1.

1 What you will find in a typical lesson plan

A lesson plan contains a lot of information: Information about the students’ level,
teacher's objective for the class, students' objective for the class, materials
needed, page numbers, names of websites or file names on a memory stick and of
course, all the steps to be taken to perform the various activities.

A lesson plan should be detailed enough that you don't forget anything, but not too
dense – it's no good having a plan if you can't read it clearly and quickly in class.
Some teachers create very detailed lesson plans including the exact words they
are going to use, others write a simple series of steps, some teachers draw up their
complete whiteboard layouts so that they know exactly how their board is going to
look.
At the top of the lesson plan template, you'll find a number of simple headings such
as: Name, Date, Level, Objective, Length and Age Group. Train yourself to fill
these out diligently, before you begin planning (see Sample Lesson Plan in Part 3).

a clear language objective written here, along with the level and length of the class,
gives the teacher focus when writing a lesson plan.

 If your class requires materials it's a good place to put a quick list: the number of
photocopies, file names, videos, book chapters etc. Little notes to yourself such as:
“Don't forget the modem!!!!!” are essential.
 If you have seven classes in a hectic day at a university and your lessons aren't
well labelled, it is easy to accidentally start the entire wrong class. (Experienced
teachers can have a chuckle to themselves here. Do you remember that day?)
 The information is important for any emergency teachers who need to know what
you had in mind for the class if you are not available.
 Lastly, the Senior Teacher or Academic Director will often check to see that this
information is completed in order to ascertain your professionalism as a teacher.