A lesson plan is a guide for the professor on what students will know and how this will be achieved during the course. You first need to decide the learning goals for the class meeting before you prepare the lecture. In addition, you can plan and build approaches to seek input on learning for students. Three main elements are discussed and incorporated into an effective lesson plan:
- Learning goals of students
- Activities for teaching/learning
- Student awareness methods
Specifying basic targets for student learning will allow you to decide what kind of teaching and learning exercises you are going to include in the course while specifying how you can verify that the goal of learning has been achieved (see image below).
Important steps on teachers preparing a Lesson Plan
Below are six steps to help you in the first-course planning phase. Through phase will be followed by a number of questions which will help you quickly reflect and improve your teaching and learning.
1. Summarize the Goals of Learning
The first step is to figure out what students will know and do at the end of the course. Address the following questions to help you identify your learning objectives:
- What's the lesson theme?
- What do I want to know from students?
- How should I do and understand at the end of class? How should I do?
- What would I want a particular lesson to take away?
After the learning goals for the class meeting are identified, they are ranked according to their importance. This move will prepare you in case you need time to handle class and achieve big learning goals. Take these questions into account:
- Which are the main principles, theories or competencies that I want to learn and extend to students?
- Why do they matter?
- What one can-not be omitted because I run out of time?
- And on the other hand, what could I miss when I had time-pressed?
2. Establishing a Good Introduction
So that you have your learning goals, plan the practical exercises you are doing to get students to understand and incorporate what they have learned. Thanks to your varied selection of students with various academic and personal experiences, you may already know the subject. This is why you might take a question or activity to gauge the awareness or potential preconceptions of students of the subject. For instance: "How many of you heard of X? You can take a simple poll. You may also gather background information from your students before class by submitting an online survey to students or by asking them to make comments on index cards. This more knowledge will lead to influencing your presentation, learning experiences, etc. You will have a sense of what to look at when you get an idea of the students' familiarity with the subject.
To encourage interest and thought to create a creative introduction to the subject. You may use a broad range of approaches (e.g., personal experiences, historical incidents, dilemmas, real-world illustration, short video clip, realistic implementation, query tests etc.) to participate. When preparing your presentation, ask the following questions:
- What can I check if students know or have a preconceived notion of the subject?
- There are some common ideas (or maybe misunderstandings) about this subject that students may know or spouse about?
- What am I going to do with the subject?
3. Scheduling specific learning tasks
To draw the attention of more students and to various learning styles, plan a variety of various ways to illustrate the content (real-life examples, analogies, images, etc.). When planning your examples and tasks, estimate how long you spend. Set up the time for extended clarification or debate, but still, be ready to step on quickly to different applications or problems and define understanding strategies. Following questions will help you to schedule your learning activities:
- What am I going to do about the subject?
- How am I going to do to clarify the issue in another way?
- Why do I get students interested in the subject?
- Which examples, analogies, or circumstances are applicable to real-life, to help students understand the subject?
- What are students going to have to do to better understand the topic?
4. Gaging the understanding level of students
You will now analyze student comprehension after you have explained the matter and demonstrated it with numerous examples. How do you know students are learning? You should ask students to search for their understanding, write them down and then paraphrase them to get them happy to question them in various ways. Seek to guess the answers to your questions. Decide whether students want to give oral or written answers.
- Which questions am I going to ask to understand the students?
- How should I do to show that students are following?
- Returning to my list of learning goals, what can I do to see if any student has been completed?
The preparation of student questions is also an effective technique that helps you with time management. Decide what types of questions are useful for discussion when preparing your lesson and what questions could interrupt the class. Think about and agree on the balance between content (fulfilling the educational goals) and the comprehension of the students.
5. Developing a preview and Conclusion Plan
Go over the class covered content by summarizing the lesson's key points. You can do that in many ways: you can state the main points yourself ("We spoke today ..."), ask a student to help you sum up them or even ask all students to write what they find the key points of the lesson on a piece of paper. You should say yourself what they think are. You should test the answers of the students to determine their comprehension of the subject and clarify something which is ambiguous to the next class. End the course not only with a review but also with a prediction of the next lesson. How does the topic apply to the future? This overview stimulates the attention of students and helps them relate the different ideas in a wider sense.
6. Creating a realistic learning timeline
GSIs know how easy it is to waste time and not cover all the points to be covered by them. It is not practical to list ten learning goals, so limit your list to two or three main concepts, ideas and competencies you want students to learn. Teachers often accept that their lessons always have to be modified to fit students during class. Your list of key learning goals will assist you in making local choices and change your curriculum accordingly. You may also be versatile with additional examples or alternate activities. A true schedule reflects your versatility and readiness to adjust to your specific classroom environment. Some strategies for a practical schedule are given below:
- Estimate how long each task takes, then prepare for each additional time
- If you schedule your course, indicate the amount of time you expect it to take next to will operation
- Plan a few minutes to answer any remaining questions at the end of the course and review key things
- Schedule an extra activity or conversation if you have time left.
- Be versatile - be able to adjust the course program to the needs of students and focus instead of sticking to the original schedule.
Presentation of the Learning Program
Having the students know what they're going to learn and do in class helps them to be more involved. You can tell students specifically what they are to know and do in class, writing a short agenda on the wall. The learning goals for the class can be described on the board or in a handbook. Providing a consistent structure of the class time will help students not only better understand but also keep an eye on the presentation. A clearly defined agenda can also assist you and students in keeping up with your success, for example on the board.
Think about the Lesson Plan
Due to a variety of international circumstances, a lesson plan cannot work as you expected. You don't need to be discouraged – even the most accomplished professors! Think about what went well and why and what you might have done otherwise, just a couple of minutes after every lesson. Identifying the time and tasks of class successful and less successful would make managing the contingencies of the classroom simpler.
The lesson plan does not have to be a detailed document which describes every possible school scenario in order to be successful. Any student's answers or questions must also not be expected. Alternatively, it will give you an outline of your educational priorities, educational goals and means of achieving them. It is a reminder of how and what you want to do. Everything goes exactly as expected in a successful class, it is one in which both students and teachers learn from one another.
