How To Create a Lesson Plan
Before I direct you on how to write a lesson plan please keep in mind that your instructor may want you to follow his/her format for writing lesson plans. I have adapted this format from various texts found in the Curriculum Center that were purchased to enhance the learning of preservice teachers. Daily Planning for Today's Classroom: A Guide for Writing Lesson and Activity Plans, by Kay Price and Karna Nelson is one of the sources that I consulted when constructing this page.
A lesson plan usually includes 8 components. The following components are included:
Preplanning Tasks-When you are preparing this component you must keep in mind what you are trying to teach. Once you know what you want to get across to your students you can go about your task by thinking about what would be the best way to teach this information. Will you use direct instruction, discovery, or some other method? This is considered content analysis. To fully understand and conduct content analysis a teacher must know about the students' previous knowledge concerning the concept, skill, or procedure. From here a teacher can introduce the vocabulary terms necessary to grasp the information. By fully understanding content analysis you will be prepared to write the objective(s) of the lesson.
When writing the objective(s) you should keep in mind that the objective contains:
1. The Content-What the student will learn?
2. A Behavior - How the student will show he / she has learned the content? This is stated as a verb.
3. The Condition-The conditions, circumstances, situation, or setting, under which the student will perform the behavior.
4. The Criterion-The level of performance expected. How well will the student have to perform to say that he/she has met the objective?
Example Objective
Can you pick out the components of an objective in this sample?
With no errors, students will be able to identify and write ten verbs found in the first chapter of the novel Charlotte's Web.
Lesson Set-up- This prepares your students for the beginning of the lesson. By dong these tasks effectively you can reduce discipline problems and get students' attention.
Signal for attention-This can be done in many different ways depending on what works for you. Some teachers put their hand in the air until all eyes are on them. Others may flick the lights off and on.
Give a statement of behavior expectations-This is an explanation of the rules or how you expect the students to act while the lesson is taking place. There is no need to go over all the classroom rules, just the general behavior expectations for this particular lesson. If you have the students working in groups you might want to stress group behavior rules.
Lesson Opening-This is a strategy that will interest the students in the lesson and pique their prior learning in order to connect this learning to what they are about to learn. This is where you would state the objective and its purpose. You should also tie the objective into previous knowledge that the student may have that will help them better comprehend the new information.
Your statement to the class may sound something like this...
"Today you are going to learn about what makes a circle different from other shapes. At the end of this lesson you should be able to identify ten shapes in the room that would be considered a circle. You may remember that last week we learned the "rules" for what makes a square. The reason for why you are learning your shapes is to better prepare you for a geometry unit that we will be starting next month. Before you can understand basic geometry principles you must be able to recognize different shapes and their differences. Before we get started are there any questions?"
Lesson Body-This is where you actually teach the lesson or present the information that you want the students to learn. The lesson body should be a series of repeated steps that involves:
1. Presentation (done by teacher)
2. Demonstration (done by teacher)
3. Check for understanding (questions asked by teacher to students)
4. Supervised practice opportunities (students practice either with the whole group and teacher, individually, or both types of instruction).
5. Active participation (students may compare their answers with those of their classmates.)
6. Repeat any of the above steps if necessary.
Extended Practice-Students should have plenty of time to practice what they have learned. Assigning independent seatwork or homework practice is a good way to make sure students have grasp the objectives in the lesson. You will also be able to conduct informal assessment during this time to see which students need more practice.
Lesson Closing-This closing usually occurs after supervised practice, or after homework has been assigned. This is where the teacher states what has been learned today and the applicability for learning the new information. Additionally, a teacher may want to give students an indication about the next lesson.
For example a teacher may say, "Class today you learned about what makes a circle different from other shapes. At the end of this lesson you were able to identify ten shapes in the room that would be considered a circle. Tomorrow we will continue to recognize the basic shapes and their differences by identifying what makes a triangle. The reason for why you are learning your shapes is to better prepare you for a geometry unit that we will be starting next month. Before you can understand basic geometry principles you must be able to recognize different shapes and their differences. Do you have any questions?"
Evaluation-Evaluation should be already written in the objective. This will let you know how each individual student is progressing and what type of remediation is needed before you can move forward to the next concept. Evaluation can be formal or informal.
Editing Tasks-This is where you would examine the components to see that they are in-line with your objective. This is also where you would list the materials needed for this lesson and any classroom behavior management strategies.
Hope Marie Cook, Librarian
Copyright © 2006 [Eastern Connecticut State University]. All rights reserved.
Revised:
June 03, 2006
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© 2007 ECSU |
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Last Updated 10/05/06 |