Okay, I’ll be honest with you. You know all that good lesson planning you learned in teacher training? Well, in most schools, you’re not going to need to write up formal lesson plans for each individual lesson. Most principals will simply ask for your weekly plans or your unit plans. Some of them only ask for plans once per month or maybe even just once per quarter. Hardly any of them will have the time to look at your plans with great attention.
So why write lesson plans at all?
Well, for the students, of course! And for you! Because you are a motivated, responsible professional who takes ownership of your own teaching. Your education and professionalism rejects the need for micromanagement and hand holding. You know what you’re doing…
Eventually, anyway! (Don’t worry, you’ll get there -_^)
As a new teacher, you probably already know that this profession has a very steep learning curve in a very fast-paced and sometimes punishing environment (the kids can smell any lack of confidence and will literally feast on your flesh like a school of red-bellied piranhas in the Amazon River).
So even if no one is going to ask for them, you’re still going to want to write your lesson plans – or at least think through your lessons carefully, if not write them down. And depending on your teaching load, writing out lesson plans for every lesson could be highly unrealistic and impractical.
But it’s very important to write out at least one thorough lesson plan once a week for the first few months to help you get used to thinking through all the details you need to run a smooth and effective lesson.
A well thought out lesson plan could be the difference between a teaching debacle and a triumphant learning experience for your students. It can ensure you
- prepare properly
- engage your whole class
- make appropriate modifications
- manage the classroom
- have students achieve the learning goals
- and improve your teaching
So what exactly are the details you need to think through to make the magic happen?
There are many different types of lesson plans. Some are engagement focused. Others are focused on process. Many are designed for gradual release (I do, we do, you do) or having students take the lead. Ultimately, however, they all have the same goal – get the kids to learn something.
So though there may be different types of lesson plans, the destination is the same. As a result, a lot of the different lesson planning methods you’ll find have some key aspects in common. These aspects are what’s key in getting the learning to happen.
Objective
You cannot plan a good lesson without first identifying what you want the students to learn. Without this, it would be very hard to give meaning or direction to the activities you plan. This is really where you need to start.
For best results, it’s very helpful and important to make sure that your goals are clear and simple. Most state standards need to be broken down and can’t really be a learning goal for a single lesson. I found this out the hard way and wasted so many hours wracking my brain trying to figure out how to get my kids to learn a state standard in one or two lessons.
Now, you can think that a state standard or a unit objective is a long term goal, needing multiple lessons. But you really still need to break it down into baby steps and have a specific goal for each lesson. It’s like having a goal of earning a million dollars or losing 50 pounds but not having a road map for how to get there. How will you earn the first dollar? The first hundred dollars? And so on.
This is extremely helpful because sometimes you’ll also realize that there are skills and information outside of the standard that students need to learn first before they can even effectively access the standard (another lesson I learned the hard way as a new teacher – I hope you’re taking notes!).
You should also make sure that you have a good knowledge or understanding of what you’re going to need the students to know. For example, the standard might ask you to teach students the process of land expansion of the United States during the early 1800s. Well, if you didn’t know much about this you might think you can teach it in a day or a week. But once you realize that they’re talking about Texas, California, Washington, the Oregon Trail, Tecumseh’s War, the Louisiana Purchase (and so much more!), you’re going to realize that this particular standard is going to take a good part of the year.
You’re going to need to not only break it down, but also to overlap with other standards. Hopefully, you don’t mind just going with the textbook for now on this one. There’s just so much to unpack!
Even if you are going with a textbook or a set curriculum, the actual lesson itself would go much more smoothly if you read the information in advance. It will help you know what questions to ask the students as you teach the lesson. You’ll figure out ways to make it engaging (planned and off the cuff ways for when you need to adjust during the lesson) and have the confidence to answer questions the students might have.
Having a good understanding of the standard or unit goal will also help you break it down into simple, clear, teachable, and measurable pieces that you can realistically teach in a lesson or two.
Having a simple and clear learning goal will give a focused direction to the rest of your planning. You’ll know what activities will accomplish your goals.
I know it’s a lot of work, but it will get easier as you go. And you’ll remember a lot of things from previous years of teaching. You’ll also have built a system for analyzing and breaking down learning goals. So that it will take less and less time as well. Eventually, you’ll be able to lesson plan in your head and just write down rough outlines to help you remember as you teach. Learning how to create focused and effective objectives is the first step to achieving that.
Assessment
The next step is figuring out your end of lesson assessment. It does not have to be a formal, written quiz. There are many forms it can take. The most important aspect of the assessment is that it is measuring the skill and information that is contained in the objective. Again, this process will be so easy and straightforward if you’ve done the legwork for your objective.
The next crucial aspect of the assessment is that it needs to be consistent with whatever activities you’re planning to have the students do during the lesson. This is why it is important to circle back to this at the end of planning the lesson body.
Now, I’m not saying to do the exact same thing in the assessment as the lesson. You can do that, but it’s not necessary. You do want to measure the level of understanding the students have after the lesson by seeing if they can apply the target skill or knowledge in a different activity. But do make sure that it’s a logical and consistent progression or transition. The assessment should not require them to make an unreasonable leap in thinking or require them to do an activity that requires a whole ‘nother skill that the students might not have yet mastered.
For example, say you taught a lesson on the results of the Louisiana Purchase. Maybe you showed a few short clips, had discussions, drew some comic strips. Then you give a short quiz with questions from the textbook as an exit ticket. Most kids will probably do fine.
However, maybe the questions are written at a higher level than some of your students can access and use some unfamiliar vocabulary. Then you might have some students that learned the skill and information in your learning goal but aren’t able to properly show that in the exit ticket. Our speaking and listening abilities tend to be at a higher level than our writing. So just make sure you do consider the students in your classroom and make adjustments ahead of time.
Engagement
The next key aspect of lesson planning is engagement. Now this is way more than just hooking the kids in the introduction of your lesson. Engagement is something that should be happening throughout your whole lesson. And it can look very different for some kids.
First, why do we care about engagement when we’re planning a lesson?
Well, I don’t think much learning is going to happen if the students aren’t interested and on task while you’re teaching and doing activities. Deep engagement is going to lead to greater curiosity in students. This will organically expand and deepen the learning as students generate their own questions about the topic. If you can deeply and fully engage students, authentic learning will happen.
Okay, so what does it mean when students are engaged in a lesson?
Like I mentioned above, it can look very different for different kids. But the same thing will be happening intellectually. It means that they are not just passively sitting back and absorbing information.
True engagement is when kids are actively thinking about the information. They’re interacting with it through questioning, testing ideas, discussing, applying, evaluating, and creating. It’s not about you putting on a show. It’s about getting them to do some intellectual heavy lifting.
Now for some kids, it could be very obvious that they are engaged. More introverted and reserved students, however, may not show as much outward engagement. But the gears in their brains could be turning at full speed. It’s important to provide multiple outlets for processing and learning the information whenever you can.
So, how exactly do we engage the students?
Whew, this is getting to be a very long article! So I’m just going to boil it down briefly here. But I promise, I will write a dedicated article on engagement very soon, and I’ll link it here or at the end of the article as soon as I publish it.
Okay, I’ve realized there are three key things we need to try to do when we’re trying to engage the students.
- Design and assign meaningful tasks that intellectually challenge students. And I’m not saying make it too hard. You want to make the task just hard enough. Not too easy, not too hard. This way, it is both inviting and satisfying to accomplish. Try to pique curiosity by starting with a mystery or a puzzle. Some sort of incongruence. Something unexpected. These things tend to be intellectually inviting. Make sure you have modifications in place so that it is achievable for all students. Motivation and confidence are actually the top factors to learning so you want to make sure you are always planning with that in mind.
- Engage the whole body. Include reading, writing, speaking, listening, moving. Engage the five senses. All as much as possible.
- Incorporate cooperative learning. Humans are social creatures. And especially in middle school, kids are developing and blossoming socially. Anytime you can incorporate cooperation or friendly and safe competition, you’ll have the kids engaged.
Preparation and Post Lesson Tasks
Okay, so maybe not all types of lesson plans have this piece. But, heck, they should! I do see some lesson planning templates include a section for materials but not much else.
In order for lessons to have the highest impact, you should really be planning how you’ll prepare and how and when you’ll reflect on the lesson after it’s done.
First, thoughtful and detailed preparation of materials is key to classroom management. I’m sure you know how easy it is to lose a kid or how quickly they can become sidetracked if you are distracted looking for materials for even a minute. Much worse if you realize you forgot to create or print a piece you need for the lesson.
It’s much less likely for you to overlook the pieces you need if you consider what you as the teacher will be doing and what the students will be doing at every part of the lesson. It will also be useful to consider where you will store these items before and after. Don’t lose time and students during the lesson fumbling around looking for things.
Just as important as preparing for the lesson is thinking about what you’ll do after the lesson. It will be less stressful for you if you can prepare yourself by thinking about what things you’ll need to grade. In addition, it will improve your teaching by prompting you to plan when you’ll follow up with the students. It will even make planning the next lesson a lot easier if you work this into the lesson plan.
Finally, it’s important for you to remember to reflect on how the lesson went. Some of this will happen as you’re teaching the lesson and checking for understanding. A lot of it will happen after the lesson. And, last but not least, you’ll get very important additional feedback when you grade the exit tickets/end of lesson assessment. So it’s very helpful if you plan for this time in your lesson planning.
Conclusion and Free Lesson Planning Guide
So to sum it up, the heart of a lesson plan and the key to good lesson planning falls around these four key parts of the lesson plan: objective, assessment, engagement, and prep+post lesson tasks.
Whew! I know it was a long article and it was a lot. But the individual lessons are the meat of your units of study. If you cannot plan them thoughtfully, then there are going to be big gaps in your teaching. However, I want to reiterate that you don’t have to, and shouldn’t, write out every single one.
The important thing is that you get used to the thinking process and get in the habit of thinking through each lesson as thoroughly as possible. Maybe it seems impossible to do it all in your head, but I promise you it’s not. So many excellent veteran teachers do it!
And if you have any things you’ve found that have worked with your lesson planning, please share them with us down below. Thanks for teaching!
Other articles you might want to read next:
How to Make History Class Engaging from the Very Beginning of the Year
Top 5 Priorities for New Teachers
Ten Simple and Creative Ways to Make the Textbook More Engaging