Classroom Teaching Tips to Create Easy and Effective Lesson Plans
Lesson planning allows a teacher to prepare proper questions and objectives ahead of time. Lesson planning should be quick and effective. How do you write a lesson plan? A lesson plan has a few key elements. Included with a general summary, are goals, materials, samples, steps to completion, and review. Lesson plans do not have to be elaborate. The internet can be a valuable resource for lesson plans.
You can find lesson plans on almost any subject for any grade level. The problem is actually using them in a real classroom. When most teachers think lesson plans on the internet, they really are thinking lesson resources as opposed to actual plans. Since every teacher has a different slant to what a lesson plan should be, take the resources and adapt it to your classroom situation. There are many types of lesson planning guides, but we'll go over one that is typical.
Three things that should be included in every lesson you plan are: What am I going to teach? How am I going to teach it? What will I do for the students who don't get it?
How do I do go about creating a lesson plan?
Sample Lesson Plan Template
This sample has 4 parts:
1) Grab the studens attention.
2) Introduce and model the material in an engaging way.
3) Guided practice.
4) Assess.
First, you need to introduce the topic in a way that gets students interested. Asking a question about the subject, what they know, etc. Anything that you can do to at least get students ready to learn. Next, introduce the material. This can you or them reading, discussing, or leading the class doing the activity as a group. Eventually your students need to do something on their own. They can work alone, you can assign partners, or even groups. But you must walk around the room to facilitate. Read: How to Motivate Your Students
To finish, you need some type of assessment. You can do this orally by asking questions, or writing a couple of problems/questions on the board to be done individually alone. Assigning homework is now an option.
Keep the learning process flowing and consistent. Every lesson you do must be engaging. Students must be involved. Even if it's just explaining something. Get animated. Ask for questions. Look around the room. Get students to guess what comes next. Can you get the students moving? Get them out of their seats? Even you know when it will be boring. Lighten it up!
Are you doing lesson plans daily, weekly, or even monthly? Think about long term lesson planning. Teachers should do at least a weekly plan. Doing lesson plans daily is not a good way of teaching. Depending on how things go, you may have to change the plans to fit how your students are doing.
There are many places on the internet that provide lesson plans. You can even submit your own. Teachers should have a lesson plan filing system. Keep a file cabinet or box with your lesson plans in them, filed in subjects and categories. Yes, you should print out each lesson and make your own notes. If you just bookmark or save the websites to your favorites, the websites may not be there next time you look. The internet does not stand still and many sites change or go offline. Read: Increase student participation without chaos.
Don't think that you must do the lesson plans exactly how you find them. Many lesson plans will need to be modified by the teacher for his or her own class. It may take time for you to become an expert on creating, modifying, and implementing good lesson plans. But without them, teaching is less effective.
You probably teach the same idea over multiple days. When doing lesson planning, you may wish to make one lesson plan that will last two or more days. Teachers, especially new teachers, sometimes think they spend a lot of time doing lesson plans. The more you can plan in advance, the better.