This job aid is designed to help you prepare effective lesson plans.

It will:
provide brief guidelines for planning each stage of a lesson
select appropriate teaching techniques
provide sample templates that are useful for planning lessons.
Preparing
Lesson
Plans
BCIT LEARNING AND TEACHING CENTRE
3700 Willingdon Avenue, Burnaby, BC, V5G 3H2

Telephone: (604) 432-8927

Fax: (604) 431-7267
Web site: http://www.bcit.ca/ltc
Preparing Lesson Plans
2 Instructional Job Aid
What is a lesson?
A lesson is an organized set of activities designed to present one manageable sized piece of your
course. Don't confuse lesson with lecture as it is commonly used in the expression lecture/lab
when describing course hours. You may have more than one lesson in a 50 minute lecture or
lab. A lecture is just one teaching technique that you may use in a lesson.
The stages and flow of a lesson
Each lesson should be a complete segment in itself, providing new learning. Try to keep your
students in mind as you plan your lessonask yourself:
Who are they?
What do they already know?
Why should they learn about this?
What must they learn?
What must they do to learn?
What the instructor and students do varies at the different stages of a lesson. Each stage should
flow smoothly into the next, which builds on it.
Instructional Job Aid 3
Preparing Lesson Plans
Using the appropriate technique
The techniques you plan to use in your lessons depend on:
the types of students you have and their previous knowledge
your physical teaching environment and the available equipment and resources
the type of learning you are aiming for.
Some of the possibilities are listed below.
To convey information, use:
lecture field trips
discussion group interviewing an expert
selected reading case studies
demonstration by an expert
Guidelines for making a lesson plan
You need to pay attention to different aspects of instruction at the different stages of the lesson. When
preparing a lesson plan, use the following checklist:
At the beginning, I plan to:
1. Use a bridge-in to capture students interest and motivate them
to learn .................................................................................................
2. Make the learning outcomes clear. .......................................................
3. Assess prior learning and student expectations ....................................
In the middle, I plan to:
1. Use strategies to actively involve students in the learning process .......
2. Use a variety of media to illustrate concepts and processes .................
3. Ensure that the lesson flows easily and logically ..................................
4. Ensure that students are learning material that is meaningful
and new................................................................................................
5. Provide opportunities for practice and feedback ...................................
6. Review and build on related material ....................................................
At the end, I plan to:
Provide the proper closure students find important. To do this, I will:
1. Assess what students have learned......................................................
2. Summarize the lesson...........................................................................
3. Connect the lesson to real life and/or the next lesson ...........................
Preparing Lesson Plans
4 Instructional Job Aid
Resources you can use
If you need help with any of the steps in your checklist, you can use one of the following
instructional development job aids:
Increasing Student Motivation
Managing Student Behaviour in the Classroom and Lab
Making Large Lectures Interactive
Preparing and Using Student Handouts
Preparing and Using Overhead Transparencies
They can be obtained from the Learning Resources Unit. Also, colleagues in your own
department may have suggestions to help you to develop lesson plans that are well suited to
your subject matter and students.
The following pages contain three types of templates that are helpful for planning lessons.
Adapt them to your own needs.
At the end of the job aid is an example of a filled-out, three-hour lesson plan of type I.
To provide balanced presentation of a controversial subject, use:
discussion group panel discussion
selected reading simulation
debate
To involve people, use:
discussion written work
field trips case studies
role playing group work
guided experience
To teach a skill, use:
demonstration by an expert shopwork
labs guided experience
practice with feedback (coaching)
To pool thoughts and ideas, use:
discussion brainstorming
group work
To reinforce memory, use:
drill memory aids
practice with feedback (coaching) written work
Instructional Job Aid 5
Preparing Lesson Plans
L
e
a
r
n
i
n
g

O
u
t
c
o
m
e
:
E
s
t
i
m
a
t
e
d

T
i
m
e
:
O
u
t
c
o
m
e
s
/
K
e
y

P
o
i
n
t
s
S
t
e
p
s
/
A
c
t
i
v
i
t
i
e
s
R
e
s
o
u
r
c
e
s
/
C
o
m
m
e
n
t
s
L
e
s
s
o
n

P
l
a
n

I
Preparing Lesson Plans
6 Instructional Job Aid
L
e
s
s
o
n

P
l
a
n

I
I
L
e
s
s
o
n

T
i
t
l
e
:
R
e
s
o
u
r
c
e
s
T
i
m
e
B
r
i
d
g
e
-
i
n

(
M
o
t
i
v
a
t
i
o
n
)
:
P
r
e
-
t
e
s
t
:
L
e
a
r
n
i
n
g

O
u
t
c
o
m
e
(
s
)
:
P
o
s
t
-
t
e
s
t
:
I
n
s
t
r
u
c
t
o
r

s

A
c
t
i
v
i
t
i
e
s
L
e
a
r
n
e
r

s

A
c
t
i
v
i
t
i
e
s
Instructional Job Aid 7
Preparing Lesson Plans
Sub-outcome(s)
(optional)
Learning Outcome
Stages Instructional Content Media
Strategies
Lesson Plan III
End
Beginning
Middle
L
e
a
r
n
i
n
g

O
u
t
c
o
m
e
:
O
n

c
o
m
p
l
e
t
i
o
n

o
f

t
h
i
s

s
e
s
s
i
o
n

o
f

t
h
e

I
S
W

c
o
u
r
s
e
,

p
a
r
t
i
c
i
p
a
n
t
s

w
i
l
l

b
e
a
b
l
e

t
o

r
e
l
a
t
e

i
n
s
t
r
u
c
t
i
o
n
a
l

p
r
o
c
e
s
s
e
s

t
o

l
e
a
r
n
i
n
g

p
r
o
c
e
s
s
e
s
.
E
s
t
i
m
a
t
e
d

T
i
m
e
:
3
0

m
i
n
u
t
e
s
1
.
D
e
f
i
n
e

l
e
a
r
n
i
n
g
.
2
.
D
e
s
c
r
i
b
e

a

m
o
d
e
l

o
f

t
h
e

l
e
a
r
n
i
n
g
p
r
o
c
e
s
s
3
.
I
d
e
n
t
i
f
y

t
h
e

t
h
r
e
e

s
t
a
g
e
s

o
f

t
h
e

l
e
a
r
n
i
n
g
p
r
o
c
e
s
s

a
n
d

r
e
l
a
t
e

t
o

t
h
e

e
v
e
n
t
s

o
f
i
n
s
t
r
u
c
t
i
o
n
.

m
o
t
i
v
a
t
i
o
n

g
u
i
d
a
n
c
e

p
r
a
c
t
i
c
e
4
.
I
d
e
n
t
i
f
y

l
e
a
s
t

t
o

m
o
s
t

e
f
f
e
c
t
i
v
e

r
e
t
e
n
-
t
i
o
n

m
e
t
h
o
d
s

a
n
d

l
i
n
k

t
o

f
a
v
o
u
r
i
t
e
i
n
s
t
r
u
c
t
i
o
n
a
l

t
e
c
h
n
i
q
u
e
s
.
r
e
a
d
i
n
g
/
l
i
s
t
e
n
i
n
g

s
a
y
/
d
o

s
o
m
e
t
h
i
n
g

g
r
o
u
p

w
r
i
t
e
s

b
r
i
e
f

d
e
f
i
n
i
t
i
o
n

o
f
l
e
a
r
n
i
n
g

d
i
s
c
u
s
s

o
u
r

d
e
f
i
n
i
t
i
o
n

l
e
c
t
u
r
e
/
d
i
s
c
u
s
s
i
o
n

a
s
k

f
o
r

e
x
a
m
p
l
e
s

o
f

s
h
o
r
t

&

l
o
n
g
t
e
r
m

m
e
m
o
r
y

l
e
c
t
u
r
e
/
d
i
s
c
u
s
s
i
o
n

s
t
u
d
e
n
t
s

g
u
e
s
s

p
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e
s

o
f
r
e
t
e
n
t
i
o
n

g
e
n
e
r
a
l

d
i
s
c
u
s
s
i
o
n
O
H
T
:

L
e
a
r
n
i
n
g

O
H
T
:

L
e
a
r
n
i
n
g

P
r
o
c
e
s
s

M
o
d
e
l

O
H
T
:

L
e
a
r
n
i
n
g

P
r
o
c
e
s
s

M
o
d
e
l

(
r
e

S
t
a
g
e
s
)
O
H
T
:

H
o
w

m
u
c
h

d
o

w
e

r
e
t
a
i
n
?

O
u
t
c
o
m
e
s
/
K
e
y

P
o
i
n
t
s
S
t
e
p
s
/
A
c
t
i
v
i
t
i
e
s
R
e
s
o
u
r
c
e
s
/
C
o
m
m
e
n
t
s
1996, revised 2003 BCIT Learning and Teaching Centre British Columbia Institute of Technology
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of
the BCIT Learning and Teaching Centre, British Columbia Institute of Technology.