"Too many new teachers are thrown into the ring with little more than a list of books and an attendance roster," (p. 95). That is the quote that stands out in my mind for this chapter. I feel like this is so true, but I also feel like lesson plans are so subjective that if we try to standardize them it will only cause confusion for veteran and new teachers alike. I feel like as a pre service teacher I need to know how to write a lesson plan and the fundamentals about it, but every teaching class I have taken, and the classroom I have observed have various different ways of writing a lesson plan. I feel like there is no standard way to write a lesson plan and that as long as I have the basic things covered it will work. Freaking out about it doesn't really help, I think that knowing that all lesson plans are different agitates the teacher inside me, but I am glad that Jago brought it to the attention of the readers before continuing on into the chapter.
Another part of the chapter that held my interest was really the step by step that she put in to making this lesson plan. It really helped me plan out a lesson in a simpler way than trying to do it all by myself. The abundance of activities that could be used also helped, because these activities can be used for other books, not just The Odyssey. The visual aids were great, and I think that making a lesson plan could be easy if I just stopped over analyzing everything.
You have a good point - each district (many times) has a format for lesson plans. As long as you have a sense of how to write a lesson plan - and realize it is critical to make sure your learning activities teach your objectives.
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