Annual Plans

I have been asked to write an Annual Plan for Social Studies. I have never written, interacted with, or even seen an Annual Plan before. However, I am excited about writing my first one. Even though I have not written one yet, I feel as if there are advantages and disadvantages in having and using an Annual Plan. The advantage I can envision of using one is it keeps the teacher organized. For example:

• Having a plan allows the teacher to know what lessons will be taught and when they will be taught to ensure all lessons that need to be taught are taught.
• Having to think through all lessons ahead of time allows teachers to think about what materials they need to teach the lesson and find these materials. Materials for Social Studies lessons include things like artifacts that may be found in other countries. Finding these types of materials could take time. Therefore, knowing ahead of time what is needed is important.
• If teachers have a plan ahead of time, they will have the opportunity to ask parents of students if they could participate in the lesson. For example, if you are studying a particular country/culture and a parent is from that country, you may ask if they can talk about it, bring in artifacts, or teach a dance or something special they do in their culture to the class.
• Teachers may also need to do extra research on the topic that will be taught so that they can share as much information as they can. Students always have questions and whereas it is okay to let the students know that you and the student can research the question, it would also be nice to have the answer on hand through the research that was performed prior to the lesson.

However, I can foresee some disadvantages of writing and using an Annual Plan. Examples include:

• Formative assessments need to occur at all times in the classroom. If a teacher notices through these assessments that students do not understand the information, then they need to spend more time on the topic. Reteaching the topic is an option. Therefore, if this were to occur, it would postpone the Annual Plan. At that point, the teacher should decide which topic should be eliminated due to time restraints.
• On the other hand, students may enjoy working on a project so much, that they want to research further into the topic, which will extend the time of the lesson. Again, this will cause a delay in the Annual Plan.

I know that one of the key things about teaching is the ability to be flexible in day-to-day activities. Therefore, if the plan is delayed, then be flexible and adapt accordingly.

When writing Annual Plans, a teacher must first start with the resources and work backwards. I understand why a teacher should work backwards in planning lessons, but I am not 100% sure why start with resources. I understand that the teacher should think about the results first; what will the students learn from the lesson. Then plan how the students will show what they learned, and finally, plan what activities students should do & what materials are needed to get to this understanding. What I don't know is why start with the resources first in an Annual Plan. To me, it seems that teachers should think about the topics they would like to teach first and then think about the resources that will support this topic.

However, I would guess that if a resource is only available at one particular time during the year, that is when the topic should be taught. This is why I think starting with resources first happens in Annual Planning.