Detailed Lesson Planning: Effective or not? Should teachers be required to turn their plans in for approval?

Hello Class! 

This week’s class session was both informative and interesting. I’m not sure about all of you, but I thought watching a teacher conduct a lesson was extremely helpful as it provided me with various ideas and strategies. Adapting a complete lesson plan helped me to better understand how to utilize the most efficient resources and apply my time management skills to my lessons. 

Through my additional research, I learned that many administrators and principals require teachers to turn in their lesson plans to be reviewed. Furthermore, there has been much controversy over whether or not lesson plans are even effective or necessary. Whereas some teachers create step-by-step daily lesson plans, other teachers refrain from planning a detailed lesson and instead think on the spot. Many professionals believe that teachers who write up detailed lesson plans, instead of jotting down notes and briefly planning, are failing to focus on the big picture of the content they’re teaching. 

I have linked articles for you all to explore: 

1) How to move out of the day-by-day lesson planning trap and think big picture https://truthforteachers.com/truth-for-teachers-podcast/day-by-day-lesson-planning-trap/

2) It’s Time to Stop Requiring Lesson Plan Submission https://www.weareteachers.com/stop-requiring-lesson-plans/

3) Why Lesson Plan?
https://www.chalk.com/introduction-to-lesson-planning/why-lesson-plan/

What do you think? I want to hear how effective you think lesson plans are and if you believe teachers should be required to turn them in for approval or not. Do you envision yourself making a detailed lesson plan for each lesson you teach, or do you think that’s unrealistic? Are principles too focused on the lesson plan write up instead of the ways in which teachers actually teach the content? 

I’m certainly torn about these ideas and I’m really looking forward to hearing everyone’s perspectives! 

-Christina Caluori