Lesson 2

Back to top

Planning and Prioritizing

In this lesson, students consider some of the skills and habits necessary for success in high school. They address the critical skills of prioritization and short-term planning by initiating the habit of keeping a weekly planner. Students lay the foundation for thinking about long-term planning by creating visual representations of the key experiences and events in their lives to date. Finally, they use these new skills by interviewing each other and writing summaries to accompany their interviewee’s visual representations.

Advance Preparation

This lesson provides a one-page weekly planner for you to copy and distribute (Teacher Resource 2.1, Worksheet: Weekly Planner). Consider customizing this page to include your school schedule or use a different planner formatted in a way that might be more appropriate for your students. The following URL has some alternate planner formats: http://www.free-printables.net/free-printable-weekly-planners/printable-weekly-planners.htm .

This lesson is expected to take 4 class periods.

Back to top

Lesson Framework

Learning Objectives

Each student will:

Academic Standards

21^st Century Skills

This lesson focuses on the following 21^st century skills:

Assessment

–   Solid understanding of the class ground rules

–   Familiarity with prioritization and basic planning

Back to top

Instructional Materials

Teacher Resources

–   Teacher Resource 2.1, Worksheet: Weekly Planner (separate Word file)

–   Teacher Resource 2.2, Assessment Criteria: My Life So Far Visual

–   Teacher Resource 2.3, Assessment Criteria: My Classmate’s Life So Far

–   Teacher Resource 2.4, Key Vocabulary: Planning and Prioritizing

–   Teacher Resource 2.5, Bibliography: Planning and Prioritizing

Student Resources

–   Student Resource 2.1, Reading: Planning My Time Effectively

–   Student Resource 2.2, Worksheet: Planning My Time Effectively

–   Student Resource 2.3, Assignment: My Life So Far

–   Student Resource 2.4, Assignment: My Classmate’s Life So Far Interview

Equipment and Supplies

–   Whiteboard or blackboard

–   Poster board (one sheet per student)

–   Markers

–   Magazines for cutting up images

–   Glue sticks

–   Scissors

–   Sticky notes

Back to top

Lesson Steps

INSTRUCTION

–   Ask five students who are comfortable reading out loud and acting to come to the front of the room (two should be girls, two should be boys, and the narrator can be either). Ask these students to enact Student Resource 2.1, Reading: Planning My Time Effectively, for the class.

–   Tell these students to return to their seats. Ask the class if any of the characters sounded kind of like themselves in the way they handled planning to do their homework. Call on a couple of volunteers to share, but don’t worry if no one wants to offer a comment.

–   Tell students to review their own copies of Student Resource 2.1, Reading: Planning My Time Effectively, in order to fill out Student Resource 2.2, Worksheet: Planning My Time Effectively.

–   After they have completed the worksheet, have students pair up to share their responses. Call on several to share which type of person (procrastinator, yes-man, prioritizer, slacker) they identified with the most, and explain why.

–   Explain that learning how to plan and prioritize is a skill that anyone can learn, but it takes practice. Most people aren’t naturally organized. However, letting things go will have serious consequences for their school work and careers.

–   Let students know that they will have the opportunity to prioritize their work and activities for the upcoming week, starting in the next class period.

DIFFERENTIATION For this activity, pair English learners with students who have strong English language skills and who can help their classmates understand and complete the worksheet. This is a good reading to ask English learners to try to complete in English; however, it may be helpful to translate the four types (procrastinator, yes-man, prioritizer, slacker) into their primary languages. If you have a large number of students with extremely limited English skills, it may be helpful to have a bilingual student or parent volunteer walk students through this lesson step in their primary language.

 

STEP 2, HOMEWORK PLANNING THE WEEK

20 minutes

INSTRUCTION

–   Have students refer to the example planner excerpt from Student Resource 2.2, Worksheet: Planning My Time Effectively, as a model. Distribute Teacher Resource 2.1, Worksheet: Weekly Planner, or ask students to get out their own planners. Instruct students to fill out their schoolwork (e.g., homework, tests, quizzes), extracurricular activities, social plans, errands, chores, etc., for homework.

–   Students may need a model of how to fill out the planner. Project a copy of it, or re-create it on the board, and talk your way through filling it in so that students can understand the thought processes involved. (“Let’s see—I know I have this project due Tuesday, and I have this appointment on Wednesday….”)

–   Once students have completed a page of their planner, ask them to form groups of four and compare their planner pages to see if there’s anything they forgot or any organizing ideas they want to borrow. For example, would they benefit from color-coding different types of activities or putting asterisks next to their top priorities? Call on each group to share with the class something that they learned from comparing their planner pages with their group mates.

–   Next, distribute several weeks’ worth of planner pages to each student and explain that you will be assessing them each week for credit/no credit. Ask students: where can they keep their planner pages so that they don’t get lost? Invite a few suggestions from the class and make any recommendations you think are appropriate. Emphasize that you will take time at the beginning of each week to check that they have completed their planner sheets and to answer any questions.

 

DIFFERENTIATION If you have a large number of English learners, allow extra class time and have students work together to complete their planners. If you choose this approach, make sure to pair each English learner with another student who has strong English language skills. When you group students together to compare their planners, you may wish to group them homogeneously, putting together those who speak the same language, so that they can compare their planners more easily. This will be essential if you have allowed students to complete the planners in their primary language. Alternately, you may choose to put students in heterogeneous groups. This can be an equally successful strategy as long as you pair English learners with students who have strong English language skills.

 

CLASS PERIOD 2

INSTRUCTION

–   Explain that, because a big part of this class is making plans and goals for the future, it is useful to reflect on their lives thus far so that they can chart their own growth and progress toward their goals. To illustrate some of the key moments in their lives, they will be creating timelines or other visual representations.

–   Have students read Student Resource 2.3, Assignment: My Life So Far. Have them review what they need to do and the assessment criteria by which their visual representations will be judged. After you have given students a few minutes to look at the instructions on their own, go through them as a class. Conduct a class-wide discussion and ask questions to ensure that all students know what they need to do.

–   Instruct students to answer the questions in the “Questions to Think About” section of Student Resource 2.3, Assignment: My Life So Far. They will have the rest of this class period to work on the written portion of this assignment. If they need more time than that, they will need to finish it for homework.

–   At the end of the period, explain that in the next class period they will work on the visual portion of the assignment. If they would like to bring in family photographs from home, they should check with their families to make sure it’s okay to use them. They will need the photographs for the next class period.

 

DIFFERENTIATION Consider having the student resource for this activity translated into students’ primary languages. Also consider allowing English learners to complete the “Questions to Think About” portion in their primary language, but emphasize to students that they will need to be able to talk about their experiences in English during the next class period.

 

CLASS PERIOD 3

INSTRUCTION

–   Have students consider how they would like to chart some of the key moments in their lives—either by using the flower image in the example or one of the other suggestions. They can also pick something completely different. Tell them to construct their “My Life So Far” representation on poster board, incorporating information from their homework responses, pictures, and any other pertinent images, words, phrases, etc. Tell them they have half of the class period to complete the representation.

–   Ask students to take a moment to think about how much they have grown and changed over time. Do they think that their visual captures the most important milestones of their lives? Do they feel as if they’ve begun an accurate self-portrait? If not, tell them to finish their visuals by the next class period. Let students know that they will be using their visual representations to practice effective listening and communication skills in the next class period.

 

STEP 5, PEER INTERVIEWS MY CLASSMATE’S LIFE SO FAR

20 minutes

INSTRUCTION

–   Have students read Student Resource 2.4, Assignment: My Classmate’s Life So Far Interview. Note the interview instructions and example sentences; answer any questions students may have. In addition to asking questions, listening carefully, and taking notes, remind students it will be up to the interviewers to decide how they want to prioritize and present the events of their interviewees’ lives on paper.

–   After students have completed the interview, have them return to their seats to write. Let them know that if they have a lot of work left to do on their summary, they should work on it for homework, because they will only have about half the next class period to finish up both their visual and their summary.

 

CLASS PERIOD 4

INSTRUCTION

–   Explain that students have the first half of this class period to put finishing touches on their visuals and/or their interview summaries.

–   Have students take out their visuals and interview write-ups and make sure they have met the assessment criteria. Answer any questions.

–   Have students turn in completed visuals to you. Post them around the room.

–   As they complete their summaries, have students post their interviews next to the visual representation of the person they interviewed.

 

STEP 7, GALLERY WALK OUR LIVES SO FAR

25 minutes

INSTRUCTION

–   Explain to students that they will take part in a gallery walk to see their classmates’ work. Tell them to write answers to the prompts on their sticky notes and put the notes on the appropriate visual or summary. Provide a couple of examples of constructive feedback so that they get the idea. Tell them that they only have to answer one of the prompts, depending on what they want to say, when they comment on an interview or summary. Also note that they probably won’t be able to comment on every single one because there won’t be enough time, but to comment on as many as possible.

–   As students view the visual representations and read the write-ups, circulate around the room to ensure that comments are constructive and appropriate.

–   After students have finished writing their comments, instruct them to read the sticky notes attached to their interview write-ups and stand next to their work. Call on volunteers to read one of their sticky notes (one that they feel comfortable discussing with the class) and respond to it according to what it tells them that they did well or could do better.

–   Assess visuals with Teacher Resource 2.2, Assessment Criteria: My Life So Far Visual, and interview write-ups with Teacher Resource 2.3, Assessment Criteria: My Classmate’s Life So Far.

 

DIFFERENTIATION If you have students with limited English, consider having the three prompts above translated into students’ primary language(s) to improve comprehension. However, explain to students that they need to copy the English version of the prompts onto their sticky notes, and they need to be able to complete the sticky notes in English.

Back to top

Extensions

Enrichment

–   Have students research and create “How It Works” presentations on electronic planning and calendar programs, such as Microsoft Outlook, iCal, cell phone reminders, PDA planners, etc.

–   Find a good example of an interview conducted for a magazine. Make copies of it and have students analyze it. What makes a good interview? What kinds of questions are asked? How does the interviewer handle “sensitive” subjects? What other details does the interviewer include—what the subject is wearing, the subject’s behavior, where the interview takes place? Once students have analyzed that interview, ask them to imagine a local magazine is doing profiles of local high school students. Instruct them to re-interview their partner and write it up as a piece for this magazine’s ongoing feature on local high school students.

–   Consider inviting a journalist from a local newspaper (or a journalism/media student from a local college or university) to speak to students about how to conduct a professional interview. If time and equipment allow, consider having students do “on-camera” interviews of each other or students at the school about a current event or “hot topic” at the school.

Cross-Curricular Integration

–   English/Language Arts: Have students practice using a planner by having them create a daily or weekly planner for a character in a story or book they have read.

–   English/Language Arts: Let students use the planner form to create a fictional or hypothetical week: “the best week ever” or “the most interesting week ever.” For example, students could imagine a weekly planner for a vacation, the week of a special event that is really exciting to them, or the week some amazing world event happened (for example, the week aliens landed in their hometown). After students complete the planner, have them use it as an outline to help them write the story of that week as a short story, a series of journal entries, a newspaper article, or other genre that is appropriate for their current skill level.

Back to top

Based on the Plan Ahead educational materials made available by Gap Inc. at www.whatsyourplana.com and developed in partnership with the Pearson Foundation. Such materials are copyright © 2010–2013 Gap Inc. and all rights are reserved. The Plan Ahead educational materials are provided “AS IS”; Gap Inc. and the Pearson Foundation are not responsible for any modifications made to such materials.

  1