High School Lesson Plan Template: 3 Important Benefits

A high school lesson plan template helps teachers integrate the most important instructional components into their daily lessons. These classroom outlines usually list educational tactics, resources, and objectives among other academic components. Regardless of the specific components included in the lesson plan template, it serves as a road map to effective planning and engaging instruction.

Here are some high school lesson plan templates to consider:

• Teacherplanet
• Class Templates
• Visme

The Lesson

The lesson is the heart of every class session. It is the primary purpose that a course exists and serves to educate students on multiple topics and standards that align with the subject area of the class. The six key elements listed below are important instructional components for any high school lesson:

• Learning objectives
• Assessments
• Standards
• Key Vocabulary
• Procedures
• Materials

Learning Objective

The learning objective outlines goals that students should learn during a specific class. A quality learning objective contains a strong verb that indicates what depth of knowledge students are expected to reach to demonstrate mastery. A properly articulated learning goal creates clarity for teachers and students. In addition, these targets function as important guideposts for teachers as they follow their curriculum roadmap.

Learning objectives can vary in the higher-level thinking skills required for student mastery—higher complexities require diverse teaching strategies and greater instructional times than their lower-level counterparts. The following example of a learning objective for a 10th-grade biology course demonstrates a high-level depth of knowledge:

"Develop and use a model to illustrate the hierarchical organization of interacting systems that provide specific functions within multicellular organisms."

Although the objective specifies what students are required to learn, it leaves the door open to clarify even more specific knowledge and competencies required for mastery.

Assessment

Assessment is an important tool to identify what students should accomplish to demonstrate mastery. It is used to determine how an instructor will evaluate students' understanding of what they've studied. This can take various forms and should be strictly aligned with the learning objective. Referencing the aforementioned biology learning target, the assessment defines which systems and specific functions within multicellular organisms students should know, then further defines what model would best demonstrate student understanding.

The Next Generation Science Standards Evidence Statement resource provides solid structure and descriptions of observable features of student performance:

The assessment phase is significant because the knowledge acquired from reviewing students' responses will assist in planning the next lesson. Therefore, new topics should only be introduced after the class has mastered the previous concept. If students appear to be struggling, an instructor should schedule a time to remediate.

Standards

Understanding learning target alignment to external standards is important. First, it provides additional clarity on what is expected of students. Second, the state bases teacher and student accountability upon these standards. Additional resources tied to broader standards are often available and easier to find by searching state or national standards. When teaching a subject using a teacher’s manual or resource, the standards referenced within the manual should include assessment and instructional strategies to help guide each lesson.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary serves as a major factor in reading comprehension, writing, speaking, and listening.  It is also a key component of student learning as students need to understand the key terms involved with mastering the objective. Including a vocabulary section in a lesson plan template provides structure and emphasizes the significance of the terminology for a given subject. The most effective vocabulary instruction goes far beyond memorizing definitions and includes seeing, hearing, and using words in meaningful contexts.

Continuing with our 10th-grade biology learning target example, the inclusion of the terms below could be important for students to understand and use to demonstrate mastery. Of course, with a learning target as complex as our example, the vocabulary list only includes a few of the terms that would be important for students to understand.

• Stimuli
• Nutrient uptake
• Mitosis
• DNA
• Chromosome
• Respiration

Procedure

A lesson plan lays out step-by-step instructions for a learning segment.  New teachers often create very detailed lesson plans; however, as they grow more confident and gain experience, they develop a nuanced understanding of their subjects, leading to broader syllabi. An effective lesson plan should also include an estimate of how long each step will take to ensure proper time management.

Materials

In addition to detailing focused learning activities, a lesson plan template helps manage work and ensures that proper supplies are on hand. Nothing is more frustrating than starting a class period without crucial materials. As most teachers teach multiple classes daily, a materials list will help provide efficiency.

The 3 Important Benefits of Using a High School Lesson Plan

1. Proactive Decision Making - Teaching involves a complex set of tasks requiring the teacher to make hundreds of decisions during any learning segment. A lesson plan allows a teacher to work through decisions in advance and consider responses to student learning.

2. Focused and Efficient Planning - A step-by-step lesson plan assists with covering all of the major aspects of a topic in the time allotted. Although teachers need to be aware of how well students are grasping new concepts and adjust as necessary, a lesson plan helps keep them focused and on schedule.

3. Simplified Adjustment Strategies - Over time, a lesson plan may be reviewed and altered to better suit the class. These adjustments enable teachers to employ various tactics, methods, and technologies to make the teaching process more engaging. As a result, a good lesson plan assists teachers in avoiding mistakes and improving future lessons based on collected data from previous lessons.

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In a Nutshell

Each teacher should be able to write a lesson plan that includes learning objectives, assessments, standards, vocabulary, procedures, and materials needed to teach a topic. Creating a lesson plan template that includes each of these important aspects supports more efficient planning, practice, and preparation.