- Friday 04 February 2022
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A lesson plan helps you to run a well-flowing, engaging lesson, confidently. It doesn't matter if you teach science or English, early childhood or secondary, lesson plans are needed.
Each lesson you teach should flow onto the next—and having well-written lesson plans will help you do this. Today, we will be exploring how to write a great lesson plan so you are well prepared for the new school year.
Lesson plans versus teaching plans:
While the terms ‘teaching’ and ‘lesson’ plans are often used interchangeably, general speaking teaching plans are daily, weekly, term and year overviews, while lesson plans provide a breakdown of individual lessons. A well-structured, effective teaching plan will have lesson plans incorporated.
What is a lesson plan?
A lesson plan is your lesson roadmap. It will outline your objectives, learning activities and strategies to evaluate student outcomes. A teacher's lesson plan works as a daily roadmap and allows teachers to work more effectively and efficiently.
Lesson plans allow teachers to spend more time achieving meaningful discussion with their students, rather than trying to improvise a lesson on the go. Teaching programs are vital for measuring student progress and ensuring classroom time stays on track.
Benefits of a lesson plan:
A thoughtfully prepared lesson plan will go a long way in ensuring your lessons flow smoothly and achieve learning objectives and outcomes. Here are some of the main benefits of a subject lesson plan:
1. Excellent time management tool
A well-crafted teaching plan is an effective time management tool. Teachers can schedule the lesson effectively to ensure the class stays on track and activities flow well.
2. Confidence
The lesson plan works as a guide that the teacher can refer back to. Lesson plans ensure the teacher is well-versed in the lesson's structure and flow and will instill confidence. Plus, if you become stuck during the lesson, you can quickly look back at the lesson plan and move forward smoothly and efficiently.
3. Measure results with ease
The lesson plan dictates how you evaluate your learning outcomes and student engagement. This means you don't have to measure results on the fly and have a structure to assess the lesson outcomes.
4. Student comprehension
A lesson plan aids in student comprehension as the class becomes systematically organised and stays on topic.
Without a teaching program, teachers have to improvise the lesson, leading to impromptu segues and off-topic discussion. This can vastly reduce the effectiveness of the lesson and can cause lessons to not flow well from one another.
Lesson plans ensure better student comprehension and achievement of learning outcomes because student engagement remains high, lessons stay on track, and frequent interruptions are avoided. They also provide the backbone for measurable student progress, as the lesson plan has already dictated how to measure progress. This means the teacher is actively looking for these markers throughout the lesson, rather than just freestyling.
How to create an effective lesson plan:
It may seem overwhelming to figure out how to create an effective lesson plan, that is well written and delivers all the benefits mentioned above.
It's essential to take the time to craft lesson plans to instill confidence, ensure better time management and keep the class on track. Here are some expert tips for preparing a great lesson plan today.
1. Think of your students
The first key consideration in writing a good lesson plan is your students. Ensure that any lesson plan you write is designed for your students and how they best learn. There is no point in spending hours creating lessons that aren't suited to your students’ learning style, as engagement will be low and learning outcomes won't be achieved.
Some classes may prefer interactive learning, whereas others may benefit more from a lecture-style classroom. Some may like group work, whereas others may be best suited to individual learning.
There are a couple of activities you can use to decide what style of learning will best suit the lesson. You can:
- Break down the type of students you have in your class. Who prefers auditory? Visual? Are there any kinesthetic learners?
- Write out the type of learning outcomes you are aiming for. 'Today my class will learn _______ because _______’. You can then brainstorm the most effective ways the above groups of students will learn this topic.
- Analyse your resources. Is there a potential for an outdoor classroom activity? Can you incorporate cross-classroom collaboration? Is there an online video you can show to keep the children engaged?
- Include multiple teaching mediums, if possible, to ensure every type of learner is included. Students will become frustrated if they cannot understand the lesson or engage well, leading to adverse learning outcomes.
All the above are important to consider in your lesson planning. This information will help you write an effective lesson plan that will result in an engaging lesson for all students, no matter their learning type.
2. What are your goals?
The second key consideration in crafting a winning teaching plan is your goals and objectives. What do you hope for your class to take away from the lesson?
Don't just rely on learning objectives to create your goals. Do you have personal objectives that you would like to achieve during the lesson—do you want to teach with more confidence, receive more questions from the students etc.?
Having these goals written in your lesson plan will help you to look back on your growth as a teacher throughout the year. Plus, it will ensure you have more clarity going into the lesson as to what you're hoping to achieve with your teaching plan.
3. Align your teaching plan to course objectives
Course objectives and learning outcomes should inform all your teaching initiatives. Every lesson should correlate with the desired learning outcome and be working toward achieving key course objectives. This is vital for meeting National Quality Standards, government regulations and more.
Aligning your teaching plan to course objectives right from the start will help to make sure your lesson stays on track and is relevant to the curriculum.
4. Schedule your time
Schedule your teaching time to ensure the lesson remains engaging. You need to make sure your class has enough time to work on any activities and that there is also an ample amount of time to ask questions.
You don't want the instructional part of your lesson to drag, but you also don't want to give students 25 minutes to complete a task that takes 10. Having a well-written lesson plan will ensure the lesson flows well and that students aren't at risk of losing engagement.
5. Evaluation
The final thing to remember when writing a lesson plan is that you need to decide how you will evaluate the outcome of the lesson.
Here are some questions to use to evaluate your lessons:
• Were you confident teaching the lesson?
• Were your goals clear from the beginning of the class?
• Were your students engaged and participating?
• Did your resources inspire participation? Why/Why not?
• Will you use the same resources next time?
• Were your resources appropriate and relevant?
• What could you do differently next time?
Lesson plan resources Australia:
Writing effective lesson plans can be a daunting, time-consuming task. That’s where we come in: R.I.C. always strives to minimise stress and save time for teachers through providing quality, easy-to-use resources.
We offer a wealth of resources with comprehensive, ready-to-use lesson plans. Our range includes vocabulary lessons, comprehension skills lesson plans (including language and literacy), health, science, economics, handwriting and more.
These lessons will allow you to teach engaging content to your class and build your confidence as a teacher. Plus, the ready-to-use format of these lesson plans makes them super easy to implement into your classroom today.
Final thoughts:
Writing lesson plans doesn't have to be overwhelming. You can follow the advice above and invest in quality R.I.C. Publications lesson plans to help get you started today. Good lesson plans will help improve your confidence, encourage student engagement, help you manage your time efficiently and lead to the achievement of more learning outcomes.
Implementing lesson plans into your practice will help you grow as a teacher and help keep your class on track.