Writing Lesson Plans
By Gabby Cleary
As witches and Wiccans, we are usually a pretty free form bunch. We learn from our own experiences and maybe we are lucky enough to find a mentor, or a group that is willing to teach us. We don’t tend to have many hierarchies, except for those found within traditional covens. The hierarchies tend to work along the lines of what roles people take in ritual as well as who they are allowed to teach.
Each group has its own way of working and training. Some groups celebrate and work together and the newbies just pick the path up as they go along. Observation and experiential practice are, after all, great teachers on their own.
However, if you’ve ever been in a leadership or teaching position within the Craft, one question may come to haunt you and that is...“just what are we going to do next circle?”
This workshop is designed to give you the tools to answer that question by delving into the scary world of lesson plans.
Much of what we do in our groups is determined by celebrations such as sabbats, or full, dark or new moon rituals. However groups may decide to meet on a regular basis such as fortnightly or monthly rather than on a full moon. If this is the case, you may find that working out a lesson plan can help greatly when you are wondering what will be happening at the next circle. It can also help if you are undertaking a solitary course of study and research.
I like writing lesson plans, they give me a base to work from. They are not to everyone’s taste, but hopefully over the course of this workshop, you will find and gather the tools to create a system that works for you.
Lesson plans can also be helpful if you are taking on new students. The plan will give you an outline that you can use to gauge the new students’ experience. Whilst not really a mundane or formal recognition of prior learning you can use it as a guide for how and what you teach.
I created my first curriculum outline after a discussion with a couple of witches at a public event many years ago. They felt a desire to run a TAFE course on witchcraft, but bemoaned the work involved in trying to create the formal style of curriculum that, that would entail. I always like a challenge and so I went home that night and wrote out a list just for myself. Eventually I started teaching, (and in the mundane world, worked with the curriculum developers at the Department of Education and Training) and over the years my initial list has developed into a full set of formal lesson plans. I still use the initial order of lessons, however I now know how long each lesson takes, what worked and what didn’t. So it is with this experience and hindsight that I’m going to outline the steps that you can use to create your own set of lesson plans that reflect your path and how you teach it.
We’ll start with creating a curriculum outline and then move on to working out the number of lessons (or circles) for each topic. Finally we will work on what each circle actually involves and how to build in the preparation for successive lessons.
Creating A Curriculum Outline
You can’t formulate a lesson plan and order of lessons without knowing what you want to teach. So I want you to write down all of the skills that you have. In one column, write what you CAN do, in a second column, write what you want to learn how to do. (You can use ‘Basic’, ‘Intermediate’ & ‘Advanced’ labels if the skill is a large one).
Now look at your list. Try to find the most basic skill on either list. Number that 1. Find the next basic skill and number that 2 and so forth until each skill in either column has a number beside it.
Once you have your list, I want you to think about complimentary skills. Those items on your list that use the same set of skills for a different outcome. Use letters to mark each group.
So now you have a list of what comes first and what skills are complimentary.
Now look at your list of skills again. Look at what skills are at the higher end of the numbers, towards the end of your list. Can you identify any skills that combine to make up the high level skills?
E.g. You need to know about altars, tools, elements, deity and energy raising before you take on circle casting. You need to know about cord magic, symbols, spellcraft and timing before working with talismans.
Can you see how you can now work out an outline for your group?
Now on a separate piece of paper, write out your draft order of lessons.
Now you have your order, examine the list again. Can you break any of those skills down further. You may find that there are skills that are so second nature to you, that you don’t consider them skills at all.
How Many Circles Per Skill?
Now I want you to think about how long each task would take to learn or for you to teach. Write down the number of circles next to that task. The list is still flexible. When you come to write out what is actually taught in each circle you may find that you need to add another circle as you just couldn’t possibly fit that much into one night’s teaching.
Example List
Below is my final list of circles. This list has been edited with hind sight as I now know how long each item took us to do. Some took more time than I initially thought. Other items took hardly any time at all. It does depend on what skills your participants already have.
Circle 01 The Nature of Witchcraft, Ethics And Etiquette
Circle 02 The Altar, Tools And Consecration I
Circle 03 The Altar, Tools And Consecration II
Circle 04 The Altar, Tools And Consecration III
Circle 05 The Altar, Tools And Consecration IV
Circle 06 Grounding, Centering, Power Raising I
Circle 07 Grounding, Centering, Power Raising II
Circle 08 Grounding, Centering, Power Raising III
Circle 09 Deity I
Circle 10 Deity II
Circle 11 Element of Air I
Circle 12 Element of Air II
Circle 13 Element of Fire I
Circle 14 Element of Fire II
Circle 15 Element of Water I
Circle 16 Element of Water II
Circle 17 Element of Earth I
Circle 18 Element of Earth II
Circle 19 Circle Casting I
Circle 20 Circle Casting II
Circle 21 Qabbalistic Cross Visualisation I
Circle 22 Qabbalistic Cross Visualisation II
Circle 23 Overview of The Sabbats I
Circle 24 Overview of The Sabbats II
Circle 25 Spellcraft I
Circle 26 Spellcraft II
Circle 27 Cord Making And Cord Magic I
Circle 28 Cord Making And Cord Magic II
Circle 29 Cord Making And Cord Magic III
Circle 30 Scrying And Divination I
Circle 31 Scrying And Divination II
Circle 32 Phases of The Moon And Astrology In Magic I
Circle 33 Phases of The Moon And Astrology In MagicII
Circle 34 Magical Herbalism I Introduction
Circle 35 Magical Herbalism II Incense
Circle 36 Magical Herbalism III Magical Oils
Circle 37 Magical Herbalism IV Magical Ointments
Circle 38 Magical Herbalism V Magical Inks
Circle 39 Amulets And Talismans I
Circle 40 Amulets And Talismans II Practical I
Circle 41 Amulets And Talismans III Practical II
Circle 42 Magical Brews I
Circle 43 Magical Brews II Pre Ritual Spritz
Circle 44 Magical Brews III Pre Ritual Spritz II
Circle 45 Healing With Magic I
Circle 46 Healing With Magic II
Circle 47 Circle Casts Additional
Circle 48 Ritual Writing I
Circle 49 Ritual Writing II Co-ordination, Performance 
	& Staging
Circle 50 Sabbat Symbology Experiential
Circle 51 Food Magic and Sabbats I
Circle 52 Food Magic and Sabbats II
Circle 53 Crystal Magic I
Circle 54 Crystal & Metal Magic II
Circle 55 Lesser Banishing Pentagram Ritual I
Circle 56 Lesser Banishing Pentagram Ritual II - Practical
Circle 57 Animal Totem Journey
Circle 58 Practical Ritual Performances
Circle 59 Words of Power
Circle 60 Words of Power II
Circle 61 Ritual of Ending
Breaking The Circles Into Modules
Once you have your outline of how long a task will take, you can break that item down to work on the lessons themselves. It may be easier to break your list into modules. This way you can group the lessons together and make the task more manageable. You can also use modules to break up big topics. Start with the basics of that topic, then move onto something else that builds on the topic just completed. In another module you can revisit the topic at an intermediate level. Do the same for the advanced levels of the topic.
Example Modules
Module 1 - Lessons 1 - 10
Module 1 covers the basics of Wicca, examining ethics and building up a personal religious structure. This Module also gives students experience in basic energy manipulation techniques and energy awareness for use in later work.
Module 2 - Lessons 11 - 20
Module 2 introduces the Elements and students begin to put earlier lessons to work by creating simple elemental spells. Circle casting is covered in detail. By the end of this module students should be able to understand the mechanics of casting a circle and be able to perform at least one complex circle cast by heart.
Module 3 - Lessons 21 - 31
In Module 3 students start to expand their experience beyond the bounds of Wicca by examining the companion system of the Qabbala. Sabbat celebrations are covered in detail and students begin to learn intermediate spell crafting techniques. As an aid to their spell crafting students are also introduced to scrying and divination.
Module 4 - Lessons 32 - 46 
In Module 4 students learn to refine their magickal work using astrology and timing. Magickal herbalism and healing is covered in detail. Students learn to make and consecrate talismans and amulets. At the end of the module students should have a well rounded knowledge of magickal techniques and be able to start self-directed study of subjects outside this curriculum if they so desire.
Module 5 - Lessons 47 - 61
Module 5 revisits circle casting and students get to apply their experience to gain a deeper understanding of the energies at work during a circle cast. Lessons concentrate on expanding the students magickal technique repertoire and the introduction of skills needed to successfully write, and stage small to large group events and rituals.
These modules were created for a non-initiate teaching group. However at a certain stage (and when the numbers of attendees had stabilised), we performed a ritual of naming into the group. The curriculum is designed to be interactive and experiential. Each participant is required to write rituals, make items, work singly or in pairs for different tasks and to present their work to the group. After a certain point it is the students who are calling the quarters, casting the circles and running the rituals that they write. 
Writing Individual Lesson Plans
The lesson plans are the expanded form of the curriculum outline. Each lesson can be divided into discussions, workshops / lectures, practical work, and any preparation required for the next circle. It can also include any homework. The next lesson plan will start with looking at the homework from the previous circle (if any).
Below is an example of two lesson plans for one subject, in this case, Spellcraft. The first plan starts with a test on the previous subject. This does not have to be a formal exam, just having participants fill in a chart. The ‘From The Cauldron’ section is where participants pull a random topic from a cauldron. Here it is the goal of a spell that they will need to write.
Look at the homework and task preps for the next circle. It is a good idea to write this into your lesson plans. It creates extra work in the beginning, but it makes life easier when you know what you need to get organised for next time. 
Now of course, we don’t follow the curriculum slavishly, we break for sabbats and explore areas that come up. However, I did revise the lesson plans and add circles where required and this is reflected in my final version. 
We also explored both a full cycle of Hermetic meditations and Oghamic meditations and rituals, so this lengthened the process considerably (by a couple of years). However you could run long meditation cycles concurrently if you wish.
When I first started teaching this curriculum I didn’t have the formal lesson plans written up. They came out of what we actually did. I kept a record as much as possible and have incorporated the tasks and homework into the plans. The actual notes were either pre-written or written as we went along. I now have a large body of work that I can use to teach with. I am still writing up the resources for each circle as I formalise some of the discussions into actual articles to pass on to my students. I also mark in additional readings as I come across interesting articles and books. As you teach you learn. Questions from students can open up new areas of research and exploration.