Planning a daily schedule

Your daily schedule of learning activities is should establish regular periods for learning particular subjects. It can, however, remain flexible, and incorporate blocks of time for independent learning.

(For more information, go to Managing time through independent learning.)

The daily schedule should include not only what the class will be doing, and when, but also the teaching and learning styles that are the basis for each activity.

The following schedule for is for a second-grade class. Note that the teacher has included fields for:

Outcomes

The skills or information that will be learned.

Tasks

The learning activities children will engage in.

Interactions

The relations between the children (whole-class vs. small group, etc.) and the ways the will communicate.

Journal activity: Practise with the daily schedule

Use the schedule sample on this page as the basis for creating a one-day schedule for your class.

It's easy to reproduce the schedule template used above. Just create a grid with seven columns. As you complete each period, draw a line running underneath all its entries.

Base the schedule on one of your class days from this week or last. Note down every period, its times, what subject or subjects were taught, and complete the rest of the fields as best you can.

When you've finished, circle the specific entries that were difficult for you to complete. What pattern do you see?

As you plan for next week's classes, make a new daily schedule, following this template, for at least one of the days. Pay special attention to the areas in the template that were difficult to complete.

You may want to work on this activity with a partner. If so, go to the Teachers Talking Discussion.