When I first started teaching, I didn't plan my literacy instruction (or any instruction, really) by the year or the month.
Or even by the week.
Most days, I planned one day at a time.
I'd stay at school until 10:00 p.m. with a brief break to run out for Swiss Chalet drive thru supper, creating lessons and making photocopies for the very next day. Other mornings, I'd arrive at school by 7:00 a.m. to do the same thing (minus the Swiss Chalet) before my students walked through the door.
Almost every evening, I'd find myself asking:
What should we do tomorrow?
Every once in a while, I'd pull out the backward design template I learned about during my education degree and try to map out a unit. But those plans rarely lasted. Before long, I was back to jotting fun ideas down on sticky notes and making dozens of little decisions every single day.
It wasn't that I was inherently disorganized or unprepared, and I certainly wasn't working less than I am now.
In fact, I was working incredibly hard.
The problem was that I was spending almost all of my planning time deciding what to teach instead of building routines that gave me the space I needed to improve how I taught it.
Everything changed when I started mapping out my literacy instruction for the entire year before September even began.
Instead of wondering what came next, I already knew.
Instead of making hundreds of small decisions every moment of every day and constantly wondering what should come next, I made one thoughtful, very brief plan that I could adjust as my students grew.
Suddenly, I had more mental energy to create better lessons, respond to my students' needs, and actually enjoy teaching instead of constantly feeling like I was trying to catch up.
Looking back, creating a very simple annual plan roadmap is one of the most impactful changes I've ever made to my teaching. It didn't just improve my instruction—it completely changed the way I planned my year.
In this post, I'll explain what an annual plan is, why I believe every primary teacher should have one, and how creating one can make your planning simpler, more intentional, and far less stressful.
What Is an Annual Plan?
An annual plan is a simple, high-level roadmap for your entire school year.
Rather than planning one lesson, one day, or even one week at a time, an annual plan helps you decide what you'll teach throughout the year and approximately when you'll teach it.
Think of it as your classroom's "big picture."
It isn't a detailed lesson plan, and it certainly isn't a document that you'll follow perfectly from September to June. Instead, it gives you a clear direction so you're no longer making hundreds of small planning decisions every single week.
My own annual plan includes things like:
- literacy routines and major instructional focuses
- phonics and reading progression
- writing units
- math concepts
- inquiry topics
- assessment windows
- seasonal routines and themes
Some teachers create separate annual plans for each subject. I prefer to see everything in one place, at a glance, so I can easily understand how all of the pieces fit together throughout the year.
That doesn't mean every lesson is planned before September.
It simply means that when Monday morning arrives, I'm no longer asking myself, "What should I teach today?"
Instead, I already know the direction we're heading, and I can spend my planning time creating meaningful lessons and preparing the resources we need instead of staring at the wall trying to decide what comes next.
Why Annual Planning Changed Everything for Me
The biggest benefit of annual planning wasn't that I became more organized.
It wasn't that I stopped working hard.
And it definitely wasn't that my plans suddenly became perfect.
The biggest change was that I stopped having to THINK so much in the moment.
Before I had an annual plan, my brain was constantly busy trying to answer questions like:
What should we do tomorrow?
Have I taught this enough yet?
What comes after this?
Should I start something new or keep reviewing?
None of those decisions are particularly difficult on their own.
But making dozens of them every day is exhausting.
Once I had a roadmap for the year, those decisions were already made.
That didn't mean I couldn't change my plans.
In fact, I changed them all the time!
If my students needed an extra week on vowel sounds, I adjusted.
If they mastered a concept more quickly than I expected, we moved ahead.
The difference was that I was making intentional adjustments to a plan instead of constantly creating the plan as I went.
That gave me something I desperately needed during my first few years of teaching:
Mental space.
Instead of spending my evenings deciding what to teach next, I could spend that time thinking about how I wanted to teach it.
I could look for better activities, improve my questions, differentiate for my students, and build and create stronger routines (which ended up making my life even easier - more about that in a post soon).
Those are the decisions that actually improve instruction.
Annual planning didn't make teaching easier because it eliminated work.
It made teaching easier because it eliminated unnecessary decision-making.
What Should Be Included in an Annual Plan?
One of the biggest misconceptions about annual planning is that you need to map out every lesson before the school year even begins.
You don't.
In fact, I think that's one of the quickest ways to create a plan you'll never actually use.
Instead, I focus on planning the big picture.
My annual plan is simply a place to organize the major pieces of my year so I always know where we're heading next. It's basically a birds-eye-view of my year, where I can see every subject and where we are headed in one place.
For me, that includes:
Literacy
I map out the major instructional focus for each month, including my phonics progression, reading routines, writing goals, and oral language instruction.
Math
Rather than planning every lesson, I identify the major concepts and units I'll teach throughout the year.
Inquiry and Other Subjects
I decide approximately when each inquiry topic or larger project will take place so I can see how everything fits together.
(*note - years that I have job shared, my partner does those subjects for the most part, so those sections are pretty empty in my plan)
Assessment
I intentionally build in time to assess student learning instead of trying to squeeze assessments into an already busy week.
Recurring Routines
This is the piece that completely changed my planning.
You'll notice that many of my routines stay the same all year long.
For example, I use daily phonological awareness practice, Mot du jour, oral language activities, and consistent literacy routines throughout the year.
What changes isn't the routine—it's the content.
That means my students always know what to expect, while I spend far less time reinventing my instruction every month.
Once I started thinking this way, planning became much simpler.
Instead of asking, "What new activity should I do tomorrow?" I started asking, "Which skill are we practising within the routine my students already know?"
That one shift saved me an incredible amount of planning time.
(If you're wondering how I decide the order of my phonics instruction, I'll be sharing that in a separate post soon all about creating a French phonics scope and sequence.)
How I Create My Annual Plan
When I create my annual plan each summer, I don't start by planning lessons. Not even close!
I start by thinking about the overall "journey" I want my students to take throughout the year.
What skills do they need to have by June?
(Check your curriculum guides for that!!)
What knowledge needs to come first?
Which routines do I want to establish early so they become second nature?
Once I have that big-picture vision, I work backwards and begin mapping out the major focuses for each month.
At this stage, my plan is intentionally simple.
I don't write lesson plans, choose specific activities, or worry at ALL about which worksheet I'll use on a Tuesday morning in November.
Instead, I simply ask myself:
What will we be focusing on during this week of the year?
I create my annual plan in Google Sheets, and I honestly can't imagine doing it any other way.
Unlike a paper planner or a Word document, Google Sheets makes it incredibly easy to move things around as the year unfolds. If my students need an extra week to master a concept, I can simply swap things around. If they're ready to move on more quickly, I can adjust my pacing in just a few clicks.
My annual plan is never meant to be a finished document that I print in August and never touch again.
It's a living document that stays open on my computer all year, and grows and changes alongside my students.
By the time I'm done filling out my Sheet, I don't have every lesson planned.
But I do have a clear direction!
That gives me the freedom to be flexible when my students need something different, while still feeling confident that we're making steady progress toward our end-of-year goals.
5 Annual Planning Mistakes I Wish I'd Stopped Making Sooner
Looking back, I don't think my biggest mistake was failing to create an annual plan - it was more, believing that I had to figure everything out as I went, following my heart and going on vibes.
While yes, it's important to be flexible, at the end of the day, your students aren't going to learn as much when your instruction isn't cohesive or logical.
Here are a few things I wish someone had told me when I started teaching.
1. Trying to Plan Every Lesson
Your annual plan isn't meant to include every activity, worksheet, or lesson.
If you try to plan that much detail before the school year even begins, you'll spend hours creating a document that's impossible to maintain.
Trust me, I've tried it. It doesn't work. It's way too much to try and figure out, and you'll be exhausted before your first lesson. Plus, you'll go off the rails anyway and a super detailed plan is tough to adjust.
Instead, focus on the big picture.
2. Waiting Until September
I used to think I'd have more clarity once I met my students.
In reality, waiting until September meant I was making important planning decisions while also learning classroom routines, building relationships, assessing students, and simply trying to survive.
Even a simple annual roadmap created over the summer gives you a huge head start.
3. Changing Everything All the Time
One of the biggest improvements I ever made wasn't buying better, newer resources.
It was creating better routines.
When students know exactly what to expect, you don't need to reinvent your instruction every month. The routine stays the same while the content changes.
That consistency benefits both you and your students.
4. Forgetting to Build in Flexibility
A good annual plan should guide your teaching—not control it.
Some years you'll spend an extra week on a concept, while other years you'll move more quickly. Sometimes, a concept you thought your students would be ready for in December is still too hard until May.
That's completely normal.
Your plan should be flexible enough to grow alongside your students.
5. Thinking the Plan Has to Be Perfect
I still adjust my annual plan every single year.
Sometimes I discover a better sequence, or realize a unit needs more time and practice, or simply learn something new. Like the year I discovered the Science of Reading in the middle of the school year!
The goal isn't to create the perfect plan.
The goal is to create a thoughtful starting point that makes teaching feel calmer, more intentional, and much less overwhelming.
Ready to Create Your Own Annual Plan?
If annual planning feels overwhelming, remember this:
You don't have to create the perfect plan - you just need a place to start.
And, I've got that for you!
I've created the French Primary Annual Planning Roadmap, free for you to use and adjust for your own classroom.
Inside, you'll find the same style of year-at-a-glance planning document I use to organize my own school year, complete with my plan and links to the resources I use. You can simply make a copy in Google Sheets to get an editable version you can adapt to fit your own classroom.
Rather than starting with a completely blank page, you'll have a framework to help you think through your year, identify the major learning goals for each month, and begin making those important decisions before September arrives.
Whether you're a brand-new teacher or simply looking for a calmer way to plan, I hope it helps you spend less time wondering what comes next and more time focusing on your students.
Click below to download your free French Primary Annual Planning Roadmap.
If you'd told first-year me, at school regularly until 10pm with a desktop computer and $10 quarter chicken dinner (those were the days haha) that one simple spreadsheet would completely change the way I taught, I probably wouldn't have believed you.
I would have thought that what I really needed more time, more resources, and maybe a clone and a couple TAs.
Instead, what I really needed was a plan.
Planning your year won't make teaching easy... but it will make it intentional, help keep things on track, and help make sure your students are learning what they need to know.