Maybe you are one of the teachers who love curriculum planning, or perhaps you find it daunting.
Whatever your feelings, we can all agree that it can be a time-consuming and often confusing process.
The best way to make curriculum planning creative and fun is to reduce the impact on workload so you do not lose evenings and weekends to the task.
Here are some of our best ideas for making curriculum planning easier.
Guide to Making Curriculum Planning Easier
Here are some ideas to make curriculum planning easier and less stressful.
1. Establish your goals
Decide what you want to achieve with your curriculum plan. Is it about improving results or broadening the learning? Perhaps you need to include some new learning objectives or increase the interaction and engagement of the pupils.
Focussing on your objectives will help to bring purpose and focus to your plans.
2. Focus on one area at a time
Conserve your energy by allocating time to each subject or content area at a time. Decide which area is most important and start there.
3. Look for ready-made lessons or templates
You do not need to start from scratch. Other teachers in the school may have some plans you can adapt, or you can use online resources, including plans, activities, videos, diagrams, images and printables.
Sometimes you will be able to use these resources directly, or you can copy, cut and paste with your own additions to suit your requirements.
Look at Oak Academy or Twinkle for ideas. Many resources are free, but it is worth checking if your school would consider a premium subscription if many staff use them.
4. Keep a record of valuable resources for future lesson planning
As you write your long-term and medium plans, it is worth noting where you can find printables or other resources for when you later do your individual lesson plans.
Include links so you can easily find them in the future, as once you are into the term, you will have forgotten where you saw those useful ideas.
5. Don’t be afraid to repeat activities
Activities need to be explained along with the concept you are teaching. At the beginning of the year, it is worth including familiar activities so you can spend more time in a lesson teaching the objective rather than explaining the activity.
Introduce new activities as the year progresses.
6. Be prepared to adapt your curriculum plan
No matter how much time and effort you put into your plan, you are sure to need to make changes once you begin to teach.
Every class and group of students will be different, which means adapting your plan to suit their needs as you go.
Think of your curriculum plan as a map or guide to ensure you cover all the objectives in the term or year but accept that you will need to make changes or reorder learning depending on your pupils’ progress and outcomes.
7. What about AI?
AI could revolutionise curriculum planning. The Five Minute Lesson Plan uses artificial intelligence to generate lesson plans in less than 30 seconds!
There are sure to be many more AI curriculum planning tools available online in the near future. Of course, AI cannot replace teachers and will require your engagement and input, but the templates and writing tools should speed up the curriculum planning process.