A lesson plan serves as the teachers road map of what students need to learn and how it will be done.

A successful lesson plan addresses and integrates these three key components:

Objectives for student learning

Teaching/learning activities Strategies to check student understanding

1. Outline learning objectives

What is the topic of the lesson?

What do I want students to learn?

What do I want them to understand and be able to do at the end of class? What do I want them to take away from this particular lesson?

(2) Develop the introduction. Consider the following questions when planning the introduction.

How will I check whether students know anything about the topic or have any preconceived notions about it? What are some commonly held ideas (or possibly misconceptions) about this topic that students might be familiar with or might espouse? What will I do to introduce the topic?

(3) Plan the specific learning activities (the main body of the lesson) What will I do to explain the topic?

What will I do to illustrate the topic in a different way? How can I engage students in the topic? What are some relevant real-life examples, analogies, or situations that can help students understand the topic?

What will students need to do to help them understand the topic better?

(4) Plan to check for understanding

What questions will I ask students to check for understanding? What will I have students do to demonstrate that they are following?

Going back to my list of learning objectives, what activity can I have students do to check whether each of those has been accomplished?

(5) Develop a conclusion and a preview.

You can do this in a number of ways: you can state the main points yourself, you can ask a student to help you summarize them, or you can even ask all students to write down on a piece of paper what they think were the main points of the lesson. You can review the students answers to gauge their understanding of the topic and then explain anything unclear the following class. Conclude the lesson not only by summarizing the main points, but also by previewing the next lesson. How does the topic relate to the one thats coming? This preview will spur students interest and help them connect the different ideas within a larger context.

(6) Create a realistic timeline. Some useful strategies are:

Estimate how much time each of the activities will take, then plan some extra time for each

When you prepare your lesson plan, next to each activity indicate how much time you expect it will take
Plan a few minutes at the end of class to answer any remaining questions and to sum up key points Plan an extra activity or discussion question in case you have time left

Be flexible be ready to adjust your lesson plan to students needs and focus on what seems to be more productive rather than sticking to your original plan

Take a few minutes after each class to reflect on what worked well and why, and what you could have done differently. Identifying successful and less successful organization of class time and activities would make it easier to adjust to the contingencies of the classroom.

1. The objective of the lesson does not specify what the student will actually do that can be observed. Remember, an objective is a description of what a student does that forms the basis for making an inference about learning. Poorly written objectives lead to faulty inferences.

2. The lesson assessment is disconnected from the behavior indicated in the objective. An assessment in a lesson plan is simply a description of how the teacher will determine whether the objective has been accomplished. It must be based on the same behavior that is incorporated in the objective. Anything else is flawed.

3. The prerequisites are not specified or are inconsistent with what is actually required to succeed with the lesson. Prerequisites mean just that -- a statement of what a student needs to know or be able to do to succeed and accomplish the lesson objective.

4. The materials specified in the lesson are extraneous to the actual described learning activities. This means keep the list of materials in line with what you actually plan to do. Over killing with materials is not a virtue!

5. The instruction in which the teacher will engage is not efficient for the level of intended student learning. Efficiency is a measure that means getting more done with the same amount of effort, or the same amount with less effort. With so much to be learned, it should be obvious that instructional efficiency is paramount.

6. The student activities described in the lesson plan do not contribute in a direct and effective way to the lesson objective. Don't have your students engaged in activities just to keep them busy. Whatever you have your students do should contribute in a direct way to their accomplishing the lesson objective.