A lesson plan is the blueprint of teachers. When effectively crafted, it serves as the directory of what should the students achieve in a certain lesson, how to achieve learning objectives, and how to check students’ understanding.
Specifically, a lesson plan answers the following questions:
- What the students will learn?
- What are the learning activities?
- How is student learning evaluated?
How long have you been teaching? If you’ve been in this profession for years, then writing an effective lesson plan must not be new to you anymore. Simply, you must have known the strategies for effective lesson planning. However, in today’s post, I will share practical steps in preparing a lesson plan that might serve as a tonic.
Improving your skills in writing lesson plans? If you’re comfortable with laying out the goals for the class and identifying the activities to achieve these goals, then the steps I will share today will act as a bracer so you can delve into effective lesson planning even more.
_______________
<<<Need to back up your best lesson plans? Here are practical classroom management strategies to make the best of every learning encounter.
_______________
What are the strategies for effective lesson planning is the question that comes into play today. Don’t get too overwhelmed because lesson planning is part of our craft. It’s our game plan and you can’t just write for the sake of having one. You know that.
What Are the Strategies for Effective Lesson Planning?
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko
I’ve brought together practical advice for effective lesson planning to ensure that your plan is actionable and brings the desired outcomes.
Effective lesson planning is part of the whole plan of making the classroom a productive learning environment. The first thing you should do is make sure that you have established a positive and safe learning space for your students.
Hence, your lesson plan should be anchored on creating a positive classroom environment before you embark on the following steps. It is the best ingredient to craft you effective lesson plan.
To set the stage, you should create a positive learning environment.
- Make the classroom a welcoming and comfortable environment for all students.
- Respect individual differences.
- Promote collaborative and interactive learning experiences.
- Establish rules and set expectations.
- Set effective classroom management techniques.
Note: If the best-planned lesson isn’t accompanied by interesting delivery methods and effective classroom management techniques, then it’s pointless.
The above-mentioned tips should be the foundation of your lesson plan. You have to ensure that your lesson plan amplifies a non-threatening classroom so students will learn effectively and develop confidence so they take responsibility for their own learning.
For effective lesson planning, delivery techniques, and classroom management strategies, click here.
Here are the best steps for effective lesson planning.
1. Learning objectives must be clear and measurable
In identifying your learning objectives, make sure it is demonstrable. Be specific and use action words that are quantifiable. Thus, objectives that begin with action words such as comprehend, observe, understand, and so on aren’t logical.
You need to know what you want students to learn and be able to do in a given period of time. Let’s say, after the lesson, what do you expect the student will do?
You’ll be able to the learning objective by answering the following questions:
- What is the lesson about?
- What do I hope my students take away from this learning experience?
- After the given period, what do I hope they will have learned and be able to do on their own?
- What do I want my students to remember from this lesson?
2. Plot the learning tasks
First of all, in designing the learning activities, you should promote student-centered instruction.
Design the activities that you will use to help students understand and apply what they’ve learned. This is to be done after you have identified and outlined the learning objectives.
Because your students come from a variety of backgrounds, it is expected that they have varied learning styles, levels of readiness, and varied interests. Hence, learning tasks should promote student diversity.
If you really want to realize the learning objectives, then you should plot the learning tasks accordingly. And the first thing to do is to make a brief recall of the past lesson to check the relevance.
Build the lesson upon students’ prior knowledge/schema
Then, as you present the new lesson, you should include in your motivation a question that will give you an idea if the students are already familiar with the new material.
You may begin with a question or design an activity to test students’ understanding of the new material. A pre-assessment is fine. When you know what your students know about the new content, you’ll know what to concentrate on.
Using these questions, you can implement the learning tasks successfully.
- What am I going to do to convey the topic?
- What can I do to keep my students interested in the subject matter?
- Is there any relevant real-life experience or situation that can help my students understand and appreciate the new lesson?
- What should my students do to better comprehend the subject matter?
3. Evaluate student learning accordingly
Don’t skip the importance of designing assessments in lesson planning. How do you measure student learning? How do you evaluate learning?
It can be third on the row, but it doesn’t mean evaluating student learning should happen at the end. It could be done in the beginning, middle, and end. Hence we have pre-assessment, formative assessment, and summative assessment.
An assessment is your way of ensuring that your students have grasped the material effectively. You can give a formative assessment during your lesson to check how much they’ve learned.
This just means that you don’t have to wait until the end of your lesson if you wanted to know if your students have already understood the content.
Thus, you need planning.
Effective lesson planning requires the application of a wide range of options available to see if your students are learning and discovering what you want them to.
The essence of Lesson Planning
In order for a lesson to be effective, it must be meticulously planned and executed. This means that it should not be about planning alone but how you execute what has been planned.
Achieving successful student learning requires a lesson plan and an enthusiastic action.
Simply put, a lesson plan outlines the steps you take in order to realize clear and specific learning objectives.
Students are able to learn more effectively when they are given the framework through a lesson plan. In short, an effective lesson is a way to help students learn best.
Conclusion
Effective lesson plans take a great deal of time and effort. And since it’s part of the whole arena of teaching, it must be done to have a successful classroom.
In order to have a successful teaching experience, you must be well-prepared. And your effective lesson plan is your best arm to being prepared to create meaningful learning experiences for your students.
It takes a long time and a lot of effort to create engaging lessons. Your time commitment is substantial.
