What are Lesson Plans?
A lesson plan refers to a detailed step-by-step guide for a teacher to understand what materials to give to students and how to provide them so students would accomplish their learning goals during the course. All educators and corporate trainers write lesson plans to ensure that they address the requirements of the curriculum, plan their teaching time effectively, and address student needs based on their prior knowledge and learning style.
The Components of a Lesson Plan
So, before you take a seat and start writing, make sure you know and include all the critical components of lesson planning. There are seven components, derived from the Hunter Model (named after Madeline Hunter, an education writer and UCLA professor, who initially developed it).
- Learning objectives
Your students will be most motivated and learn best when they know what they are going to learn and why they need this knowledge. So, the first component of your lesson plan will be a specification of learning objectives — goals for your students and takeaways they’ll get after your lesson.
In plain English, it is the answer to the question, “What will my students be able to do after completing my lesson?”
It will allow you to specify clear lesson objectives. Based on them, you’ll understand what lesson model to use, what materials or tasks to give, and how to measure student success for better results.
The S.M.A.R.T. criteria suggest you specify the objectives that will be:
- Specific: Your goal is direct, detailed, and meaningful.
- Measurable: Your goal is quantifiable to measure success or progress.
- Attainable: Your goal is realistic, and you have the tools and/or resources to attain it.
- Relevant: Your goal aligns with your company
- Time-based: Your goal has a deadline.
2. Anticipatory set
An anticipatory set refers to a short activity the teacher will plan for to draw the students’ attention before the lesson begins. When writing your lesson plan, think about what it could be in your particular case: a question about their prior knowledge, a handout (for online courses, it becomes digital, of course), an example problem, etc.
The idea is to focus student attention on your lesson. So, when thinking about this component of your lesson plan, make sure your anticipation set is:
- Relevant to the topic
- Connected to the core part of your lesson
3. Input modeling
This component refers to a lesson procedure. Input modeling specifies the list of steps a teacher will follow to present learning materials.
What does a teacher need to specify?
- How you will introduce the topic to students.
- What materials you will use: a text lecture, videos, presentations, demonstrations, audio, pictures, etc.
- What activities you will initiate during a lesson to involve students and practice their knowledge.
- What real-life scenarios relating to the topic you can use.
- How much time you will spend on every thesis and activity during a lesson.
In plain English, input modeling is your step-by-step instructions for what you will do through a lesson, from the time students enter a class until the bell rings.
4. Checking understanding
For a lesson to be successful, you’ll need to know if students understand what you’re saying. So, include some questions or any other signals in your lesson plan that you’ll use during a lesson to check the students’ understanding.
It can be simple questions such as, “Is everything clear?” or “Should I move forward or back up?”
5. Guided practice
These are exercises you’ll provide students so that they could demonstrate their grasp of new knowledge under your direct supervision. Consider the tripodal, see-hear-do approach when choosing the practices for this component of your lesson:
- See: a visual demonstration of how to do an exercise
- Hear: an audio (or your voice) explanation
- Do: your help while students do a task (you observe how they do it and provide recommendations if needed)
6. Independent practice
These are exercises or materials students will do and examine without the need for your supervision or intervention.
In traditional schools, it’s homework or seatwork assignments.
No matter what you choose, make sure these exercises are relevant to learning objectives you’ve specified before, and remember to include this independent practice in your lesson plan.
7. Closure
And finally, here goes the last but not least component to include when writing your lesson plan: a closure. It’s a step when a teacher wraps all the things up, reviewing the main points of the lesson and asks if students have understood everything.
The Structure of a Lesson Plan
The basic structure of a lesson plan is as follows:
- Warmer: Get your students interested in what will happen in the class during a lesson; ask a question or provide them with some reviews so that they would get involved in the learning process.
- Presentation: Create the need for students to learn what you are going to present.
- Procedure (the remaining class time): Prepare lesson materials you’ll use with students when learning the topic: digital handouts, videos, visuals, textbooks, some software platforms, etc.
- Practice: Think about exercises and other activities your students will practice in the lesson with you, individually, or in groups.
- Review and assessment: Think about how you will finish a lesson; write the takeaways for students to sum up their new knowledge.
And here go some actionable tips on how to prepare for your lesson better:
- Always gather all needed equipment and prepare materials in advance.
- Present material in small steps, providing students with practice after each block of information.
- Remember to review the students’ prior knowledge and do a recap of what you’ve learned with them before.
- Give them clear and detailed explanations.
- Ask questions, check for understanding, involve students in communication. Make sure you interact with all students in your group, and all students in your class participate in the learning process.
- Guide students during their first practice and do your best to encourage them to practice more.
- Provide feedback. Don’t merely tell a student they are wrong but explain why and what they can do to correct their mistakes.