Lesson Plans That Work: 8 Effective Steps To Follow

A lesson plan prepares you for the classroom by providing a clear outline for the day, regardless of the content or topic you're instructing. Your lesson plans don't have to be complicated or long; instead, they just need to include information on the topic you are teaching, how you will deliver it, and what outcomes you want your students to achieve as part of the curriculum.

Irrespective of the elements in a lesson plan, each lesson you present should build on the previous one and flow smoothly into the next. Recognizing what goes into designing a proper lesson plan makes it much easier to construct one.

Top 3 Benefits of Creating a Lesson Plan

There will be challenges that you can not foresee in any lesson. However, the better prepared you are, the easier it will be to adjust to circumstances while educating and communicating your content to students.

Here are some of the most important advantages of lesson plans:

1. Better Classroom Management

A solid lesson plan provides a good foundation for effective classroom management.  It will be simpler for you to keep students focused with highly engaging lessons tied to student interests and individual student needs.  As a teacher, your confidence will also increase as you can spend more time on student needs and less time thinking of what will come next in your lesson.  

2. Helping To Analyze and Evaluate Your Teaching

A lesson plan provides a point for reflection after the lesson has been taught.  Reflection upon the effectiveness of strategies used, adjustments made within the instruction, and challenging areas for instruction and learning can be noted and considered in future planning.  

3. Providing Guidance For a Replacement Teacher

Thanks to your detailed lesson plan, substitute instructors will know precisely what your students are studying that day, making it easier for them to stay on track to accomplish any curricular objectives set for your class.

The Elements of a Successful Lesson Plan

While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating a lesson plan, there are several key elements to consider.

It is critical to keep all of your students in mind while you construct a lesson and to ask the following key questions before you proceed:

• Who Are Your students?

You must first get to know your target audience before designing an effective lesson plan. This involves building rapport and learning details about each student, such as their hobbies, skill levels, whether they prefer to work alone or in groups, their backgrounds, and any special needs that may necessitate class modifications.

Knowing their learning styles is beneficial as well. For example, some students learn better with visual assistance, while others learn better through kinesthetic means.

• How Much Do Your Students Already Know About the Subject?

Knowing your students’ previous skills and prior knowledge about a topic is essential to the creation of any lesson plan. If you have been following a set curriculum and creating lesson plans along the way, you will already know what you have presented to your students, making it easier to progress.  However, you must also know how much of that material the students have learned, and prepare to reteach topics as necessary. Remember: The only thing that matters is what students have LEARNED, not what has been TAUGHT.

Steps to Follow When Developing a Lesson Plan

1. Determine the Standards/Objectives To Be Taught

To create a lesson, you must first know the state and local standards or objectives for each course, and the benchmarks intended to show proficiency in those standards.  Your course curriculum map is a great resource and can be a guide to determining which standards to teach first.

2. Evaluate the Prior Knowledge and Needs of Your Students

Great lessons are built around what students do not know.  Prior assessment is essential to determine student knowledge and avoid wasting time delivering material that is already common knowledge in the class.

For this lesson, are you teaching new content or revisiting what you've already covered previously? Make sure students know what to expect at the outset of class so they can maintain focus on reaching their personal goals. Some of your students may require more reinforcement than others while studying topics. It will be easier for you to prepare if you address these requirements in your lesson plan.

3. Make a List of Your Materials and Resources

Make a list of the items and resources you'll need to teach this lesson, including paper, pencils, and rulers. When applicable, add technological resources such as laptops and gamified learning tools such as applications or instructional websites in your strategy.

4. Immediately Engage Your Students in the Learning

Student engagement is critical to the success of any lesson.  When possible, reflect back and tie the lesson to student interests and prior knowledge wherever possible.  If you are teaching a new formula to students, explain its background and start with simple problems using the formula. Alternatively, if you're discussing historical events, attempt to make connections between them and contemporary events so that students can relate to the subject.

5. Identify the Instructional Strategies and Procedures

After establishing the learning objectives and getting your students hooked on the lesson, use appropriate instructional strategies to facilitate student understanding. Selecting approaches that continue high engagement is critical.  Using all the information you have about the students and their prior knowledge will guide you in your strategy selection.  

With newer skills, more direct instruction may be appropriate to ensure the students receive accurate information. However, other objectives may lend themselves to an inquiry approach in which student collaboration and use of resources is very effective.  There are a myriad of research and evidence based instructional strategies to choose from that are appropriate in different contexts.  

As you consider the instructional strategies, you will also need to consider how you will group students during different segments of the instruction.  Some portions of the lesson may make more sense with large group participation, while others will be small group or individual grouping.  Selecting instructional and grouping strategies that meet your students’ needs, keep learning relevant, and promote high engagement will ensure an effective lesson.  Effective teacher collaboration can aid in your consideration and help you make decisions that will best benefit your students.

6. Allow Time for Students to Practice their Skills

Allow time for students to practice new content once it has been taught. There are three practice approaches that, when used in the correct order, might help to reinforce what you've recently taught:

• Teacher Directed Practice: With teacher directed practice, you walk students through what they've just learned, allowing them to add their comments as they acquire confidence with the new material.
• The Collaborative Approach: In the collaborative approach, students communicate with their classmates as they explore these new concepts, whether in pairs or groups. Teachers supervise the students around the classroom, providing additional teaching or assistance as required to explain topics.
• Independent Practice: After a collaborative practice, students should practice what they've learned on their own.

7. Concluding the Class

Bring the class to a close with a brief wrap-up. Make a quick summary of the lesson, highlighting the important topics that the students learned. As a reminder, have students identify the essential themes, and give them a preview of the following session, so they know what to anticipate.

8. Assessing the Lesson

Assessing student knowledge is a critical component of any lesson plan.  You can use a variety of ways to allow students to show you what they have learned, from quick quizzes to verbal explanations or projects. Your next lesson plan may contain a review of content before progressing on to fresh material, depending on the outcomes.

In a Nutshell

The lesson plan is not an extensive document that explains every potential classroom setting to be useful. It is also not required to predict every student's reaction or inquiry. Instead, it should give you a broad overview of your teaching goals, course objectives, and strategies for achieving them.