When reviewing various lesson plans, it was evident to the researcher that there
was no formalized structure or template that all teachers must follow. The lesson plans
from Teacher 1 and 3 were very basic and only outlined materials. The textbook pages
and the objective or directions for the student task were the crux of the plan. The plans
from Teacher 3 merely outlined pages from the mathematics book or workbook and
chapter names, resulting in a two to three lines in the plan book. Although Teacher 2
acknowledged that as a social studies teacher one must question students and challenge
their thinking, there has not been much emphasis of this from school wide initiatives.
However, T2 felt a personal responsibility to plan differently from the other teachers I
reviewed. Knowing that the administration is not collecting the lesson plans, T2
provided more detail in the lessons and included assessment or checking of understanding
which many times was a closing question that synthesized major points from the lesson.
T2 also planned for more elaborate student centered activities, many of them technology
infused, such as problem based learning activities, creating podcasts and digital
scrapbooks or newspapers. The disparity in how teachers plan instruction reinforced the
concern that teachers and administrative goals were not aligned.