How to Write Yearly Teacher Action Plans

Writing yearly action plans serves as a guide for teachers professionally and in instructional planning. Yearly action plans allow a teacher to prepare in advance for lengthy units and professional development requirements. While they’re not always required, many school districts require that teachers create these plans and make them available to school administrators. This practice gives administrators insight into what assistance and support they can provide their staff.

Decide on the template or format. The way in which the plans will be recorded will depend greatly on whether they will be for personal use only or if they will be read by others. This should be determined in the beginning to avoid having to rewrite the plans or transfer the information to a new template.

Locate and print the calendar for the upcoming school year. The school calendar is necessary to determine holidays, professional development days, and days when there will be statewide testing. All of these significantly impact lesson and unit planning as well as professional development plans.

Study the curriculum, standards and past benchmarks. The curriculum outlines what concepts and skills should be covered during the school year and the standards that go along with them. Copies of past benchmarks give teachers insight into which concepts and skills were covered at certain times throughout the school year. This information enables a teacher to create lessons according to an approximate schedule.

Inventory materials. A plan is ineffective if all materials needed to execute the plan are not present. Knowing which materials are needed upfront allows time for ordering anything that’s missing or in short supply. This is also the time to determine if plans need to change. Due to budget cuts and frozen spending, many schools simply don’t have access to books or extra supplies that may be needed. The teacher can plan accordingly if this is, in fact, the case.

Create the plan. Keeping in mind that this is an ever-changing guide for the year, create an action plan that demonstrates intended lessons and unit plans, materials to be used, and professional goals. Specificity is not required as this is only a skeletal plan and will depend heavily on student achievement and needs.