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Lesson Plan Guide: How to Create Lesson Plan Outlines
Being a school teacher isn’t easy, especially for new teachers. Teaching jobs requires planning and creativity to teach a year’s worth of curriculum to children and teens of varying ages and skill levels. One of the best ways to be an effective and engaging teacher is to create clear lesson plan outlines. Lesson plans translate the curriculum into learning activities, help students understand the objectives and goals of what they are learning, and create higher levels of student success by actively engaging them in their classwork. But learning how to create a lesson plan can take some practice. If you want to know how to lesson plan for new teachers or are a seasoned teacher looking for tips, check out our lesson plan guide.
How To Create a Lesson Plan
- Lesson objectives: Once you have identified the standard you’re working on, the first step in how to create a lesson plan is to define the objective by setting specific goals for your students. Measuring student success becomes a lot clearer once the objective has been explicitly stated. One of the most popular goal-setting strategies is using the SMART criteria. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Sensitive. Student goal setting throughout the lesson can increase buy-in, and help students recognize when they may need additional help with the skill.
- Lesson materials: Next, you’ll need to consider what materials you need to teach the lesson. When choosing, you want to be sure that you find content and material that is relevant to your students. Materials can include textbooks, printed handouts or activity sheets, supplies like scissors and glue, and various technology when appropriate. A detailed, written list of materials can help you remember to print lesson handouts and have supplies ready to go when students need them.
- Lesson procedures: When planning the order of your lesson, be sure to consider the whole-child and what they may need throughout the lesson. Depending on the age of your students, some may require brain breaks, time to work with a partner, or independent work time. It may also be helpful to break down your weekly lesson plan into a timeline to help keep you on track — this can be especially helpful if there is a lot of information to cover in a short amount of time. Mapping out your lesson by timing can also help ensure your students stay engaged and on track. Lastly, it’s especially important to remember that each student in your classroom has a unique set of needs and varying ability levels. Be sure to plan your lesson in a way that will ensure success for all!
- Assessment methods: Throughout your lesson, be sure to use various assessment methods to measure whether your students learned and met the lesson’s objectives. Assessment methods can include exit tickets, quizzes, group projects and presentations, writing assignments, or summative assessments at the end of a unit. The assessment method chosen should depend on the lesson’s objectives and what students should be showing mastery of at the completion of your lesson. By using quick formative assessments throughout, you are able to adjust as needed and address any misconceptions while students are actively working on the skill.
- Lesson reflections: Once you have finished the lesson, it is always valuable to reflect on what went well, what you may need to reteach, and how you can adjust your upcoming lesson plan outlines to meet the needs of your students. This reflection is a time to assess the success of the plan you created, which can help you design more effective lesson plans moving forward. Consider how the timing of your lesson plan went. Did you have to rush over certain parts? Did students struggle to understand the information? Were they engaged in learning? How did they do on their assessments? All these questions can help you improve your teaching in the future and help your students succeed.
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