The importance of medium term planning
Recently I've been blogging about the art curriculum that I created for my last school. I sat down today with the intention of writing about my art medium term plans specifically, but quickly realised it was going to turn into something else (that is coming soon I promise).
It is important to differentiate medium term planning from long term and short term planning. Long term planning gives an overview of planning across terms/academic year whilst short term planning concentrates on learning over the course of a few days/week. Medium term planning is unique in that it enables teachers when planning a sequence of lessons around a subject area to to think about what we are teaching, why we are teaching it, when we are teaching it and who we are teaching it for.
In order to ensure that pupils are learning within our lessons (in this instance specifically through our teaching and the resources provided), the learning has to be planned for, in so much that we plan effectively what we are teaching. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge advocate of sequential learning and thinking about lessons as a series rather than something individual.
Historically, and certainly when I was undertaking ITT on the schools direct training path, much focus has been given to individual short term lesson plans. When I was training my in school mentor was very keen for me to write multi-page, detailed, individual 4 part lesson plans, for every lesson I taught. Whilst this was manageable when I was teaching one lesson a day it quickly became very stressful when I was teaching multiple lessons a day and my teaching time was 70% time table by January.
As an experienced teacher and middle leader I look back on those times and shake my head. I recently tweeted:
To follow that up in more detail, thinking about short term planning is of course important for students and NQTs. However, should not be confused for individual lesson plans only and this should not be done in separation from LTP and MTP.
Planning backwards and sequencing should be paramount. Teachers should have a firm knowledge in knowing how things fit together. These need to be the fundamental building blocks. Planning a one off, individual lesson in detail with no idea how it fits into wider learning won't help the children. It might be a great lesson but with no understanding of how children learn and how learning will be embedded it's all for nothing.
I was taught next to nothing about LTP and MTP in my training year which meant this was a huge area of development for me in my NQT year. Sequential learning is key, which brings us back to medium term plans.
So why is MTP so important? Well firstly, it establishes the learning objectives across time, as well as that the key learning goals that are aimed for. It helps teachers to organise the knowledge they wish to impart and how that knowledge should be structured in order to ensure teaching is embedded in long term memory. A key question should be: How is the knowledge broken down and ordered?
Medium term planning should also take into account the key skills that techers want to be developed and embedded over the course of the unit. It should organise knowledge and skills in such a way that we are providing maximum opportunity for pupils to effectively learn.
When creating a high quality MTP a teacher should consider:
What do learners already know?
Prior learning should be taken into account. This is where the whole school LTP should be referred to. What skills need to be taught?
Key skills should be explicitly thought about, as well as how prior skills can be built upon. What knowledge do I need to teach?
As above but with knowledge. What is the best order when teaching objectives/aims?
Consider how knowledge and skills can be built up logically and embedded. How much time is there?
Most schools will have a set timetable for a specific unit (e.g. half a term). The key for teachers is to use the time frame effectively to sequence the lessons.
To summarise, a medium term plan must place sequencing at its heart in order to be truly effective. It should build knowledge and skills across a topic and relate back to prior teaching in order to form a fully cohesive unit of learning. It gives the teaching a purpose which is what we owe the young minds we are entrusted to teach.