LESSON PLAN

INTRODUCTION: Planning is essential not only in teaching, but in spheres of human activities. Lesson
planning is an important activity of daily teaching. These are the brief outlines of the main point of the lesson.
It is a clear and precise statement of the aims, purposes of the lesson, the various devices, selecting and
arranging the subject matter and techniques to be employed by the teacher. Careful planning of lesson is
essential for experienced as well as beginner teachers. Experienced teachers use loosely structured lesson
plans, whereas beginners use highly structured lesson plans.

MEANING: Lesson plan is a plan prepared by a teacher to teach a lesson in an organized manner.

DEFINITION:

“Daily lesson planning involves defining the objectives, selecting and arranging the subject matter and
determining the method of procedure.” – Bining and Bining

“A lesson plan is a teaching outline of the important points of lesson arranged in which they are to be presented.
It may include objectives, points to be made, questions to be asked, references to materials, assignments, etc.”
– Carter V. Good

PURPOSES:

➢ It guides the teacher in presentation of subject matter and activities involved.

➢ It provides definite objective for each day’s work.
➢ It helps to achieve definite goals and objectives.
➢ It makes teaching economical, systematic and orderly.
➢ It helps to maintain sequence of content presentation.
➢ It aids in time management.
➢ It keeps the teacher on the track, ensure steady progress and a definite outcome of teaching and learning.
➢ It helps to enhance learning process.
➢ It prevents waste of time.
➢ It is useful to select proper learning and best technique.
➢ Planning encourages the teacher to consider the need and level of understanding of students.
➢ It gives the teacher greater confidence and greater freedom in teaching.
➢ It helps the teacher to overcome the feeling of nervousness and insecurity.
➢ It aids in deciding in advance of the AV aids and techniques of teaching.
➢ It facilitates self and peer assessment of teaching and future improvement of lessons.
➢ It provides guideline to the student teacher.

IMPORTANCE OF A LESSON PLAN:

• In a teaching education program, the lesson plan provides guidelines to students and teachers during their
teaching learning practices.
• It helps in achieving the definite objectives.
• It makes teaching systematic, orderly and economical.
• It helps teachers overcome feelings of nervousness and insecurity and give them confidence to face the
class.
• It links new knowledge with previous knowledge acquired by a student.
• It prepares pivotal questions and illustrations.
• It enables the teacher evaluate his work as the lesson proceeds. It helps the teacher use a wider variety of
teaching materials and learning activities in the classroom through a wider acquaintance with resources.
• It also helps the teacher plan the teaching learning process per the availability and accessibility of resource
materials.
• It improves the habit and attitude of your students or pupils.
• It definitely improves your teaching skills.
PREREQUISITES OF A LESSON PLAN:

1. Knowledge and mastery of subject matter: Teacher must be a master of his subject. He should have
thorough knowledge of the subject matter, materials and activities to be used.

2. Knowledge of student psychology: The teacher must have knowledge of child psychology i.e.; the teacher
should know the standard and individuality of the students and present the subject matter accordingly.

3. Knowledge of methods and techniques: The teacher should be conversant with the methods and
techniques of teaching.

4. Knowledge of aims: The teacher should have a basic understanding of the aims and objectives of
education. He should have the ability and skills to write objectives in behavioral terms and a knowledge
of various teaching skills.

5. Knowledge about students’ interest, in traits and abilities: The teacher must have adequate knowledge
about the interest, traits and abilities of an individual student. This helps the teacher have an individual
customized lesson plan for a specific group of the students.

6. Teachers’ competence: Teacher must have an ability to construct better lesson plans within a short time.
And in addition, he or she must have the ability to make constructive preparation for cooperative planning
of activities with students.

7. Selection and organization of subject matter: Teaching learning activities, illustrative material, assignment
and evaluation for students, references and bibliography must be planned by the teacher well in advance so
that the lesson can be planned and executed in an effective manner.
• Learning activities: The teacher chooses the learning activities. They should be varied sufficiently to
allow for individual differences in the group.
• Teaching activities: The teaching technique that are objective oriented and cost effective directly help
the teacher to obtain the educational objectives.
• Type of illustrative materials: AV aids and instructional media.
• Assignments: The plan should use assignments to project the immediate work to the next situation.
• Evaluation: Some type of evaluation should be planned for each lesson.
• References and bibliography: The teacher will have ready references and bibliography to be used
indirectly in student assignments.

ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD LESSON PLAN:

▪ Clearly written: lesson plan must preferably be in written form. It must be appropriately written and depict
who will be taught, who will teach, when will be taught, where the class will be taken, what will be taught,
why it will be taught, how it will be taught and what should be expected from students after the lesson.
▪ Definite aim and objectives: a good lesson plan must have clearly defined aim and objectives that very
clearly specify the purpose of the lesson and the purpose of each activity included in the lesson plan.
▪ Extension of existing knowledge: the topic of a lesson plan should be planned in a consecutive sequence
of the previously taught topics or existing knowledge for better understanding for better understanding of
the topic. It should not be a repetition nor an isolated topic plan.
▪ Simple and comprehensive: each lesson plan must be simple, lucid, concise and precise and must include
all activities that are expected to be carried out by a teacher in classroom during the teaching-learning
process comprehensively.
▪ Flexible plan: a planned lesson must not be rigid; it must be flexible to adopt the changes expected to
arise in specific classroom situations. A flexible lesson plan facilitates the teacher adapt to specific
incidental situations in the classroom.
▪ Ensure active teaching-learning process: a good lesson plan ensures active participation of both the
teacher and the student for effective achievement of educational objectives. A passive lesson plan fails to
motivate the teacher and/or the student for an effective teaching-learning activity outcome.
▪ Division with essence of wholesomeness: a lesson plan must be divided into subsections for better
presentation; however, its wholesomeness must not be distorted. A logical sequence and efficient cohesion
of the subsections of the lesson may help in the preservation of the lesson plan’s wholesomeness.
▪ Individualized and customized: the content of the lesson plan should be designed according to the needs,
interests, abilities and level of the students. This individualized and customized approach helps the teacher
achieve the expected aim of a lesson plan.
▪ Feasibility and significance: a lesson plan must be planned in a manner that it is feasible in terms of time
and available resources. It must be a practical as possible without overestimations in a hypothetical
manner. In addition, a lesson plan must have significance to a particular group of students because
nonsignificant topics fail to create interest in learners as well as the teachers. Therefore, the teaching-
learning activity may not be fruitful without the significance of a lesson/topic.
▪ Proceed from general to specific: a lesson plan must be planned such that it proceeds from general or
basic knowledge to specific knowledge so students can easily understand the lesson.
▪ Completeness: a good lesson plan must be complete in itself without leaving any essential component like
topic of the lesson, general and specific objectives, content, teacher-student activity and methods of
presentation, av aids, question to be asked for students, summary, recapitalized and assignment for the
students.
▪ Inclusion of summary, recapitalization, bibliography and student assignment: in addition to a basic
introductory plan and body of the lesson, the lesson plan must include the summary, recapitalization,
bibliography and student assignment.

STEPS IN LESSON PLANNING:

1. Planning: This step is concerned with the formulation of objectives, selection of the content, organization
of the content, selection of teaching-learning methods, selection AV aids, etc.
2. Preparation or introduction: Exploration of the students’ knowledge which helps to lead them on to the
lesson. The teacher needs to prepare the students to receive new knowledge. Testing previous knowledge.
It arouses interest and curiosity to learn new matter. Introduction should be brief and to the point.
3. Presentation: The aim of the lesson should be clearly stated before the presentation of the subject matter.
In teaching –learning process, both teacher and students actively participate. The Teacher has to present
the topic in enthusiastic manner. Learner will be motivated and get interest to learn.
4. Comparison or association: Quote examples & associate facts with two examples so that learners can
understand very easily and arrive at generalizations on their own.
5. Generalizations: It involves reflective thinking. The knowledge presented by the teacher should be
thought provoking, innovating and stimulating to assist the students to generalize the situation.
6. Application: The students make use of the knowledge acquired and test the validity of the generalization
arrived at in theory. It has to apply in clinical field to make learning more permanent and worthwhile.
7. Recapitulation: The teacher has to ask suitable, stimulating pivotal questions on the topic. The answer
will give feedback to the teacher regarding the efficacy of the method of teaching and he can decide
whether or not clarification is needed.

TYPES OF APPROACHES TO LESSON PLANNING:

Several educational philosophers have suggested a few lessons planning approaches. Some of them are:
A. HERBERTIAN APPROACH:
J.F. Herbart, a German philosopher advocated lesson planning using following five steps:

1. Preparation: Preparing means the preparation of the learner’s mind to receive new knowledge. Preparation
of the learner involves two steps:
• Previous knowledge testing: Through testing previous knowledge, the teachers become familiar with what
the pupils already know relevant to the topic.
• Announcement of the aim: An aim will automatically emerge if the lesson has been effectively
introduced. The aim should be clear, concise and free from unknown words.

2. Presentation: It involves a good deal of intellectual activity on the part of the students. A teacher is to put
himself into the students’ shoes to present things to them. Selected subject matter should be presented
according to the needs, interests, abilities and developmental level of the students.
3. Comparison and Abstraction: Association is linking new ideas with the old ones and with one another into
a system. The selected examples or facts are presented before the students and they are asked to carefully
observe and compare them with another set of facts are presented before the students and they are asked to
carefully observe and compare them with another set of facts to arrive at some conclusions.
4. Generalization: Comparison and association helps students find a certain conclusion that enables them to
frame general laws, principles or formulas. The teacher’s function is to enable the students to draw out the
generalization from relevant data.
5. Application: Knowledge that is not used will soon fade away from consciousness. Knowledge is power but
it is only when the mind can apply it to practical situation.

Merits:
✓ Avoids unnecessary repetition in teaching.
✓ Simple and easy approach.
✓ Logical and psychological.
✓ Used in achieving the cognitive objective of teaching.
✓ Assists in making the teaching systematic.

Demerits:
✓ Highly dominated by the teacher.
✓ More stress on teaching rather than on learning.
✓ Does not consider the learning structure in organizing teaching activities.
✓ Specific objectives are not written in behavioral terms.
✓ Teaching activities are less meaningful and practical.

B. BLOOM’S EVALUATION APPROACH ON LESSON PLANNING:

B.S. Bloom believed that the teaching-learning process must be objective centric. He considered education
as a tripolar process. The three pools are educational objectives, learning experiences and learning
outcomes or change in the student’s behaviour.
The major features of this approach of lesson planning are as follows:
Teaching-learning activity is learning objective based rather than content based.
▪ The expected outcome of the teaching-learning activity is an overall change in behaviour of the student
rather than learning specific content.
▪ The outcome of learning is measured based on predetermined learning objectives, including cognitive,
affective and psychomotor learning objective outcome.

Merits:
✓ The objectives are written in behavioral terms.
✓ The teaching activities are related to learning objectives.
✓ It makes the teaching purposeful and objective centered.
✓ It is based on psychological and scientific principles.

Demerits:
✓ Gives rise to rigid and mechanical planning which lacks flexibility.
✓ Does not provide an opportunity for creativity among students.
▪ It is a highly structured approach and imposes a high demand on the teacher and the student during the
teaching-learning process.
C. RCEM APPROACH:
RCEM approach was developed by Indian educationists at the Regional College of Education, Mysore,
and therefore known as RCEM approach. This approach has its roots in the system approach and has
defined three main steps of the teaching-learning process: input, process and output.
➢ Input: It includes the identification of objectives. They are also known as expected behavioral outcomes.
Input further resembles the preparation steps of the Herbartian approach where the teacher tries to know
what students know and what they are expected to know.
➢ Process: The main focus of the process is to create the learning situation. It implies the interaction of
teacher and students. It includes teacher and student activities, teaching strategies and AV aids and
techniques of motivation.
➢ Output: It is the evaluation phase of the lesson plan. We get desirable behavioral changes among students
through the output. These are the real learning outcomes.

Merits:
✓ It is an indigenous method; therefore, more suitable for teaching-learning pursuits.
✓ Learning objectives are formulated in the form of measurable student abilities and rational processes.
✓ The teaching-learning scenario, methods, materials and AV aids are clearly defined.
✓ The model of teaching can be used to for basic as well-advanced learning.
✓ Theoretical knowledge of teaching concepts can be applied.
✓ The evaluation aspect of a lesson plan is efficiently and adequately clarified.

Demerits:
▪ Writing lesson plans using this approach is a cumbersome task.
▪ This method is not considered practical as it is time-consuming.
▪ There is limited understanding and utilization of this method.

HOW TO PREPARE A LESSON PLAN:

 Topics for lesson plans are derived from the institutional and departmental objectives and course outlines.
 The topic is broken down into subtopics pertaining to different domains.
 The topic and subtopics are converted into learning objectives (general and specific).
 Objectives should be stated in clear terms and specific objectives should be measurable and observable.
 Lesson time should be appropriately divided among different objectives.
 An effective set inducer that arouses the interest of the learners has to be planned. This calls for creativity
and innovation.
 To prop up learner attention, an interaction should be incorporated after about 20 minutes.
 Some follow-up activity should be arranged to strengthen and extend the message of the lesson.

TEACHERS’ REQUIREMENT IN LESSON PLANNING:

➢ Mastery over the content.

➢ Efficiency of content analysis and identifying learner’s objectives in terms of taxonomic categories.
➢ Ability to state the objectives in behavioral terms.
➢ Skill in choosing appropriate teaching learning method and AV aids.
➢ Competency in using various evaluation techniques.
➢ Ability in planning, organizing, reinforcing the students’ activities, and controlling their behaviour.
➢ Ability in acknowledging the individual differences of students.