Lesson Planning

Successful Lessons

• Engaging and challenging• Attaining the goals and objectives• Exciting and fun• Connecting learning content with students’

prior knowledge and personal experiences• Staying focused on the learning• Reinforcing• Depth and breadth (depth is more important)

What do you intend for your students to learn?

• Do you know your students well?• What do they know?• What can they do?• What might interest them?

Teachers’ Preparations

• Define the scope of objectives and tasks.• Master the learning content.• Prepare audio-visuals (pictures, OHPs, etc.)• Gather resources, ideas, activities, and

hardware or software.• Prepare handouts and other materials.• Rehearse.

Constructivist’s Approach

• Vygosky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)• Scaffolding• Teachers as facilitators• I + 1 Theory

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Create an adequate learning environment

• Space to hold all students and all students can see the teacher’s talking and demonstrations.

• Movement• Both teacher and students are visible to one

another.• When gathering students to the rug area, make

sure they don’t squeeze or bump into each other.

• Watch the lighting and temperature.

Plan a lesson

• Think ahead the scope of the lesson and what elements you should include for the lesson.

• Over prepare• Decide tasks and activities• Consider diversity

Rationale

• Why is this lesson significant?• How is the content of this lesson appropriate

for students?• How does this lesson fit in the current

curriculum?• How will the learning in the lesson impact

students?

Objectives

• What will students gain in this lesson?• Make it short and relevant. For a 30-45

minute lesson, it is unrealistic to include too many objectives.

• The objectives should be measurable so that you will be able to assess if you have attain your intended objectives.

• Student will be able to (SWBAT)

Common Core Curriculum Standards

• Look up the state standards on the Web.• Follow the curriculum standards.• Make adjustments.

Get to know your students

• Who can do what?• What they like or dislike• Who has special needs and how can you help?• Who has special talents?• Students’ family background

Hooks – get them excited and help them get the picture

• Pictures• Stories • Songs/ dance/ silly movements/ Yoga• Art and crafts• Questions• Transitions• Activities

Common Classroom Activities

• Large group instruction• Centers (Train students and get help)• Small group work (grouping is important)• Pairs • Individual work

Strategies for successful activities• Don’t use the worksheet too soon before you

present information and make sure the majority students understand.

• Don’t give out answers too soon. Give them sometime to think about the answers to questions.

• When students are making random guesses, provide some clues to teach them to make educational guesses.

• Ask questions. Use visuals.• Connect students and involve all in activities.

Sequencing • Arrange the tasks to flow from easy to hard.• Provide information and structure tasks in small

chunks. (Students have short attention spans.)• Break down hard concepts into smaller ideas and

provide tasks for students to gradually develop the knowledge/ ability and grasp the concepts.

• Whole group instruction > demo > practice > small group > individual help

Assessment

• Formative assessment vs. summative assessment

• Observing students• Questioning• Feedback• Follow-up checking• Making modifications

Provide help

• Prepare cheat sheets;• Provide steps to solve problems. Reinforce the

steps and help student master the information.• Have better students to help the worse ones.• Provide references from previous tasks.• Provide teacher modeling.• Provide individual help.

Wrapping up the lesson

• Summarize the learning content and experiences.• Ask questions to assess students’ understanding.• Give assignments or homework.• Announce the follow-up plans.

Differentiating Instruction• Identify students’ needs.• Customize instructional activities to address

individual’s needs.• Customize assignments or tasks so that the

learning disabled students can learn.• Allocate extra time for slower students to work.• Consider cooperative learning.• Make specific tasks/plans for specific students.

Bad Lesson Plan Examples

• Too sketchy• Objectives are too many.• No specific objectives for learning.• Objectives and activities don’t match.• Cannot assess students’ achievements.

Concerns• Have your students learned something new?• Is your lesson decorated with bells and whistles

with little or no actual learning?• Is your teaching content too easy?• Is your lesson entertaining but not challenging?• How much control do you have over your

students’ learning?