Lesson Planning Short-Cut for Elementary SPED Self-Contained Teachers that Saves Hours of Prep-Time

Years ago, I was an elementary self-contained SPED teacher who has to teach all subjects except for PE or Arts.

That means I have to prepare different lesson plans for each subject. Who has time for that? What can I do to lessen prep time but still give meaningful lessons?

Well, I discovered an approach that cuts my lesson prep for hours: thematic lesson planning. Here is what I did.

What do they truly need?

My students need practical lessons to help them interact in the real world. I asked: what topics will be truly helpful to them? How can I make academics meaningful? I zeroed in on money-themed lessons first. Then, I used it in all the subjects.

The Thematic Lesson Approach

I started with the penny. Look at it. You’ll see the Lincoln Memorial on the back and Abraham Lincoln on the front. So my lessons for the week are:

• Reading: All about Abraham Lincoln and the Lincoln Memorial
• Spelling: Find “Liberty” on the coin and spell (and the other words on the coin)
• Social Studies: President Lincoln and the history of the Lincoln Memorial
• Math: Adding and subtracting pennies; Introduction to percentage (1 cent = $ 0.01 or 1 % of a dollar)
• Character Development: Characteristics of President Lincoln

You get the drift. The thematic approach uses one topic. In this case, the penny. Then you use that topic to prepare all the lessons for the week. And just in case you want to use this topic, you can go to the US Mint website and download lessons and worksheets about different coins.

This post was created with Typeshare