Tips to plan effective lessons

Whether you are a brand-new teacher or have a few years under your belt, chances are that one of the challenges you face, especially at the start of the school year, is planning effective lessons.

You may still be trying to organize your classroom, learn the names of your students, establish basic rules and teach classroom procedures — but meaningful instruction has to go on.

How can you meet this challenge?

• Remember that you are not alone and you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Don’t be afraid to ask for help right in your school. If you are a first-year teacher, you should have a mentor assigned to coach you for just such hurdles. Also, consult your supervisor and colleagues, who are nearby and ready to help. There’s no need to work in isolation. In fact, the more collaboratively you can work, the more effective you will be and the more fun you are likely to have.
• Don’t expect perfection right away. Lesson planning is a highly professional activity and it takes some experience to learn what works. Newer teachers often make the mistake of trying to do too much or not taking into account the different learning styles or personalities of their students. This is part of your own learning process so think of your plans as a work in progress. Then tweak or refine your plans to reflect what succeeded and what didn’t.

Principles of lesson planning

While this is not the place to give you detailed instructions on lesson planning, we can point you to some basic principles — based on research and the experience of veteran teachers — that can guide you in preparing your lessons:

Start with the big picture. In planning your lessons, you need to know where you are heading with a clear idea about what your students need to know and be able to do at the end of this school year. You can find these destinations or outcomes in the state standards for every grade and subject area on the Department of Education’s Teacher Page. Also, ask your supervisor for a copy of the school or district curriculum for your classes. A curriculum will give you an overview of the topics, concepts and skills that your students will need to master this year. A good curriculum is aligned with the state standards and is reflected in assessments that check students’ mastery.

Break it down into units. Once you have the big picture, divide it into manageable chunks of instruction called units. A unit is a coherent block of instruction that generally takes five to 15 days to complete and usually ends with some form of assessment. This important step ensures that you have allotted time for all the major aspects of the year’s curriculum and enables you to pace yourself throughout the year. Some teachers block out their units on a calendar so they take into account any days off that may interrupt instruction.

If you are not sure how to create units or how much time to give to each unit, consult your colleagues. Again, try to do this as early in the school year as possible, even though you may make changes in your original unit plans as the school year progresses.

Outline your lessons. Once you have your unit plan set, outline the sequence of lessons so you provide continuity and build new learning on prior instruction. Outlining your lessons also shows if you have included all components of that unit, either as classroom instruction, independent reading or homework. Remember to leave time for classroom routines such as unit tests and any intermediate assessments. It’s fine to outline one unit at a time. In fact, as you gain experience, you may find better ways to outline the lessons in later units.

Plan each lesson. If you have taken the steps suggested above, you will probably find that planning each lesson has a more natural flow. Begin with a clear sense of what the lesson is about — your objective — and include elements and activities that serve your intention or purpose. Keep students actively engaged with cooperative learning, problem solving, critical thinking and creative extensions of what they learned.

To help create a structure for each lesson, many teachers use a template that lists all the key components to include (though you may not need every component for every lesson). These components can include your objective (what students will know or be able to do at the end of your lesson); a motivation or stage-setter that will engage students at the start of the lesson and get them thinking about the lesson’s point; differentiated instruction to meet the needs of all learners; any materials or equipment you may need; an ending activity that will bring home the point of the lesson or check if students got it; and a homework assignment that grows out of this lesson or prepares for the next one.

Ask your colleagues if they have a favorite template, look online or, as you gain experience, create your own. Keep the template on your computer so you can easily fill in the items you will need for each lesson. After your lesson, reflect on how things went and note on your printout any changes you would make if you teach the same lesson again.