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Effective Substitute Teacher Plans: Set Your Sub Up for Success

How I Learned to Craft the Most Effective Substitute Teacher Plans

As the senior teacher at my school, I often had the most difficult groupings of students in my class. Even with a group of students with some of the most problematic behaviors, the notes left behind by substitute teachers were almost always positive. Now that I am subbing, I have realized that the positive feedback was not because I left the most fantastic lessons. What made my substitute teacher plans so effective was my classroom’s instructions, protocols, and routines.

“This class runs itself! I had an easy day today!”

Note from a substitute Teacher

I am on the other side of the note and experiencing the role of the substitute teacher. It has been eye-opening. I moved to a new area and decided to try out some local schools before applying for a full-time position. Substitute teaching has allowed me to see what instructions get left out that are needed to have a successful day. I also learned that my sub plans were really great and I should publish them so that other teachers can use them.

What is the Most Effective Thing to Include in Your Substitute Teacher Plans?

For the sake of subs everywhere, please include something about managing behavior in your sub plans. I have joined some substitute teacher groups on Facebook to gain more insight into the sub experience. The one thing that keeps subs from returning is not the lesson plans or worksheets; it’s BEHAVIOR.

Student behavior can be challenging for a sub. My classroom management strength came from building positive relationships with students and parents and routines, procedures, and organization. A sub will not have the relationship factor, so it’s important to include explicit details about routines and procedures in your sub plans.

A Welcoming Staff and Supportive Admins Help

The first person a sub meets in the office says a lot. Is the secretary friendly? Are other staff members friendly? These initial interactions say a lot about your school and impact someone’s decision about whether or not they will decide to sub again.

Assume it’s the substitute teacher’s first time at your school. Someone should show the sub where the classroom is and point out what bathroom to use. There’s nothing worse than waiting hours to go to the bathroom and then wasting time looking for the adult bathroom on campus.

Here Comes the Stranger with the Worksheet Packets

I have been subbing in multiple schools and grade levels, and the sub plans almost always include a schedule and the worksheet packets the students will be doing. That’s it.

There are no behavior management or procedures notes, just a big worksheet packet. When students are accustomed to using computers for much of their work and show up to a stranger with a bunch of worksheets, there will be some behavior.

Motivating Students to Complete Substitute Plan Packets

I have always included behavior management tips and procedures in my sub plans, but this worksheet packet experience made me add something new. Worksheet packets are unpleasant. Students may need more motivation to do these pages. The chance they might get a reward the next day is not enough motivation for kids who need immediate gratification. I considered rewards my students enjoyed that a sub could use as motivation at the end of the day and added this into my plans for a substitute teacher. My class liked games like Four Corners, Grudge Ball, Silent Ball, Game of Quotes, etc. So, I included pages explaining the rules for each game to allow the sub to motivate and reward students.

Linking preferred activities to work completion increases students’ academic engagement in assigned tasks. The substitute teacher defines short-term academic work expectations for the students: If we complete the textbook reading and the “How to Write a Quiz Question” worksheet, we will play grudge ball with our quiz questions after clean-up time. This is far more effective than the traditional technique of “write down the names of who was good” for some mysterious reward that may or may not happen.

An image of a free pdf download of sub plan activities is shown on a clipboard.

Add This to Your Sub Plans

Get this free download of eight classroom games and instructions to add to your sub plans. If you are already a subscriber, you can find it on the Free Resources page of my blog or in my latest email.

If you’d like to become a subscriber, click here to sign up now, download this free resource, and get access to my entire online library of resources.

Terrible Transitions

Transitions are the most challenging times for a substitute teacher. The toughest transitions are starting class, moving to and from the classroom to lunch or recess, end-of-day clean-up time, and dismissal. Give step-by-step instructions in your sub plans about these transitional periods.

11:55 is lunch…Um, okay? Do they line up in an order? Do I walk them to the cafeteria, or do they go by themselves? If they walk in line, are there expectations about noise levels? Is there some saying or hand signal to remind students about behavior expectations for line walking?

When you don’t leave directions about procedures, the sub is left asking your students for directions about what is allowed, which is never a good idea.

Increase Predictability and Reduce Problematic Behaviors with Classroom Routines

Many behavior problems occur when classroom situations are unstructured or need more behavioral guidelines. Establishing classroom routines can help. First, list potentially problematic situations when misbehavior is most likely to occur, like transitioning from one activity to another, students entering or exiting the classroom, and student dismissal.

Afterward, outline clear, consistent classroom behavioral routines for each problematic situation.
Teach students the steps of these routines and practice until they have mastered the procedures.
Then, regularly reinforce appropriate behavior through acknowledgment, praise, and perhaps rewards for successfully and consistently following those routines.

I love this inexpensive, two-sided tabletop frame for procedural reminders. Add steps for starting the day on one side and clean-up time on the other. I bought these at Ikea, and they were called Tolsby but have been discontinued. You can get the same product on Amazon. Use my editable procedures as a guide to create your own instructions for a sub.

Gather Feedback on the Effectiveness of Your Substitute Teacher Plans

When a sub has a bad day with your class, they may leave chaotic notes that aren’t very helpful. Even as a sub myself, my notes have been left on Post-it notes or written on the sub plans. I’m never sure if my notes have made sense to the teacher.

I have always included a form to collect useful information from my substitutes. I don’t find notes about which students behaved themselves and which ones didn’t very helpful in revising my sub plans.

A substitute teacher looking over a feedback form.

Collecting Feedback from the Sub

It is important to gather feedback on the effectiveness of your sub plans:
What worked well?
What could be improved for future absences?

Even the most effective substitute teacher plans will require ongoing reflection and refinement based on feedback and experiences.

I leave exit tickets for students in my lesson plans for the day. Use the information collected through these exit tickets and the substitute feedback form to facilitate a debrief with your class the next day. Then, make changes as needed to your sub plans.

Effective substitute teacher plans ensure a smooth classroom experience. Detailed instructions, protocols, and routines are important for setting substitute teachers up for success.

Get My Ultimate Guide to Seamless Sub Plans

Don’t let substitute plan uncertainty disrupt your classroom flow. Invest in the Ultimate Guide to Seamless Sub Plans today and reclaim your peace of mind!

What’s in the Emergency Sub Plans Lessons?

30+ pages of Lesson Plans with Clear Instructions! These ready-to-use lesson plans are adaptable to any subject area or textbook.

  • Vocabulary Tasks: No vocabulary words? No problem! I have included a list of academic vocabulary words, including terms like evaluate, distinguish, and recount.
  • Quiz Questions: If your students have a textbook to read an assigned chapter from, have them create quiz questions using my step-by-step instructions! The substitute can then use these quiz questions for a grudge ball or Trashketball game as a reward for good behavior. It’s a WIN! WIN!
  • 3 Facts: This activity is so simple, versatile, and engaging! It is one of my go-to activities, with or without a sub! It works with online or printed articles, news stories, student textbooks, infographics, and data charts. It also works as a daily warm-up (morning work) for current event news broadcasts like CNN 10.
  • Read an Infographic: Students love infographics! I keep copies in my emergency plans with the two-sided “Reading an Infographic” page.
  • Showing a Video: Use my engaging activities with ANY video! If a sub shows a video, students will most likely be off-task or engaging in misbehavior. Attach an assignment to the video-watching activity to minimize behavior issues.
  • Find a Map or Find a Graph: This tool works with a textbook in ANY subject area as long as it contains maps or charts/graphs.
  • Crossword Puzzles and Word Searches for early finishers and MUCH MORE!

These reusable lessons can be assigned every time you have a sub all year! A new textbook chapter—same assignment. A new vocabulary list—same assignment. Your students will get better at doing work for a sub as they become familiar with the expectations of the tasks. Procedures for lesson plans are important, too!

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