Thinking about what makes a good lesson is akin to looking at a detailed map to get you to where you want to be. You know where you are when you are starting, you have a sense of what good stops along the way might be important, and you know when you've gotten there. It's like a recipe, too. It helps you gather the ingredients, find the right cooking tools and light the oven! It helps you also figure out where the pitfalls may be. Read about it more in this article from the Edutopia New Teacher Academy.
New Teacher Academy: Lesson Planning
Lisa M. Dabbs M.Ed. (@teachingwthsoul on Twitter) is the facilitator of Edutopia's New Teacher Connections group. She is also the founder of the weekly #ntchat for new teachers on Twitter, and blogs about supporting new teachers at Teaching With Soul.
This topic is Lesson Planning.
Lesson Planning: An Introduction
A lesson plan is a teacher's detailed guide or map. It maps the course of instruction for one class, or maybe many if you teach more than one subject. It's the "recipe" for the day's exciting learning!
A daily or weekly lesson plan is developed by a teacher to guide class instruction. Details will vary depending on the preference of the teacher and the subject matter being covered. Schools or school districts may have guidelines regarding the lesson plan. They may even have mandates.
That being said, there's always a way to make your lesson plan uniquely your own. How to prepare the lesson plan will also be important. Some teachers enjoy using a good sturdy lesson plan book, some a Word document or spreadsheet, or still others a shared Google Doc. Whichever way you choose, the need for a lesson plan is vital. It can be even more challenging to write and prepare a lesson plan when you're a new teacher!
Today's guest contributor is Matt Ray, a fourth-year teacher in New York City with general education and special education experience. He is passionate about his craft and is eager to share, collaborate and offer support to new teachers.
Lesson Planning with Matt Ray
Without a detailed plan, you may -- if you're lucky -- deliver a lesson that turns out to be pretty good. More often, though, a poorly planned lesson is going to be a clunker. Our students suffer when we fail to appropriately plan for them.
Planning a lesson is not as simple as referring to a curriculum map, the next page in the textbook or standards. These resources all have their place, and you should use them -- but as guides, not the law. You will find they often don't account for students' deficiencies. You have to account for them, or else your teaching becomes meaningless.
Lessons don't occur in a vacuum. What you see, hear and read from your students today should be directly reflected in what you teach tomorrow. Let the students dictate where you go with your planning. If you are too married to what "needs" to get done, students will fall behind quickly, quite frankly because they don't get what they need.
"Data" is a four-letter word that strikes fear in many teachers. It shouldn't. You collect data everyday when you observe your students and take note of what they are doing well and where they need support. Data comes from conversations (between or with students), exit slips, quizzes, questions, journals and more. Use it to figure out what your students still need to learn, and therefore, what you need to teach.
Some people like to plan a whole week at a time. I've even heard of people who plan all their lessons over the summer. I question these practices. Planning should be reactive. I generally plan only one or two days in advance. That way I make sure I'm not getting too far ahead of my students.
A lesson plan does not need to be scripted to the letter. However, it should have certain components to facilitate delivery. (These are my suggestions. Your school or district may require a certain format.)
Your objective is what you want the outcome of the lesson to be. You might write, "At the end of the lesson, students will be able to _____."
Your materials are the list of resources, articles or manipulatives you need. This helps you organize everything prior to the lesson.
The bulk of the lesson, procedure includes, among other items: your activation or assessment of prior knowledge; teaching and learning activities; and questions to guide student thought.
How do you know they "got it?" You can use various forms of data to see. Remember, though, assessment happens throughout the lesson (so you can see what your next steps might be within the lesson) and at the end (so you can see if the objectives were met).
Lesson planning is pivotal to positively impacting student achievement. My rule for planning: always let your students be your guide!
More Useful Links for Lesson Planning
As you look at ways to keep your Lesson Plans vibrant and engaging, here are a few additional links that you may want to check out.
- New Teacher 1st Year YouTube channel
- New Teacher Chat Wiki
- Lesson Plans: Read, Write, Think
- Lesson Plans: Discovery Education
- Lesson Plans: HotChalk
- Free Lesson Plans: Scholastic
- Strategies for Effective Lesson Planning: Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan
- Invisible Differentiation -- Grouping Without Groups: Matthew Ray's blog
- Differentiation -- Not as Bad as You Think (Trust Me): Matthew Ray's blog
- What’s Cooking? Differentiation, That’s What!: Matthew Ray's blog
We'd love to hear about your lesson planning ideas. Tell us about what works for you and what new strategies you've found. If you have questions along the way, share them in our New Teacher Connection group or Tweet them using the hashtag #ntchat , and we will get back to you. Be sure to also join us tomorrow for New Teacher Chat at 5pt/8et. Our topic will be...you got it: Lesson Planning. Hope to see you there!
If you like this, Edutopia thinks you might also like:
- New Teacher Academy: Classroom Management by Lisa Dabbs
- Lesson Planning and the Common Core: A Unit Based on TED.com by Heather Wolpert-Gawron
- How to Make Planning for Next Year Fun by Elena Aguilar
- Do you support the online sale of lesson plans? Edutopia Poll