10 Tips for Lesson Planning

Lesson plans are the hallmark of good teaching. Just as every grand building

needs a foundation, you too need a blueprint to guide the masterpiece that

will be your teaching

and your student's learning. And just like architects have, um, blue pencils?

Architecture

tools?

Make objectives clear and measurable.

Seems obvious, right? Goal: students learn stuff. But what exactly do you

want them to get out of the lesson? Coming up with specific objectives can

tell you what you want to focus on, and if you share them with your kiddos,

they tell your students what to focus on, too.

Time management reigns supreme.

The hardest thing to do is figure out how long your lesson will take. But it

can't hurt to scribble down some time estimates of how long each part of the

lesson takes. How long for the warm up? How long for the quiz? How long to

get all the kids doodling octopuses (pods? pi?) to start paying attention?

Use pop culture references.

You knew this would be on the list. The biggie here is to stay relevant. Kids

love it when they see their teachers reference a song they love or use

unexpected (and uber-hip) lingo. Try to keep current with what they like and

use it in your lessons along with apps and other things they may enjoy.

Get creative.

Yes, you have to cover our national curriculum standards. Do focus on those,

please. But don't forget that creativity and joy are also a huge part of

learning. Let loose now

and again and create something cool with your students. Author bio day?

Have them write a diary entry from the perspective of the author. Math

class? They can identify shapes in artwork or build quilt blocks and houses.

The thing about creativity is that the students will often lead themselves into

deeper levels of learning in unexpected ways.

 Hit various learning styles.

Match this up with our previous suggestion about creativity, and the

world is your

octopus. When you can hit several learning styles in a given lesson,

you're increasing the odds your kids are "getting it". You'll need to

touch on. To add variety to your

lessons:

- Kinesthetic: these are dynamic learners who need to do to learn.

- Visual: these folks remember stuff that's written down, or in graph

form. They see, they learn.

- Auditory: these kids hear and learn.

Make your kids Bloom.

No, it's not some hippie-dippy flower-child reference. He may have

been kicking around in the '50s, but educational psychologist Benjamin

Bloom's still got some good ideas. Hanging with Bloom means you'll be

able to see whether your kids are simply learning surface-level stuff

(remembering and understanding), or if their learning is deeper and

more meaningful (analysis, evaluation, and beyond…).

Use technology.

The 21st century ain't new any more. The tech generation has grown up

texting their moms and zooming their friends across the globe. So why

not harness that in your lesson planning? Even if you don't have access

to computers in the classroom, you can utilize Google Classroom.

Remember for these lessons to use online apps.

Organize.

Yes, we know it's obvious. Have your plan for teaching in your hand

when you walk into

the room, and know all the itty-bitty parts that need to go into that

lesson. Everything is pre-photocopied, you know where your markers

are, you've predicted their possible questions in advance. You're ready

to go.
 Do make sure that you are planning L.A. components and skills. For

Language Arts, you need to plan all the components for the week

with at least two every day and at least three skills per day, but we

have seen in our in-class activities where it is possible to do all six.

Plan together.

Plan with somebody else. This doesn't mean you sit by and let someone

else do the work or vice versa. Instead, it can be helpful to plan

together and divide your work.

You'll be amazed at the creativity and the cool ideas other people can

have (we know, you thought you were the only one). Some schools

allow this and in cases where it doesn’t happen, you can still share your

ideas with others.