My students keep me on my toes. At any point in my day, someone has a meltdown over something as simple as the applesauce on the lunch menu is blue instead of the normal color to something as complex as a change in home life. Having a plan keeps me from living in constant survival mode, having a detailed lesson plan keeps my staff on the same page.
Lesson planning for my class keeps me sane. On any given day in my room, the unpredictable will happen. I have always planned lessons for activities and I have always done a schedule but this school year I stepped it up a notch after reading a blog post from Autism Classroom Resources and put them together.
My school district adopted a new teacher appraisal system called T-TESS. One of the components of it is goal setting. After reading through all the rubrics for each domain, I decided that lesson planning would be the area to target this year.
Added benefits of really having a written out detailed plan was a decrease in student downtime, more differentiated lessons that were aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills(TEKS) standards, and IEP goals and fewer negative behaviors.
First of all, I start by filling in the template from Autism Classroom Resources. My district provides model lessons for the TEKS assessed in the Performance Assessments then I create additional lessons to address the TEKS in the IFD. My students are not on grade level so I modify the TEKS through vertical alignment than I get to plug in all the fun stuff like when, where, and how to implement AAC, games to build social skills, and life skills activities.
I would love to hear how you lesson plan in your Special Education Classroom.
