from around the world
Pretty incredible, right? Click the link below to add your name to the priority list today:
On this episode of the Teaching Middle School ELA podcast, we're taking a closer look at our proven lesson planning framework. You'll hear how we developed this framework and its different components: Into Lesson, Through Lesson, and Beyond Lesson!
Once we determined the ingredients needed in the recipe for a successful lesson plan, the entire planning process became much more simple and efficient! To begin, we'll share exactly what makes an "Into Lesson" unique and why it's so important to use this style of lesson at the beginning of your ELA units.
After you listen today, you'll know exactly how to identify an "Into Lesson" and have a better understanding of when to utilize them within your lesson plans!
Tune in to hear more today!
FREE RESOURCE: Curious about trying Batch Planning this summer? Simply click the link below to grab our 10 Tips to Get Started Batch Planning and take a look at how easy it can be to begin!
Batch Planning is the ONE thing you can do now that will have the biggest impact on your entire school year!
BIG NEWS: The EB Teachers' ELA Portal will officially be open for enrollment this summer! If having access to ALL of the items below sounds helpful to you, then we invite you to take a quick moment to add your name to our priority list today! Are you ready for:
Hundreds of ready-to-go ELA lessons
A robust Core ELA Curriculum that includes reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary covering all of the ELA standards
Innovative digital lesson planning software
Hours of on-demand PD videos
A community of thousands of supportive ELA teachers from around the world
Pretty incredible, right? Click the link below to add your name to the priority list today:
All right, everybody, welcome back to our series all about our EB batch planning framework. This is, hands down, not only the most effective way to lesson plan, but it is a guaranteed way to deliver the best curriculum to your students while also freeing up your nights and weekends. And we mean that full stop period like wholeheartedly believe that that is a hill I'm willing to die on, like it is so powerful. So this is episode three. So, if you haven't listened to episode 287, we talked all about step one of our batch planning process, or EB batch planning framework. That is your scope and sequence. Episode 288 covered step two of our EB batch planning framework and those are the standards. So you want to go back and listen to those two if you haven't done so yet.
Speaker 1:
And then today we're going to start breaking down this framework within the framework that you're going to follow when you batch plan. So we have our EB batch planning framework. That's like the whole concept of batch planning but then we also have a lesson planning framework within the batch planning framework, and that lesson planning framework is something that we suggest all of our teachers use in order to see the best results for their students, and that is what we call the into, the through and the beyond framework and since this framework has three parts, we're going to break it down into three different episodes to really help you keep track of this concept and especially if you want to take notes, it's going to be a lot easier for you to have them broken down over the next couple of episodes. So today's episode is all about crafting, engaging into lessons, and we're going to dive into what that means and share some ideas with you guys.
Speaker 2:
So I want you to imagine, like you know, you're going to create your standards aligned lessons right, the standards are your North star. So you're going to create your standards aligned lessons right, the standards are your North Star. So you're going to sit down and batch plan your curriculum. So that's what we're getting into. Like you're sitting down at home, you've got your quiet space, you have your books in front of you, whether that's a textbook or a novel. You have your lesson planning book. You've got your Cool Ranch Doritos, like whatever it is, to get you through the next few hours so that you can be all in on planning. So now you're ready to plan out one of those units within your scope and sequence. Right, that was stage one. So we're going to pretend it's a short story unit. So you know your students are going to have to read the text that you plan on using and they're going to have to participate in some kind of activities. Right, maybe you have no idea what those activities even are yet. So you're like, okay, we're going to read this book or, sorry, this short story. We're going to do some kind of activities and then I'm going to end the unit with an assessment. Maybe it's a literary analysis essay, maybe it's a test, maybe it's a project, maybe it's some combination, right? So you've got that in your head.
Speaker 2:
But let's be real. Right? You're staring at your blank scope and sequence. You're like, okay, I'm going to do this, I'm going to create rigorous and engaging lessons, but I don't even know what to do first. Right, how am I going to structure it? And that's usually when the downward Pinterest or TPT searching begins. Right? You're like, maybe I could just find a short story unit online. And then, before you know it, like you're not even looking for lesson plans anymore. You're looking at home decor, you're looking up recipes, or whatever it may be. But what if you looked at those blank dates in your scope and sequence and instead you asked yourself what into, through and beyond activities do I need to plan? And then you just started penciling those in, and we're going to get you to the point where that becomes just so easy to do.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and that's our lesson planning software that we're building right now is all about this like to make that even easier. So this is what's really cool actually about the software. When the developers told me that it can do this, I was like no kidding actually about the software. When the developers told me that it can do this, I was like no kidding. So essentially, what we are able to do is, let's say that you put the unit into your scope and sequence and you say I want to teach this unit for this many days. It's then going to take that from the scope and sequence view and pull it into a weekly view and tell you what we suggest based on our scope and sequence Like what's day one, what's day two, what's day three, what we suggest based on our scope and sequence like what's day one, what's day two, what's day three, what's day four. So it basically takes the information from the unit and puts it into the plans so that you don't have to do any of that. Does that make sense? It?
Speaker 2:
makes total sense and it's like I just cut my lesson planning Like I don't know, literally down to seconds. Yes, that's, it's so cool.
Speaker 1:
I'm glad you think so? Thank you, I haven't know, literally down to seconds. Yes, that's, it's so cool, I'm glad you think so.
Speaker 2:
Thank you, I do. I haven't seen it yet, right, I'm still in like the just hearing about things, cause I am not the tech person, but like if First year teacher me could have seen that and done that, like, oh my God, right, I know it's remarkable.
Speaker 1:
Game changer.
Speaker 3:
It's going to be really cool, but wouldn't it be nice, in general, to have a clearer roadmap for how you plan so that you're not wasting your time aimlessly searching online? Like Jessica was mentioning, with our EB lesson planning framework we break lesson planning down into into through and beyond lessons, and this helps you get to the point in planning where you can just confidently choose from an assortment of lessons in each of these types that you have on hand. You're just going to tweak them and use them in your units. So think of this as a recipe and Caitlin and Jessica both know that I absolutely love to cook, so this is a great analogy. So it's a lot more efficient if you know the meal that you're trying to make before you actually go to the store and start gathering ingredients and before cooking. And it's the same with lesson planning. When you know the type of lesson you need to plan, you can more easily start building out your unit instead of just searching aimlessly online.
Speaker 3:
So over the course of the next few episodes, we are actually going to plan an imaginary short story unit for our eighth grade class with Shirley Jackson's short story, the Lottery, which happens to be one of my absolute favorites, and this is going to help you kind of understand how this framework looks and is in action.
Speaker 3:
So we're going back to day one on your scheduled batch planning session. So you already know that you're going to teach your unit on the lottery in May, okay, and in fact you've already penciled it into your scope and sequence during step one of the batch planning process. So in step two, you figured out what standards you want to cover in this unit on the lottery. So you want to do a reading for literature standard on citing textual evidence. You want to do one for analyzing different points of view among the characters. You also want to include a writing standard focused on writing arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. And you want to include a speaking and listening standard about engaging effectively in collaborative discussions. So since all your lessons are rooted in these particular standards, you're going to create one into lesson, several through lessons and then a beyond lesson.
Speaker 2:
But like what does that even look like? Right, you may be wondering that as you're listening. So, like Caitlin said earlier, today is all about the into lesson and the into lesson happens to be my favorite. I've really thought about this of the three different types, and the into lesson happens to be my favorite. I've really thought about this of the three different types. So I want you to think of the into part of your unit as the lesson that hooks your students and provides them with any background information necessary for successfully like tackling the concepts that you'll be covering in your upcoming unit. And the into lesson is typically like one activity or one class period and many of you know I'm homeschooling our oldest son, jameson, right now. And the into lesson is typically like one activity or one class period. And many of you know I'm homeschooling our oldest son, jameson, right now and we just did an into lesson using one of EB's short story units and like I was giddy about it, like I was like Jameson, I'm so excited for learning today and he was like, oh, what are we doing? And then I told him and I'm like we're doing these background building stations and you get to solve a puzzle and when you're done, like there's a code you have to. He was like, oh, this is actually kind of fun. And then I had music playing with sound effects Like this is not me, right, this is all in the lesson plan and it was so much fun and like, yes, the rest of the unit was awesome too, and the reading and all the things, but that into lesson like I was here for it. So I hope you feel the same way about this stuff.
Speaker 2:
So, like I said, it's typically like one activity, one class period and it's the introduction to your unit. So there are like tons of engaging into lessons that you can use in your ELA classes, that you can repeat throughout the year and just use them with different texts or different ELA topics. And once you have a like kind of a grab bag of go-to into lessons, you can rinse and repeat those activities. It'll save you hours of planning. Your students are going to get better and better at doing them because they've experienced one time. Now you're like taking it up a level the next time, et cetera. Right, and, like I said, I use EB's lessons with my own child, right, and all of them start with an into lesson, so you don't even have to think of one. If you don't want to, you can just do it and all the legwork is done for you.
Speaker 2:
So these into lessons include activities like popcorn predictions, which we're going to share more about, five word wonder, anticipation stations, games, audios whatever you can think of that hooks your students. So, going back to that hypothetical unit that Megan mentioned for the lottery, here's the process you might follow for planning out your into lesson. So you're going to choose the standard or the standards that you want your into lesson to address. So let's say, you go with a speaking and listening standard. Okay, now that you know that you get to determine an engaging way to get your students practicing that standard and learning important background information about the story.
Speaker 2:
So that's where we came up with popcorn predictions for this particular short story unit, because it encourages students to think strategically, to ask relevant questions, to yes, come up with predictions. They're speaking, they're listening, they're discussing, like all the things. You are absolutely hitting the standards. So it allows students to better understand the text and make connections as they read and it improves their reading comprehension. Like they're having fun, right, they're popping around the classroom and Caitlin's going to walk you through this, but they're moving, they're talking, they're discussing before you've even started the unit, so that by the time you go to read and actually discuss the lottery, they've got this background information that they're relying on, and it just makes the discussions so much stronger, so much more effective.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. So I'm going to walk you through how the activity actually works. So every student in your class is going to be given a strip of paper with one or two sentences from the story written on it. So you can just pull like random sentences from the story that are relevant to having a discussion, but also like don't give away the text, if that makes sense. So students will carefully read their sentence and then they will move around the room to make connections with other students. To make connections with other students. So when they meet a classmate, let's say like I run into Megan and I have Megan in front of me, I'm gonna read my sentence aloud to Megan. Megan's gonna give me her sentence strip. We're gonna basically exchange. So I get more information about the text from Megan's sentence and Megan gets more information about the text from my sentence, and then we, together or individually, however you choose to set it up with your students can then make a prediction about the story based on those two pieces of information. Well, okay, we've now made a prediction. I'm going to move on to another classmate, so I'm going to go find Jessica and now I'm going to repeat the process, but now I have Jessica's sentence strip. So now I have three different sentences to now build another prediction.
Speaker 1:
So every prediction might become more elaborate as students build on past sentence strips that they've heard from their previous classmates. So basically, you're just like gathering more information and building new predictions every single time. So then you do that like three or four times not too many, because you don't want students to have like 20 sentences, right? So three or four times, not too many, because you don't want students to have like 20 sentences, right. So three or four times is plenty. And then at the end of this activity, students can form small groups to compose one full, complete, agreed upon prediction for the story that they will then share with the class. So I might then go into a group of three or a group of four. We're going to share all of our predictions that we've come up with together and then we're going to formulate one as a group based on everybody's predictions. So it's really collaborative, actually.
Speaker 1:
And then once you decide yeah, sorry, once you decide that popcorn predictions, um, is your into activity, so you read this or you listen to this, rather, and you're like, okay, that's great, I want to use that. So you know, okay, popcorn predictions is going to be my into activity for the lottery. This is our, our false unit that we're creating fake unit. You will then take that into activity and you would put it on your scope and sequence so that would go on to day one of your lottery dates, whatever that is in your scope and sequence, and you know it's just going to take one class period and you have it on your calendar for May 2nd, whatever day it is.
Speaker 1:
Okay, of course, like you still have to print out the sentences for the story to use with us activity, but once you've done that, then you can use those sentence strips year after year, so you're only doing it one time. And in fact, jessica and I cleaned out my classroom when I retired. I had like a whole bin filled with various sentence strips for different units that were printed on um cardstock and then laminated, so that cause I had used them over and over again over the years. I love that.
Speaker 2:
And I hope you guys caught that that she said for different units, right, Because again, you rinse and repeat and students get better at it and now you're not having to explain the directions. You're just like popcorn prediction time. Let's dive right in Totally explain the directions.
Speaker 1:
You're just like popcorn prediction time let's dive right in Totally.
Speaker 2:
They love it, they. They love popcorn. It's fun and it makes a really great um side note observation for your principal, because it's like it's all on the students, right, you're not really involved. They're showing off what they know, they're using evidence, they're collaborating, they're coming up with predictions. It is standards aligned, it is the speaking and listening, like it's all the things, yeah.
Speaker 1:
And one thing, you know, that just popped into my mind is I was saying this is that you know this is your into lesson for your lottery unit. But let's say, like you go down this path of like all these into lessons that you're thinking about, well, you could, in theory, come up with all of your into lessons for all of your units first, if you wanted to. You know you could do your five word wonder for the house on mango street or you could do anticipation stations for the outsiders and you just put them on the calendar on the scope and sequence, and it's one day, for every single unit that you're just writing into your scope and sequence the into lesson that you're going to be using for that particular unit.
Speaker 2:
I actually like that Cause. Then if you are truly rinsing and repeating, it's pretty fast because you can do five word wonder like two or three times throughout the whole year.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, a hundred percent, I love it. Okay, so now that you have an idea of how into lessons work we are going to talk about through lessons on next week's episode. So these are, I'm just going to preface it. It's harder because these are the heart of your unit. It's a huge opportunity for your students to work toward proficiency of the standards. It's going to take more thinking on your part, more strategizing on your part. That doesn't mean it's not possible, because anything is possible and there are thousands of teachers of proof that you can, in fact, batch plan. So don't let the fact that it's hard stop you. Let the fact that it's hard motivate you to push through right. I just like to say, like you got to go through the fire, like and that's okay, you know, I just I love having that perspective. I think it makes it a lot easier to tackle things that are seemingly more difficult. So next week we're going to talk about elevating student mastery with those through lessons. So make sure that you guys join us for next week episode and we'll
