Lesson Plans, lesson plans and more lesson plans

      Lesson plans - as teachers, we do them all the time and we have requirements for our districts. My district is now up to including 8 or 9 (I can't remember) parts for each lesson! Obviously, whomever had that bright idea is not a teacher - who has time for all that, seriously???  But the powers that be have also declared that we now need to turn in these plans to our administrators on a regular basis. For my school, that means we need to turn in plans about once a month. The principal gets to decide and that is what we do.  My lesson plans have to include: objectives, standards, procedure, materials (if needed), assessment, vocabulary, Bloom's, essential questions, and a reflection on how the lesson went.  I started using planbook.com and it has been a lifesaver and completely cut down on the amount of time I spend planning because now I can cut and paste some things.  
     I have sometimes wondered how effective (and necessary) all of these components are to teaching the students.  In learning about whole brain teaching, I came across the 5 part lesson plan which I love. It starts with Class - yes and then the teacher asks a question (which is the objective for the lesson) and the using Teach- OK, the students repeats the question. Next, the teacher does another variation of class-yes, and then the teacher gives the answer. The teacher should speak in short sentences. The teacher then uses Teach-Ok and students teach each other the answer using the teacher's words and gestures. The next part again starts with a variation of Class-Yes and then the teacher expands on the answers by using lots of examples and then does Teach-Ok again.  The fourth part is when the teacher does an oral "test" and gives examples which the students respond by giving a thumbs or a thumbs down. This gives the teacher a quick check for understanding.  The final part of the lesson is critical thinking. It involves having the students write about what they have learned.
    I love the WBT lesson plan because it gets the students involved, they are not sitting passively and listening to a teacher listening.  They are teaching their partners and using gestures to maximize learning. If you are interested in learning more about the 5 step lesson plan, you can read about it in the book: Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Children.  There are also examples of the free lesson plan on Teacher Pay Teacher. Here is one example from Farrah Shipley - a WBT guru: 5 step lesson plan. 
    I can't turn these plans in so, I don't always do the WBT lesson plan but I am using it more and more this year and when I do use it, I notice a big increase in student engagement and their retention f material.
   I would love to hear how you handle lesson planning. Would you use the 5 step lesson plan if you saw improvement in student engagement and retention of content?