Write a Lesson Plan Guide How to Develop a Lesson Plan

We have received several questions regarding how to write a good lesson plan. We went ahead and asked our experts, did some research, and have included some tips and guidelines below.

To begin, ask yourself three basic questions:

Where are your students going? How are they going to get there? How will you know when they've arrived?

Then begin to think about each of the following categories which form the organization of the plan. While planning, use the questions below to guide you during each stage.

Goals
Goals determine purpose, aim, and rationale for what you and your students will engage in during class time. Use this section to express the intermediate lesson goals that draw upon previous plans and activities and set the stage by preparing students for future activities and further knowledge acquisition. The goals are typically written as broad educational or unit goals adhering to State or National curriculum standards. What are the broader objectives, aims, or goals of the unit plan/curriculum? What are your goals for this unit? What do you expect students to be able to do by the end of this unit?

Objectives

This section focuses on what your students will do to acquire further knowledge and skills. The objectives for the daily lesson plan are drawn from the broader aims of the unit plan but are achieved over a well defined time period. What will students be able to do during this lesson? Under what conditions will students' performance be accomplished? What is the degree or criterion on the basis of which satisfactory attainment of the objectives will be judged? How will students demonstrate that they have learned and understood the objectives of the lesson?

Prerequisites
Prerequisites can be useful when considering the readiness state of your students. Prerequisites allow you, and other teachers replicating your lesson plan, to factor in necessary prep activities to make sure that students can meet the lesson objectives. What must students already be able to do before this lesson? What concepts have to be mastered in advance to accomplish the lesson objectives?

Materials
This section has two functions: it helps other teachers quickly determine a) how much preparation time, resources, and management will be involved in carrying out this plan and b) what materials, books, equipment, and resources they will need to have ready. A complete list of materials, including full citations of textbooks or story books used, worksheets, and any other special considerations are most useful. What materials will be needed? What textbooks or story books are needed? (please include full bibliographic citations) What needs to be prepared in advance? (typical for science classes and cooking or baking activities)

Lesson Description

This section provides an opportunity for the author of the lesson to share some thoughts, experience, and advice with other teachers. It also provides a general overview of the lesson in terms of topic focus, activities, and purpose. What is unique about this lesson? How did your students like it? What level of learning is covered by this lesson plan? (Think of Bloom's Taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, or evaluation.)

Lesson Procedure
This section provides a detailed, step-by-step description of how to replicate the lesson and achieve lesson plan objectives. This is usually intended for the teacher and provides suggestions on how to proceed with implementation of the lesson plan. It also focuses on what the teacher should have students do during the lesson. This section is basically divided into several components: an introduction, a main activity, and closure. There are several elaborations on this. We have linked to some sample lesson plans to guide you through this stage of planning.

Introduction

How will you introduce the ideas and objectives of this lesson? How will you get students' attention and motivate them in order to hold their attention? How can you tie lesson objectives with student interests and past classroom activities? What will be expected of students?

Main Activity

What is the focus of the lesson? How would you describe the flow of the lesson to another teacher who will replicate it? What does the teacher do to facilitate learning and manage the various activities? What are some good and bad examples to illustrate what you are presenting to students?

How can this material be presented to ensure each student will benefit from the learning experience?
Rule of Thumb # 1:

Take into consideration what students are learning (a new skill, a rule or formula, a concept/fact/idea, an attitude, or a value). Choose one of the following techniques to plan the lesson content based on what your objectives are: Demonstration ==> list in detail and sequence of the steps to be performed Explanation ==> outline the information to be explained Discussion ==> list of key questions to guide the discussion

Closure/Conclusion

What will you use to draw the ideas together for students at the end? How will you provide feedback to students to correct their misunderstandings and reinforce their learning?

Follow up Lessons/Activities

What activities might you suggest for enrichment and remediation? What lessons might follow as a result of this lesson?

Assessment/Evaluation
This section focuses on ensuring that your students have arrived at their intended destination. You will need to gather some evidence that they did. This usually is done by gathering students' work and assessing this work using some kind of grading rubric that is based on lesson objectives. You could also replicate some of the activities practiced as part of the lesson, without providing the same level of guidance as during the lesson. You could always quiz students on various concepts and problems as well.

How will you evaluate the objectives that were identified? Have students practiced what you are asking them to do for evaluation?
Rule of Thumb # 2:

Be sure to provide students with the opportunity to practice what you will be assessing them on. You should never introduce new material during this activity. Also, avoid asking higher level thinking questions if students have not yet engaged in such practice during the lesson. For example, if you expect students to apply knowledge and skills, they should first be provided with the opportunity to practice application.

Lesson Plan #: AELP-LIN0200

Minimal Pairs Bingo!

An Educator's Reference Desk Lesson Plan

Submitted by: George Maclean Email: geomac@mac.email.ne.jp School/University/Affiliation: St. Mary's International School, Japan Date: May 31, 2001 Grade Level: Kindergarten, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, Higher Education, Adult/Continuing
Education

Subject(s):

Foreign Language/Linguistics

Duration: 20-40 minutes Description: Minimal pairs are pairs of words that differ in only one sound, with the sound occurring in
the same position in each member of the pair, e.g. "bat" vs. "bet." Certain combinations are known to be challenging for certain groups of foreign language learners, depending on their native language. For example, Japanese learners have trouble with "l" and "r." Russian learners have trouble with short vowels, such as "e" and "a." Placing such minimal pairs side-by-side in a game situation can raise learners' consciousness of their pronunciation challenges, albeit in a non-threatening context.

Goals:

1. 2. 3.

To develop students' phonological awareness. To promote student-to-student negotiation. To promote a more student-centered classroom.

Objectives:
1. 2. Students will be able to identify the differences between minimal pair phonemes when spoken by others. Students will practice and improve their pronunciation of minimal pair phonemes.

Materials:

pencils erasers chips (to cover Bingo sheets) Bingo Sheets

Bingo Sheets in .pdf format; requires free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Click the icon to obtain the free Reader.

Procedure:
Prepare a list of minimal pairs, based on your students' pronunciation challenges. (For example, l and r for Japanese students; as in lip and rip.) Introduce the target phonemes to students and practice them. Divide the students into pairs. One student receives Bingo Sheet A, and the other student receives Bingo Sheet B. Let the students dictate their words to each other (taking turns) until they have completed 12 minimal pairs. Once they have written all of the words on their sheets, correct their answers as a group. Address any questions that students might have. (This is a good chance for supplementary instruction, too. As an alternative, the teacher could hand out an answer key and have students correct their answers with a partner.) Inform students that they will use their sheets to play a game of Bingo! Have students choose one word from each of 12 minimal pairs listed on their papers. Students fill in the blanks on the racetrack with the words they have selected. (It is important to make sure that students choose only one of each pair. This allows another chance to focus students' attention on the difference between the minimal pairs when the words are read out loud.) Hand out chips which can be used to cover the words on students' Bingo sheets. Let the races begin! (Play Bingo!) Read only one of each pair until all the pairs are exhausted. If there is still no winner, then continue with the second word from each pair. Have students evaluate their results. (Note: For a variation in the Bingo game, use rhyming words or normal vocabulary words instead of minimal pairs.)

Assessment: Collect students' Bingo sheets to check for accuracy. Note any words which are giving
students difficulty, and focus on these words for the next class.

Other Reference:
Avery, P. & Ehrlich, S. (1992). Teaching American English Pronunciations

Lesson Plan #: AELP-OHE0200

Theme Meal

An Educator's Reference Desk Lesson Plan

Submitted by: Paula West Email: pwest@east.rchlnd.k12.il.us School/University/Affiliation: East Richland High School, Olney, Illinois Date: November 7, 2000 Grade Level: 9, 10, 11, 12, Vocational Education Subject(s):

Vocational Education/Occupational Home Economics

Duration: Four 50-minute sessions Description: Students plan and implement a "theme" party. Goals: To show students first-hand what is required to pull off a successful party. To demonstrate good
use of time, money, and resources.

Objectives:
1. 2. Students will be able to plan and complete preparations for a theme party. Students will be able to budget materials needed for the theme party.

Materials:

food needed for the theme party cooking utensils tables and chairs tableware party decorations invitations menus

Procedure:
Day 1: Allow students to work in groups to develop a theme. Some themes that have worked well include: child's birthday party (cake, finger foods, punch); Mexican night (taco casserole, chips, salsa, fried ice cream); western (BBQ, baked beans, small cakes baked in soup cans); Italian cafe (spaghetti, breadsticks, sparkling grape juice); back to school (cake decorated like a bus, sandwiches in brown bags, juice boxes); and Valentine's Day (heart pizza, heart cookies). Students need to create a shopping list for the items that are needed. Students cannot spend more than $3.05 per person. They must price out all of the ingredients. If they use 1 teaspoon of salt, for example, they must calculate what 1 teaspoon costs. If students do not want to price some items, they can use the prices set up by the teacher. For instance, the teacher might set a price of 5 cents for a teaspoon of salt. In this case, it is much cheaper to do the math, since a teaspoon of salt is less than 1 cent. Students might want to look at sale flyers to determine the cost of ingredients, or the teacher can have a list of prices prepared ahead of time. Day 2: The second day, students go to a local grocery store to purchase the food. If time allows, students can begin

preparations for the next day. Day 3: Students start preparing the meals. Students should also try to get all of the last minute details taken care of (such as menus and decorations). Students need to work cooperatively in their groups to ensure success. Invitations are sent to teachers, administrators, and support staff that are free that period to come to the party. (They love this!) Day 4: Students have 30 minutes to finish or re-heat the food prepared from the day before. Students also prepare the room. They must have place settings for four people at a table (or more depending on the types of tables you have). Menus should be available at each table. When guests begin to arrive, students must greet them and welcome them to the party. Students take the guests' orders and serve the meals. The guests are to evaluate the use of theme, time, and decor. They are instructed to ask questions of the host/hostesses.

Assessment: Each guest is given an evaluation sheet. On this sheet, guests are to indicate what they
felt the theme was. They are also free to make comments concerning preparedness and organization of the groups. They can also pick the group that they felt had the best use of the theme.

Useful Internet Resources:

* The Kitchen Link This site has a large collection of recipes. http://www.kitchenlink.com * Tenny's Food/Recipe Page A large collection of links related to cooking and recipes. http://www.mebbs.com/tenny/recipes.htm

Special Comments: The students tend to enjoy this activity. I allow students to come in early, stay
late, or come in at lunch to work if they are in a time crunch. The staff really love this. Students really work harder when they know that other adults besides the teacher are going to see and taste their work.

Five Common Mistakes in Writing Lesson Plans (and how to avoid them )
Dr. Robert Kizlik

Successful teachers are invariably good planners and thinkers. In my career as a teacher and teacher educator, I have read and evaluated thousands of lesson plans written by education students at all levels. On a consistent basis, I see mistakes that distort or weaken what the plans are supposed to communicate. You can improve your lesson-planning skills by first thinking carefully about what the lesson is supposed to accomplish. There is no substitute for this. In teaching students how to develop lesson plans, the following are mistakes I have observed that students make most often: 1. The objective of the lesson does not specify what the student will actually do that can be observed. 2. The lesson assessment is disconnected from the behavior indicated in the objective. 3. The materials specified in the lesson are extraneous to the actual described learning activities.

4. The instruction in which the teacher will engage is not efficient for the level of intended student learning.

The student activities described in the lesson plan do not contribute in a direct and effective way to the lesson objective. A lesson plan that contains one or more of these mistakes needs rethinking and revision. Below is a rationale and guide to help you develop effective lesson plans and avoid the five common mistakes. FIRST, YOU MUST KNOW HOW TO PLAN The purpose of a lesson plan is really quite simple; it is to communicate. But, you might ask, communicate to whom? The answer to this question, on a practical basis, is YOU! The lesson plans you develop are to guide you in helping your students achieve intended learning outcomes. Whether a lesson plan fits a particular format is not as relevant as whether or not it actually describes what you want, and what you have determined is the best means to an end. If you write a lesson plan that can be interpreted or implemented in many different ways, it is probably not a very good plan. This leads one to conclude that a key principle in creating a lesson plan is specificity. It is sort of like saying, "almost any series of connecting roads will take you from Key West Florida to Anchorage Alaska, eventually." There is however, one any only one set of connecting roads that represents the shortest and best route. Best means that, for example getting to Anchorage by using an unreliable car is a different problem than getting there using a brand new car. What process one uses to get to a destination depends on available resources and time. So, if you agree that the purpose of a lesson plan is to communicate, then, in order to accomplish that purpose, the plan must contain a set of elements that are descriptive of the process. Let's look at what those elements should be.

THE LESSON PLAN

1. Preliminary Information - The development of a lesson plan begins somewhere, and a good place to start is with a list or description of general information about the plan. This information sets the boundaries or limits of the plan. Here is a good list of these information items: (a) the grade level of the students for whom the plan is intended; (b) the specific subject matter (mathematics, reading, language arts, science, social studies, etc.); (c) if appropriate, the name of the unit of which the lesson is a part; and (d) the name of the teacher. 2. The parts each part of a lesson plan should fulfill some purpose in communicating the specific content, the objective, the learning prerequisites, what will happen, the sequence of student and teacher activities, the materials required, and the actual assessment procedures.

Taken together, these parts constitute an end (the objective), the means (what will happen and the student and teacher activities), and an input (information about students and necessary resources). At the conclusion of a lesson, the assessment tells the teacher how well students actually attained the objective. In a diagram, the process looks something like this: Input ======>process=====>output

Let's look at each part separately.Input: This part refers to the physical materials, other resources, and information that will be required by the process. What are these inputs? First of all, if you have thought about what the lesson is supposed to accomplish, the inputs are much easier to describe. In general categories, inputs consist of:

1. Information about the students for whom the lesson is intended. This information includes, but is not limited to the age and grade level of the students, and what they already know about what you want them to learn. 2. Information about the amount of time you estimate it will take to implement the lesson. 3. Descriptions of the materials that will be required by the lesson, and at some point, the actual possession of the materials. 4. Information about how you will acquire the physical materials required. 5. Information about how to obtain any special permissions and schedules required. For example if your lesson plan will require a field trip, you must know how to organize it. If your lesson will require a guest speaker (fire chief, lawyer, police officer, etc.) you must know how to make arrangements for having that person be at the right place at the right time

Process This is the actual plan. If you have done the preliminary work (thinking, describing the inputs), creating the plan is relatively easy. There are a number of questions you must answer in the creating the plan:

1. What are the inputs? This means you have the information (content description, student characteristics, list of materials, prerequisites, time estimates, etc.) necessary to begin the plan. 2. What is the output? This means a description of what the students are supposed to learn. 3. What do I do? This means a description of the instructional activities you will use. 4. What do the students do? This means a description of what the students will do during the lesson. 5. How will the learning be measured? This means a description of the assessment procedure at the end of the lesson.

As an example, here is a template that has been used successfully to teach students to write lesson plans:

Lesson Plan Format: Teacher_______________________________________ Subject_________________________ Grade Level________________________________ Date___________________________

1. Content: Indicate what you intend to teach, and identify which forms of knowledge (concept, academic rule, skill, law and law-like principles and/or value knowledge) will be included in the lesson. 2. Prerequisites: Indicate what the student must already know or be able to do in order to be successful with this lesson. (You would want to list one or two specific behaviors necessary to begin this lesson). 3. Instructional Objective: Indicate what is to be learned - must be a complete objective. 4. Instructional Procedures: Description of what you will do in teaching the lesson, and, as appropriate, includes a description of how you will introduce the lesson to the students, what actual instructional techniques you will use, and how you will bring closure to the lesson. Include what specific things students will actually do during the lesson. 5. Materials and Equipment: List all materials and equipment to be used by both the teacher and learner and how they will be used.. 6. . Assessment/Evaluation: Describe how you will determine the extent to which students have attained the instructional objective. Be sure this part is directly connected to the behavior called for in the instructional objective. 7. . Follow-up Activities: Indicate how other activities/materials will be used to reinforce and extend this lesson. Include homework, assignments, and projects. 8. Self-Assessment (to be completed after the lesson is presented): Address the major components of the lesson plan, focusing on both the strengths, and areas of needed improvement. A good idea is to analyze the difference between what you wanted (the objective) and what was attained (the results of the assessment). Of course, there is an immense difference between being able to plan and actually being able to carry out the plan. However, if you have thought carefully about where you are going before you begin writing your plan, the chances of your success, as well as the success of your students, are much greater.