Lesson Plans For High School – Do I Really Need Them?

If you are homeschooling in the state of Florida, you are required by law to keep lesson plans for high school which is basically a log of work done.  The statutes put it like this:  You are to maintain a log of educational activities that is made contemporaneously with the instruction and that designates by title any reading materials used.  F.S. 1002.14(1)(b)1.

You’ll be happy too if you keep up with your log book!

Very simply put – Write down what you are doing as you do it.  Sometimes we call this lesson planning.

You can keep a log in several different ways.  You may purchase a teacher planning book and fill in the squares on a daily basis; writing down the work planned or completed for each subject.  You may keep the same information on a large calendar, or you may simply journal your days’ work.  Many high school students keep their own log book but it’s a good idea for parents to take a look from time to time to be sure it is being maintained accurately and completely.

If you’re not required by law to keep a log book, either because you’re under a private school or not in Florida, I still recommend that you keep record somewhere of your daily high school work.  It does not need to be an overwhelming process – just a record showing that the student worked regularly on his/her coursework.

Some parents simply photocopy the table of contents and write dates beside each chapter.  Some are more detailed and use the teacher planning book mentioned above or an Excel spreadsheet.    The key is to be sure that all your records are DATED.

That word ‘contemporaneously’ means at the same time.  When my children were younger, I wrote them each out a weekly schedule and they checked the boxes as they went along.  As they got older and got into co-op situations, we would begin the week by combining all the separate class assignments onto one calendar.  That way we could manage our work and get assignments completed on a timely basis.  My daughters loved marking things off with colored highlighters.  It’s a great feeling of accomplishment to have completely colored in your list.  These finished checklists became our logs.

You know your strengths best, so use whatever method works best for the situation in your house.   I know that logs, or writing out lesson plans, may seem like an extra layer of work – but they are excellent tools for managing your time and for validating time spent earning a credit.

~to your success

Joanne

(Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net)