In my first year of teaching, I was introduced to the "Three step lesson plan". I was most intrigued to find out what the three crucial things were to consider when planning my lessons. Unfortunately, I didn't get the answer I was hoping for, finding out that the 3-step lesson plan was working out what to do with your class in the three steps it takes you to get from the door as you enter the classroom to the teacher's desk.
I give the following reasons as to why you must plan your lessons:
- Outcomes - without a lesson plan, a lesson is without a clear objective (that should be communicated to students) and we don't know what the outcome of our teaching is to be. We focus too much on the singular dot points of the syllabus.
- To increase engagement - without a plan, a lesson may meet the dot points of the syllabus, but will more than likely not engage the students to a high degree in their learning. It takes time and effort to make content applicable and understandable to students.
- We forget learning styles - we have a wide range of preferences in our class with regard to learning styles (visual, auditory, verbal, kinesthetic, logical, social and solitary). Whilst we cannot cater for all of these learning styles all the time and it is good for students to be exposed to other styles of teaching, we should also seek to have some activities throughout the semester that will cater towards each student's preferences.
- Differentiation - if we don't stop and consider each of the students in our class, we will most likely teach to the middle and the average student rather than catering learning opportunities to the individual.
- Assessment - Without a clear plan, we may forget to check whether students have actually achieved the outcome of the lesson.
Ultimately, without a lesson plan, we may be robbing our students of a vital productive learning opportunity. We must seek to have good teaching in every lesson with every class.
I will write a further post that details a "checklist" of items to consider in the lesson planning process.
Checklist of Learning - what do I need to consider in my teaching?
I have written previously explaining why I think a lesson plan is essential for every teacher for every lesson. If you are convinced already, then the checklist of questions below may be helpful in developing your lesson plan:
- What is the main objective of the lesson?
- What are the activities that students will be engaged in?
(a) Do the activities cater to different learning styles?
(b) Do the activities allow for differentiation - students to approach it at varying levels and in varying ways? - What will be the assessment of student achievement? How will the teacher and student know if they have met the main objective?
- Is there any follow-up activity (homework) that students will need to do? Is this differentiated based on students achievement levels?
- What resources do you need to take to the lesson?
- Who is working harder? (See a future post to further explain this)
To assist with creating a lesson plan in a manageable way, I will write a further post explaining my successes (and failures) at lesson planning.
Who is working harder? The ultimate lesson plan to allow for great teaching!
There are many lesson plan templates available on the internet (eg http://lessonplans4teachers.com/), but you really need something that will suit you own individuality. "Daily Planner" books are very popular and I have tried them several times and failed. I struggled and couldn't seem to remember to write in these books each and every lesson. The greatest difficulty that I had was that they are arranged by day - this seems logical, but it is in fact not logical at all. Being organised per day promotes last minute superficial lesson planning.
