Some people love lesson planning, some people hate it. Some people are required to do one, some (like me) have administrators who probably couldn’t care less. Some people need it to be able to teach effectively, some teach best when it’s a last minute POMA.
Returning to my second year of “therapizing”, I realized I needed to do something different in regards to lesson planning. I often think of great ideas, but it’s always last minute– I would need to print/cut out/compile too many materials.
Here is my basic strategy to lesson planning this year. It’s ever-changing and I might be doing something completely different in 3 years. But, it’s what is working for me right now.
1. Pick a theme — I love thematic units and believe that they really enhance student’s learning. I attended Char Boshart’s workshop “Maximizing Your Language Therapy: Innovative Language Interventions for Small Group and In-Class Instruction”. She pointed out that themes provide continuity, repetition, and relevancy to a student, if these themes are well thought out. They can be used for any age group and for any length of time (she knew of some people who have one theme that they incorporate into therapy the whole year). Themes often also correlate to curriculum and activities that are often going on outside of your four therapy walls. I tend to use the seasons/holidays as themes in my therapy room.
2. Pick books that go along with your theme — Spoiler, I also love literacy-based therapy, even for my articulation kids. If I’m looking for a quick activity, I often grab a book allowed and ask artic students to listen for words that have their sound in it. I started off my year with a “Back to School Theme” (obviously my themes are not very original!). I read “If You Take a Mouse to School” and “The Principal From the Black Lagoon”. NOTE: You can totally switch step 1 and step 2, especially if you don’t foresee using holidays or seasons as your themes.
4. Brainstorm/Pinterest activities based on that theme/book. Nowadays, my brainstorming sessions have to include Pinterest. Another tip: If you foresee yourself using the sames themes frequently, make boards specific for that theme. I have a ton of separate boards on Pinterest for SLP stuff (e.g., SLP–Fall, SLP–Preschool, SLP–Articulation). The day that they add boards within boards on Pinterest I will be so happy. After you have a few crafts/games/activities find the ones that you think would be most feasible for your time frame. Remember, some themes can last weeks! But if you’re doing a week for “Talk Like A Pirate Day”, you probably don’t want to pick a craft that would take several sessions to finish.
5. Refer to any thematic workbooks you may have. My favorite I use are the Listening for ___ All Year ‘Round books (by Linguisystems) and Year Round Literature for Language and Artic (by SuperDuper). The Listening for ___ All Year Round follow the same character (Brennan Bear) through all the season. Each book is separated into months, with different stories, activities, and homework/notes home. There are four books sold through Linguisystems (Articulation, Language, Basic Concepts, and Vocabulary). Year-Round Literature for Language and Artic is also a good one. It has a subsection for each season as well as sections for dinosaurs, circus, bodies, farm, town, and ocean. Each thematic section has vocabulary sheets, print out games, and worksheets. Even if some of the things are too easy for my older kids, they still enjoy the games that I print out (a lot of point-based games and collect-as-many-as-you-can card games).
6. Peruse through other non-thematic workbooks. I then start looking through all my other books (most of which I own digitally) for anything that might remotely relate to my theme. Say and Do books are my favorite for the younger kids. All of the worksheets in there have pictures or themes associated with them. This past week I went through and printed out any pages that had to do with school or football.
7. Decide which activities are appropriate for which students. This is a brief look at how I organize my lesson plan notes (this LP never got finished because I was sick). Obviously you could go more in depth, but I just briefly write down the activities so I don’t forget. I kind of have an idea in my head of what kids fall into which groups. You could also do this student by student or group by group.
8. Prep materials!
This may seem like a really long process, but I really hope this will cut down on my lesson planning in future years. Here’s how I organize all my paperwork. I plan to have a crate for each season. Inside I have generic fall worksheets/games, Halloween materials, Thanksgiving materials, Monthly homework that goes with Sept-Nov, and any book companion packs that have to do with fall.
I’m sure everyone has their own way of doing lesson planning, but this is what is working for me right now!
The SpeechEasy 