Planning, for some reason, seems to be equated to solid things. We plan, and expect that plan to hold true in reality. Thinking about classroom planning, I can honestly say that few of my classes actually go exactly as I had planned them. In fact, most of my classes veer off into completely different territory depending on the needs of my student that day.

So does an unfollowed plan, or an altered plan, mean that that plan failed? 

Plans that change are not failed. I know that one thing is true: if you don’t plan, you’ll have little to no idea of where you should be going. Without a plan, you’ll wander, and that’s never a great idea. And this is true in classrooms, in business, and in life in general. Planning helps you act on your environment vs having your environment act on you.

But plans need to be living creatures, not something set in stone.

Richard Rumelt: ….Someone in the introduction of their book wrote that if you don’t have a clear vision of the future ten years hence, you’re not managing. I couldn’t disagree more. I think if you have a clear vision of the future ten years hence, you’re a psychotic.

Lowell Bryan: It’s a hallucination, it’s not a vision.

Richard Rumelt: It’s a hallucination, that’s right. Good strategy is more like surfing a wave than having this clear vision of the future. You’ve got to find a wave of change. The way we make money in business, typically—if we’re not sitting on a stable brand—is we find a wave of change that we can exploit. And we ride it with skill. It’s not about having a lockstep plan. It’s about figuring out which forces we can harness or ride to our benefit. (Taken from Setting strategy in the new era: A conversation with Lowell Bryan and Richard Rumelt )

I love this idea: planning (strategy) is like"surfing a wave."  How well do we do this in our classrooms? What if you thought of your students as a wave, that they have the possibility to influence the direction of your class? What would happen?

Planning is still relevant. You still need to have an idea of where you need to go – though that destination my change depending on what your students are showing you as you progress together.

Example: I have a student who has been working at the B1 (intermediate) level. We have been working towards the following writing CEFR objective:

The plan:

  • Being able to understand short newspaper articles. 

 I had prepped a few newspaper articles and comprehension questions/activities for our classroom work.

What Really Happened: I arrived to class and found that my student had his laptop open on the meeting room table. As I sat down, we exchanged greetings and some small talk, and then he drove straight to his need: dealing with a flood of English emails that needed immediate attention.

My plan was changed instantly, and remained changed for several weeks as I  followed my student’s direction. The origional plan of working with a few news articles went out the window – but my objectives did not. My student was intensely focused on reading and understanding some emails, so I adjusted my plan to this new reality. I developed comprehension questions on the fly – dealing exactly with the material he had on hand. Written comprehension exercises (writing the answers to those mails) morphed into discussions, where my student had to actually explain his answers to me, and all the intricate ins and outs of what the email was actually about.

So, what would have happened if I decided to force my plan on my student: ignoring his reality? What would have happened – and I  borrow from the surfing analogy here – if I had decided to chuck my surf board out the window, choosing instead to walk against my student’s wave?