Top Strategies for Writing a Precise Lesson Plan
The Importance of lesson planning cannot be overemphasized, as the teachers need to map out a plan of what the learners need to learn and how it will be done to ensure effective teaching and learning at a particular period during classes. Designing appropriate learning activities and developing strategies to obtain feedback on learners, is one of the importance of lesson planning. A well-constructed lesson plan for each lesson allows the teacher to teach with more confidence and also helps maximize the chances of having a meaningful and well-organized learning experience in all intent and purpose.
However, a lesson plan is said to be a blueprint that contains the teaching activities for a particular period. A good lesson plan gives the teacher a general outline of the teaching goals, learning objectives and means to accomplish them. A lesson plan is productive when both teachers and learners benefit.
This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Habibat Y. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
A successful lesson plan must address the following components:
- Learning objectives explain what the learners will know or will be able to know after the teaching experience rather than what the learners will be exposed to during the discussion of the topics. It should be written in a language that would be easily understood by learners and related to the learning of the program. However, a teacher needs to identify the learning objectives of the lesson before planning a lesson.
- Learning activities teachers should consider the type of activities the learners would engage in, to develop the skills and knowledge needed to demonstrate effective learning. A teacher should estimate how much time will be spent on each topic, create time for explanation or discussion more so teachers should be prepared to attend to the different problems also identify strategies that help, check on learners' performance and understanding. Learning activities should be directly related to the learning objectives of the course and provide experiences that will enable learners to engage in practice and thereafter give feedback.
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Teachers should think of some questions as they design the learning activities:
- How do I illustrate the topic differently I? e methodology
- How will I explain the topic
- How can I engage learners on the topic
- How do I help learners understand better?
However, there are various activities used to engage learners. These may include assignments on a daily or weekly basis
- Planning for assessment of learners' understanding helps the teacher to find out whether the learners are learning or not. It provides opportunities for learners to demonstrate and practice the knowledge and skills acquired in the learning objectives. Teachers assess learners' understanding by either test, presentation, debates, performance. Planning assessment involves making decisions about the type of assessment required to enable learners to demonstrate learning objectives, Criteria, and standards that are required to assess judgment, learners' role in the assessment process, individual assessment task and method of judgment required for a final grade for the course and feedback.
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Stages involved in lesson planning:
- Gain the learner's attention.
- Pre-empt learners objectives
- Increase on their ability to recall
- New method and ideas
- Guide and concern learners
- Practice knowledge and skill acquired
- Feedback
- Evaluate performance
The lesson conclusion provides an opportunity to solidify learners learning. Lesson closure is important to both learners and teachers as it tends to make them discuss what was taught by the teacher.
Lesson closure helps check learners understanding, as well as help, adjust teaching method accordingly:
- Loose end
- Correct students errors
- Emphasis key information
- Preview upcoming topics
Lesson closure helps learners summarize, review and demonstrate their understanding effectively, consolidates and internalizes key information on the topic, links lesson ideas to a conceptual or previously learned language.
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Teachers can put an end to a lesson in the following ways:
- State major points
- Ask learners to summarize
- Ask learners to write down on a piece of paper what they think about the lesson.
Presenting a lesson plan: during class, teachers should let the learners know what they will be learning and the activities they would be doing, this would keep them engaged. Meaningful and well-organized class time helps learners remember better. Follow up the presentation and understanding the rationale behind the planned activities. Teachers should share lesson plans by writing a brief agenda on the board or telling learners explicitly what they would be learning and doing in the class.
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After the class, teachers should take a few minutes to reflect on what worked well, why and what could have been done differently. Teachers should try to identify successful and less successful organizations of class time and activities. This would make it easier to adjust to the contingencies of the classroom and therefore revise the lesson plan if necessary.
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