Every lesson and class is different. By mastering and creating your own lesson plan, it brings you one step closer toward having a better grasp of the content and methods you are about to teach.

A lesson plan is a structure for a lesson. The content depends on what the teacher wants to achieve in the lesson and how they hope to achieve it. Callum Robertson states that:

‘If you imagine a lesson is like a journey, then the lesson plan is the map. It shows you where you start, where you finish and the route to take to get there.’

This is particularly helpful for inexperienced teachers as they may want to produce very detailed plans, stating clearly what is happening at particular times throughout the lesson. However, as teachers gain experience and confidence they develop the ability to go into class with a short list of notes or even with the plans in their head and still manage to conduct the lesson sufficiently. This is also supported by many theorists as they argue that too much planning can make the lessons rather rigid and prevents the teacher from being flexible to the needs of the students.

Effective lesson planning is the basis of effective teaching. Teachers who create lesson plans must be aware of what grade level they are developing the plan for and record a time estimate to help time budgeting throughout the lesson. Almost all lesson plans contain instructional procedures in order to communicate the target material effectively, the required materials and anticipated problems for the students and the teacher. One of the most important reasons to plan is that the teacher needs to identify their aims. It is essential to express the concept in the aims and have clear and realistic goals as it provides a focus for the planning and can help prevent possible confusion. It also ensures that the lesson is well balanced and appropriate for class, gives the teacher more confidence and is a sign of professionalism.

Lesson plans that are not well organised or clear in their direction can be difficult to follow and may affect the students’ educational experience as a result of this. Many teachers are required to write their plans in advance. Teachers often rush through completing their lesson plan in order to hand it in to their superior; due to this, the teacher later suffers during the lesson when they attempt to teach from their plan because it may not be sufficient enough to adequately conduct the class.

The amount of planning and thought a teacher puts into their lessons really depends on how much they want the class to achieve. There are many different tools to help teachers prepare their lesson plan, this includes: planning books, templates, and forms.

Writing lessons requires organisation, and even if you use these tools to help deliver your lesson but you are not adequately organised, you may find that they do not help very much. Therefore, before you start the lesson there are a number of things to consider in order to help ensure that the lesson runs according to plan, such as, checking that you have your lesson plan, making sure that the equipment works, laying out all the relevant materials and aids so that they are easily accessible and running through your lesson plan before hand to make sure you have a full understanding of the target material.

Danielle Colairo