A lesson plan is important as a cornerstone of successful teaching practice. You don’t go into battle without a plan. Walking into a room full of young people and expecting them to engage and respond to you with nothing prepared is a recipe for disaster. Through trial and error, you will reach that level where a couple of quick notes in your day-planner will be all the preparation you need. However, when you begin teaching, lesson planning is an essential skill for you to develop. Show
What is a lesson plan?A lesson plan is an outline for each daily lesson over a unit of work detailing:
Why do we plan lessons?As professionals, teachers are charged with educating students to achieve the highest possible learning outcomes. Effective lesson planning is an important facet of professional teaching practice because planning:
The Importance of Lesson Planning1. What are you trying to do? 1. What are you trying to do?Try the backwards design method of lesson planning to give you a better view over a unit of work. By starting your planning with lesson objectives and then ranking these in terms of importance, you will be better able to manage your class time and achieve more objectives. Further strategies for effective planning include:
Following this strategy can simplify the planning process and give your students the security of a dependable structure. This can help to reduce student anxiety because
they can see the point of each lesson. 2. Understand your learnersA recent report on Australian student engagement stated the importance of teaching lessons that are meaningful and relevant to your students. This mirrors consistent student reports about the teachers that successfully facilitate teaching and learning in the classroom. Your lower ability Year 8 science class will probably have difficulty maintaining their attention for a weeklong experiment on water purity, so don’t plan for that. Lesson planning makes you consider your students and how they learn. Advice for planning to meet the needs of your students includes:
Providing students with the tools that they need to succeed and facilitating their learning process drives an engaging, action
driven learning environment. 3. Better classroom managementWhen you have planned your lessons, you will be more confident in your classroom. You know that students will respond to the cues that you’re sending out. If you seem unsure about what is meant to be happening, your students will likely lose motivation and even act out. There are proactive steps that you can take when lesson planning assists classroom management by:
Finally, planning in a manner that will enable you to assist and positively reinforce your students throughout the lesson to foster a productive learning environment. 4. Understand contentEffective lesson planning will make you think carefully about the content that you need to teach. Your knowledge of the content will be reflected in the way your students are able to grasp and respond to the information you present during class. Thinking about the content of your lessons will allow you to:
This is moving beyond the superficiality of teaching to a test. You are showing your students that it’s important to know this information and how it’s applicable in real life. Students will be in an environment that encourages and fosters their insight and because of your expert knowledge, you can
pick up on this and build upon it. 5. Understand pedagogyKnowing what to teach is only half the challenge. As you try out different ideas in the classroom and judge what is working for you and what needs tweaking, you are actively improving on your ability to teach. Understanding the pedagogy behind different teaching methods helps you to deliver better lessons. Research suggests five critical elements of effective pedagogy as follows:
Copying notes from the whiteboard period after period is not going to garner the best responses from students who have grown up in a digital age with an incredible array of communication technologies. You have to think about how you can challenge students to use what they already know with what they are learning to deepen their knowledge and develop critical thinking skills. 6. Reflect on and improveWe know that teaching is a challenging career choice. It can also be an extremely rewarding career and when you pull off a successful lesson, it’s a great feeling. The key things to remember are:
You will eventually find your rhythm. Hopefully, you will have a long and successful career as a teacher, so don’t burn yourself out too early by unnecessary overplanning. You’re trying your best, it’s great that you care so much, and you will become better with experience. Why is planning important as a teacher?Planning lessons ahead of time means teachers enter the classroom each day fully prepared to teach new concepts and lead meaningful discussions – instead of figuring things out as they go. Without a lesson plan, students can quickly lose focus and teachers may be left scrambling, thinking of what to do next.
Why should assessment in teaching learning process be given focus and importance?Assessment should integrate grading, learning, and motivation for your students. Well-designed assessment methods provide valuable information about student learning. They tell us what students learned, how well they learned it, and where they struggled.
Why it is essential for a life skills teacher to plan and prepare thoroughly to teach any lesson?It gives teachers the opportunity to think deliberately about their choice of lesson objectives, the types of activities that will meet these objectives, the sequence of those activities, the materials needed, how long each activity might take, and how students should be grouped.
What is the importance and benefits of assessment for learning?What are the benefits of Assessment for Learning? AfL methodology is proven to give students more control over their learning, helping boost motivation and ultimately improve their exam performance. It helps learners to see what they are aiming for and understand what they need to do to achieve those aims.
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