Top Tips On How To Plan A Lesson

Unless you stick rigidly to a set curriculum, planning individual class lessons can be very tricky, especially if you have several topics being taught in a day. Not only do you have to have a solid understanding of the lesson you are about to teach, but you also need to then consider it from the pupil’s perspective, before finally creating and collecting all of the materials you need to teach it effectively. Then you have to do this for the rest of your topics too, which can be a very large workload if it’s not managed properly.

However, if you tackle it in bite-sized chunks and follow a simple plan, then creating and teaching your lessons can be straightforward and effective. First, always bear in mind your yearly goals or institutional aims, as these should be at the core of everything you do, and then plan a guideline. This should break the lesson down into manageable sections which start with a basic introduction and finish with a measurable conclusion.

Next look at each individual section of the lesson and decide what resources and materials are absolutely essential, as often teachers spend more time collating resources than writing lesson plans. Always consider what you have immediately available in your classroom though, as often a simple flipchart or interactive whiteboard is more than enough. At this point, you can also consider a rough homework timeline too, if applicable.

As contradictory as it sounds, you should always avoid planning each lesson in minute detail, as this will undoubtedly lead to a dry and lifeless lesson, which will probably leave little room for classroom interaction too. Allow for questions, comments and flexibility, as often spontaneous opportunities can arise halfway through a planned lesson, and pupils will be far more interested if they can explore all options of a subject. In doing this, you should really aim to teach the basic themes of each section, and then allow discussion to fill in the blanks, as this will increase debate, create new opportunities and keep your class motivated.

If the topic is to be assessed, then obviously you have to be sure that all the necessary information will be present in the lesson, so use this as your building blocks and add more exciting examples in to the mix afterwards. As always, your enthusiasm for a topic will be infectious in a classroom, so a pupil will only ever be as excited as their teacher is about a subject. Be creative, tick all the necessary boxes and always take advantage of any teacher resources that you have available.

About the Author

Daniel Collins writes on a number of topics on behalf of a digital marketing agency and a variety of clients. As such, this article is to be considered a professional piece with business interests in mind.

Author (dcollins). Submitted on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 Time: 8:56 AM

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