How to Write a Lesson Plan for Your Book by Tina Cho

So you've written a book and would like to market to teachers. How can you make something yourself? You could start off with a lesson plan to put on your blog/web site or use as a handout. 

Let's take a look at some approaches. Author Laura Sassi has extension activities on her blog for her book Goodnight, Ark. This is great because as a teacher I can peruse the ideas and find what would fit my class. Nancy I. Sanders makes a web site for each of her books with links to activities or develops lessons herself and puts them in her teacher store at Teachers Pay Teachers. She did all of these for her newest book, A Pirate's Mother Goose. Very handy!  R.J. Palacio, author of Wonder, has discussion questions for teachers to use on her site. Wonderful! Debbie Ohi has a plethora of swag and activities for each of her books on her web site. Really cool is that these are PRINT-READY! Teachers don't have much time. So having something ready to go is awesome! And Suzanne Slade has a very organized list of her books with teachers' guides, book trailers, and a button to order each book.

 

Are you getting ideas? For this post, I'm going to take you through steps for a traditional lesson plan. And all you other educators out there can chime in in the comments with your fabulous ideas!

1. Brainstorm. Here are some questions to think about. What is your book about? (the pitch) What themes does your book fit under? (seasons, science, history, friendship, bullying) What grades would this appeal to? What grades study this topic? Could this book be a mentor text for something?

2. Introduce. Think of a snazzy introduction a teacher could use to get students' attention. For the rest of this post, I'm going to share how I used Dr. Seuss' latest, What Pet Should I Get? as an example. I used just a simple question for my 1st graders. If you could pick any pet, what would you get?

3. Read. In the lesson plan, the teacher will read your book to students, unless it's for older kids.

4. Ask. Write a list of comprehension questions. If you want to get really technical, you could refer to the Common Core Standards to see what kind of questions to ask. Common questions are: Who is the main character? Where is the setting? What happened in the beginning, middle, end? What was the problem? Solution? What's the main idea?

5. Assess. Here's where you can get really creative. You can develop worksheets, crafts, activities, recipes, you name it! You could list several and have teachers choose. For Dr. Seuss' book, I made a rhyming game to be played like Old Maid. And I made a comprehension worksheet with 3 boxes for kids to write and draw what happened in the beginning, middle, and end. I made another worksheet for them to journal/write about what they think happens next in the story because this book ends inquisitively. To be helpful, list the objectives that students will perform in your plan. For example, students will invent a pet using craft and recyclable materials. 

The sky's the limit. Have fun being creative and reaching out to teachers. Once ONE teacher discovers you and your book resources, it will travel like wildfire through channels such as Pinterest. I know, because one of my educational activities is being shared on Pinterest almost every day now that it's Fall.

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments. I'd love to help you.