Teaching Plan || Lesson Plan

How To Plan Effective Lessons

An effective lesson makes students think and allows them to interact and ask questions, take advantage of their previous knowledge and develop new skills. This article offers practical tips for planning interesting lessons that will help your students retain more of what they learn.

"Many approaches to lesson planning are content-based, which gives teachers some tables to complete," says Peter Brunn, director of professional development at the Center for Development Studies in Oakland, California, and author of the Lesson Planning Manual: Essential Strategies that inspire student thinking and learning. "While these approaches include what we want to teach, they often do not contain how we are going to teach it." It is the "how," says Brunn, that makes the difference in whether students really learn.

Effective lesson planning requires the teacher to determine three essential components: the goal, the body, and a reflection.

To get started, propose an active goal. Instead of "Today we will cover the causes of the Civil War," try rephrasing it to make the lesson seem a little more interesting. "Today we will explore different reasons why the Civil War began" it may seem like a subtle change, but instead of indicating that you are going to give a lecture, it gives students space to solve it together.

Brunn encourages teachers to create lessons that allow students to investigate various possibilities, including wrong answers, so that they really understand why something is right. "You can't use that kind of lesson," he says. "You have to intentionally configure it."

Once you have an active goal, it's time to plan the body of the lesson. Brunn suggests writing open-ended questions and deciding how you will do them and what you will do if your students do not or cannot answer these questions. How are you going to probe his thinking? You need to continually facilitate the lesson to keep students focused.

Judy Sheldon, a secondary social studies method instructor and field supervisor for teaching students at Syracuse University, encourages teachers to create opportunities for higher order thinking. "Find ways to allow them to reveal things and put it on their plan. You may want them to interpret a map, analyze a document, etc. Always make sure they are developing their skills," says Sheldon.

Then it is time for reflection. Ask students what they learned academically and socially and what they think they could have done differently. Brunn says the answers will help him close the lesson carefully.

Brunn has worked with educators at Virginia Beach City Public Schools to help them design more effective lesson plans. The district emphasizes 21st century skill development, so teachers seek to infuse effective communication, collaboration, problem solving, critical thinking, and creative thinking into all of their lessons.

"We are trying to show that the teachers have many open questions for some of us to discuss," says Lorena Kelly, coordinator of the fundamental teaching curriculum. "When you prepare your dessa maneira classrooms, they become more strategic."

Kelly acknowledges that he was challenged to change the traditional method of ensal of sálvia no palco to sign in the background and deixar as lições um pouco mais ambíguas, but she firmly accredited to moving. "You lose a lot of control, but when you grow up assume or control, they are much less learned than I learned," she says.

Kelly e Kelli Cedo, who coordinate district Title I programs, conducted classroom planning workshops using the following strategies:

• Determine the aim of the lesson. If you have got a transparent expectation, therefore can your students. Remember, we tend to square measure getting ready our students for jobs we do not nonetheless fathom, says Kelly. "They got to learn to require ideas they hear and are available up with new and artistic ideas. Our lessons ought to give those styles of opportunities."
• Create house for student thought and discussion. "I raise lecturers to form positive that their queries yield student discussion," says Cedo. "Can students agree, disagree, and justify their reasoning? will they are available to totally different conclusions and see their peers during a snug and safe environment?"
• Prepare to push that student to assume additional. it's useful to possess directions in your set up. however can you're taking them to consecutive level? however can you reach those that don't seem to be receiving it? Students ought to have the chance to use their thinking severally. this could be a part of the lesson and may be a full cluster, mini-group, or individual assignment.
• Take time for reflection. this is often the time after you meet together with your students and summarize what worked and what did not. By listening, you may recognize if you have got met your goals and confirm if any changes square measure necessary.

And of course be sure to listen to your students and encourage them to do the same for each other.

To help teachers learn how to create safe and collaborative classrooms, Cedo guides them in building communities that address all levels of students. She encourages teachers to think with the end in mind, asking: What are my students gaining from this learning? Can they transfer it or apply it to something?

Kelly and Cedo say the teachers they worked with were amazed at the difference they saw in student engagement, behavior, and enjoyment once they began to plan lessons in a more strategic way. "In the end, we must consider all students. Every decision must be about the success of each student," says Kelly.

Here are some more tips on developing effective lesson plans:

• Incorporate student interests into your lessons. "People learn what they want to learn," says Melinda Schoenfeldt, a professor in the Ball State University Department of Elementary Education. "If you discover their interests and work on them in your lessons, they will pay attention and learn more."
• Take into account the needs of your students. "His lessons should reflect the cultures of the children; they should be seen in the room," says Schoenfeldt. "When I was young, I told my mother that I wanted to be a boy because my teachers read stories about boys having adventures while the girls laughed on the sidelines. Boys need to see themselves in literature, in the images you put in the wall and in the examples you give. "
• Select purposeful activities and tasks. Schoenfeldt says that the best activities keep children actively involved and involve as many senses as possible. They must also match the needs of the students.
• Make your lessons relevant. Write down why the lesson is relevant, advises Sheldon. "The answer can't be 'because it's on a state test,'" she says. "You need to figure out how to link the lesson to what is happening today. Find a way to make it timely, even if it is a little difficult to achieve."
• Share lessons with your colleagues. Sheldon encourages teachers to share lessons that work, and others that don't, with their colleagues. Talk about ways to improve those lessons. That way, everyone benefits.
• Refine feedback-based lessons. Bob Kizlik, a retired university professor and creator of the ADPRIMA website for teachers, says that teachers should aim for continuous improvement. "Sit down and analyze the results of what happened," he says.