Lesson Plans
How do I build lesson plans from these courses?
Here's the good news: If you want detailed lesson plans for your high school studies, thanks to Saylor, a lot of the work is done for you, and as most of the courses here are through Saylor, this will save you a good deal of time.
For Saylor courses, begin by finding out the time completion estimate for the individual course. For instance, let's look at World Regional Geography. According to the syllabus, it should take about 145 hours total to complete the course. This is a full-year course, so you would next determine how many days each week over your school year that you want to work on geography. If your school year is 36 weeks, and you plan to work on the course 5 days a week, it's simply a matter of doing the math. 145 hours is 8700 minutes. A 36-week schedule of 5-day weeks works out to 180 days. 8700 minutes divided by 180 days is a little over 48 minutes per day. You could initially schedule your studies to be 50 minutes a day. If after a few weeks you discover you are working through the course faster than the estimate, you can adjust if you want, or keep working for the same amount of time and finish before the full 180 days. If you find you are going slower than the estimate, you should devote more time each day. You will be able to determine what your own pace is versus the estimated rate, as each individual unit has a time advisory. If the time advisory for a unit is one hour, you can time yourself against that estimate.
Let's suppose you only want to work on geography 3 days a week. You can adjust the numbers accordingly. A 36-week schedule of 3-day weeks works out to 108 days. 8700 minutes (the total time the course should take) divided by 108 is about 81 minutes per day, so you could initially schedule to work 85 minutes a day and compare your completion times to the time advisory.
Each day, once you have worked for your scheduled amount of time, finish whatever sub-unit or assignment you are working on before quitting that subject and moving on. Remember, there's no school bell ringing to force you to stop mid-assignment and jump to another class.
If your Saylor course is a semester course, such as American Government, you will use the same procedure described above only adjust to the proper number of days or weeks.
NOTE: When calculating your Saylor English courses, you will want to subtract out the two weeks each quarter that are devoted to your novel studies. So, if you are working on a 36-week schedule, your time for a Saylor English course would be based on 28 weeks. Also, when scheduling the novel studies portion of your work, you will find the study guides may include some worksheets that are designed for additional readings outside your novel. You can skip this portion of the guides.
For courses that are not offered through Saylor, you will need to do a bit more planning. How much is entirely up to you. Let's look at the sophomore year biology course. There are 45 modules in the course, plus 16 labs to complete. If you were operating on the 36-week schedule, this means you would want to finish slightly more than one module a week. Or, perhaps you might want to simply complete 2 modules a week, and finish the course early, leaving time to supplement with other biology activities.
For the math courses, you will want to complete at least one lesson a day. Additionally, you can print off worksheets from the Kuta software website (links are provided on the grade level pages) that correspond with the day's lesson, if you need extra practice.
Just remember, the real goal is mastery of the subject. While making lesson plans can help determine a day-to-day schedule, what you are really after is working through each course, at whatever pace is best for you to complete the assignments and learn and retain the materials. Give yourself a few weeks with your courses and see how much progress you are making. If you need to adjust what you are doing, then by all means, do so. Although some states seem very focused on the idea that every student must complete X many hours of instruction each school year, true learning has never been about punching in on the time clock each day and recording your minutes like a factory worker on an assembly line. Work through your courses at a steady pace, take good notes for your study journals, and enjoy discovering new ideas, gaining new knowledge, and acquiring new skills.
The following is an example of how you might schedule a week of school, from the Freshman Year courses:
FRESHMAN YEAR
Week 1
Day 1
ENGLISH: Read through page 12 of The Call of the Wild study guide. For the “Think-Pair-Share” activity, write your thoughts in your study journal. Read Chapter 1 from the novel. As you read, think of any events you can record for the “Active Reading” assignment on page 13 of the study guide.
MATHEMATICS: (Review) Complete Lesson 1 under Pre-Algebra, Graphing Linear Equations.
SCIENCE: Watch the video for Unit 1 of The Habitable Planet. Read Unit 1, Section 1: Introduction.
HISTORY: Spend 45 minutes on your US History 1 course.
ELECTIVE 1: Spend 30 minutes on your Psychology course.
ELECTIVE 2: Complete Unit 1, 1.1 and 1.2 of your Computer Skills and Literacy course.
FREE READING: 30 minutes
Day 2
ENGLISH: Read Chapter 2 from The Call of the Wild. Continue to add to your “Active Reading” assignment.
MATHEMATICS: (Review) Complete Lesson 2 under Pre-Algebra, Graphing Linear Equations. Complete the Finding Slope from a Graph worksheets.
SCIENCE: Read Unit 1, Section 2: Many Planets, One Earth. Watch the Unit 1 animations.
HISTORY: Spend 45 minutes on your US History 1 course.
ELECTIVE 1: Spend 30 minutes on your Psychology course.
ELECTIVE 2: Complete Unit 1, 1.3 and 1.4 of your Computer Skills and Literacy course.
FREE READING: 30 minutes
Day 3
ENGLISH: Read Chapter 3 from The Call of the Wild. Continue to add to your “Active Reading” assignment. Complete page 14 of the “Responding” activity in the study guide.
MATHEMATICS: (Review) Complete Lesson 3 under Pre-Algebra, Graphing Linear Equations. Complete the Graphing Lines worksheets.
SCIENCE: Read Unit 1, Section 3: Reading Geologic Records, and Section 4: Carbon Cycling and Earth's Climate
HISTORY: Spend 45 minutes on your US History 1 course.
ELECTIVE 1: Spend 30 minutes on your Psychology course.
ELECTIVE 2: Complete Unit 2, 2.1 and 2.2 of your Computer Skills and Literacy course.
FREE READING: 30 minutes
Day 4
ENGLISH: Complete page 15 of the “Responding” activity in the study guide. For the “Character Development” activity, write your thoughts in your study journal. Complete page 16, “Before You Read.” Read Chapter 4 from The Call of the Wild.
MATHEMATICS: (Review) Complete Lesson 4 under Pre-Algebra, Graphing Linear Equations. Complete the Writing Linear Equations worksheets.
SCIENCE: Complete the Carbon Lab under Interactive Labs.
HISTORY: Spend 45 minutes on your US History 1 course.
ELECTIVE 1: Spend 30 minutes on your Psychology course.
ELECTIVE 2: Complete Unit 2, 2.3 and 2.4 of your Computer Skills and Literacy course.
FREE READING: 30 minutes
Day 5
ENGLISH: Read Chapter 5 from the novel. As you read, think of any responses you can record for the “Active Reading” assignment on page 17 of the study guide.
MATHEMATICS: (Review) Complete Lesson 1 under Pre-Algebra, Solving Equations. Complete the Two-Step Equations worksheets.
SCIENCE: Read Unit 1, Section 5: Testing the Thermostat: Snowball Earth, and Section 6: Atmospheric Ocean.
HISTORY: Spend 45 minutes on your US History 1 course.
ELECTIVE 1: Spend 30 minutes on your Psychology course.
ELECTIVE 2: Complete Unit 3 of your Computer Skills and Literacy course.
Here's the good news: If you want detailed lesson plans for your high school studies, thanks to Saylor, a lot of the work is done for you, and as most of the courses here are through Saylor, this will save you a good deal of time.
For Saylor courses, begin by finding out the time completion estimate for the individual course. For instance, let's look at World Regional Geography. According to the syllabus, it should take about 145 hours total to complete the course. This is a full-year course, so you would next determine how many days each week over your school year that you want to work on geography. If your school year is 36 weeks, and you plan to work on the course 5 days a week, it's simply a matter of doing the math. 145 hours is 8700 minutes. A 36-week schedule of 5-day weeks works out to 180 days. 8700 minutes divided by 180 days is a little over 48 minutes per day. You could initially schedule your studies to be 50 minutes a day. If after a few weeks you discover you are working through the course faster than the estimate, you can adjust if you want, or keep working for the same amount of time and finish before the full 180 days. If you find you are going slower than the estimate, you should devote more time each day. You will be able to determine what your own pace is versus the estimated rate, as each individual unit has a time advisory. If the time advisory for a unit is one hour, you can time yourself against that estimate.
Let's suppose you only want to work on geography 3 days a week. You can adjust the numbers accordingly. A 36-week schedule of 3-day weeks works out to 108 days. 8700 minutes (the total time the course should take) divided by 108 is about 81 minutes per day, so you could initially schedule to work 85 minutes a day and compare your completion times to the time advisory.
Each day, once you have worked for your scheduled amount of time, finish whatever sub-unit or assignment you are working on before quitting that subject and moving on. Remember, there's no school bell ringing to force you to stop mid-assignment and jump to another class.
If your Saylor course is a semester course, such as American Government, you will use the same procedure described above only adjust to the proper number of days or weeks.
NOTE: When calculating your Saylor English courses, you will want to subtract out the two weeks each quarter that are devoted to your novel studies. So, if you are working on a 36-week schedule, your time for a Saylor English course would be based on 28 weeks. Also, when scheduling the novel studies portion of your work, you will find the study guides may include some worksheets that are designed for additional readings outside your novel. You can skip this portion of the guides.
For courses that are not offered through Saylor, you will need to do a bit more planning. How much is entirely up to you. Let's look at the sophomore year biology course. There are 45 modules in the course, plus 16 labs to complete. If you were operating on the 36-week schedule, this means you would want to finish slightly more than one module a week. Or, perhaps you might want to simply complete 2 modules a week, and finish the course early, leaving time to supplement with other biology activities.
For the math courses, you will want to complete at least one lesson a day. Additionally, you can print off worksheets from the Kuta software website (links are provided on the grade level pages) that correspond with the day's lesson, if you need extra practice.
Just remember, the real goal is mastery of the subject. While making lesson plans can help determine a day-to-day schedule, what you are really after is working through each course, at whatever pace is best for you to complete the assignments and learn and retain the materials. Give yourself a few weeks with your courses and see how much progress you are making. If you need to adjust what you are doing, then by all means, do so. Although some states seem very focused on the idea that every student must complete X many hours of instruction each school year, true learning has never been about punching in on the time clock each day and recording your minutes like a factory worker on an assembly line. Work through your courses at a steady pace, take good notes for your study journals, and enjoy discovering new ideas, gaining new knowledge, and acquiring new skills.
The following is an example of how you might schedule a week of school, from the Freshman Year courses:
FRESHMAN YEAR
Week 1
Day 1
ENGLISH: Read through page 12 of The Call of the Wild study guide. For the “Think-Pair-Share” activity, write your thoughts in your study journal. Read Chapter 1 from the novel. As you read, think of any events you can record for the “Active Reading” assignment on page 13 of the study guide.
MATHEMATICS: (Review) Complete Lesson 1 under Pre-Algebra, Graphing Linear Equations.
SCIENCE: Watch the video for Unit 1 of The Habitable Planet. Read Unit 1, Section 1: Introduction.
HISTORY: Spend 45 minutes on your US History 1 course.
ELECTIVE 1: Spend 30 minutes on your Psychology course.
ELECTIVE 2: Complete Unit 1, 1.1 and 1.2 of your Computer Skills and Literacy course.
FREE READING: 30 minutes
Day 2
ENGLISH: Read Chapter 2 from The Call of the Wild. Continue to add to your “Active Reading” assignment.
MATHEMATICS: (Review) Complete Lesson 2 under Pre-Algebra, Graphing Linear Equations. Complete the Finding Slope from a Graph worksheets.
SCIENCE: Read Unit 1, Section 2: Many Planets, One Earth. Watch the Unit 1 animations.
HISTORY: Spend 45 minutes on your US History 1 course.
ELECTIVE 1: Spend 30 minutes on your Psychology course.
ELECTIVE 2: Complete Unit 1, 1.3 and 1.4 of your Computer Skills and Literacy course.
FREE READING: 30 minutes
Day 3
ENGLISH: Read Chapter 3 from The Call of the Wild. Continue to add to your “Active Reading” assignment. Complete page 14 of the “Responding” activity in the study guide.
MATHEMATICS: (Review) Complete Lesson 3 under Pre-Algebra, Graphing Linear Equations. Complete the Graphing Lines worksheets.
SCIENCE: Read Unit 1, Section 3: Reading Geologic Records, and Section 4: Carbon Cycling and Earth's Climate
HISTORY: Spend 45 minutes on your US History 1 course.
ELECTIVE 1: Spend 30 minutes on your Psychology course.
ELECTIVE 2: Complete Unit 2, 2.1 and 2.2 of your Computer Skills and Literacy course.
FREE READING: 30 minutes
Day 4
ENGLISH: Complete page 15 of the “Responding” activity in the study guide. For the “Character Development” activity, write your thoughts in your study journal. Complete page 16, “Before You Read.” Read Chapter 4 from The Call of the Wild.
MATHEMATICS: (Review) Complete Lesson 4 under Pre-Algebra, Graphing Linear Equations. Complete the Writing Linear Equations worksheets.
SCIENCE: Complete the Carbon Lab under Interactive Labs.
HISTORY: Spend 45 minutes on your US History 1 course.
ELECTIVE 1: Spend 30 minutes on your Psychology course.
ELECTIVE 2: Complete Unit 2, 2.3 and 2.4 of your Computer Skills and Literacy course.
FREE READING: 30 minutes
Day 5
ENGLISH: Read Chapter 5 from the novel. As you read, think of any responses you can record for the “Active Reading” assignment on page 17 of the study guide.
MATHEMATICS: (Review) Complete Lesson 1 under Pre-Algebra, Solving Equations. Complete the Two-Step Equations worksheets.
SCIENCE: Read Unit 1, Section 5: Testing the Thermostat: Snowball Earth, and Section 6: Atmospheric Ocean.
HISTORY: Spend 45 minutes on your US History 1 course.
ELECTIVE 1: Spend 30 minutes on your Psychology course.
ELECTIVE 2: Complete Unit 3 of your Computer Skills and Literacy course.
