How to Plan Appropriate and Effective Lessons for Your Students

Are you wondering how to develop effective, fun, age appropriate, and engaging lesson plans that will enhance your students’ academic and general developmental skills??? This article will help you achieve just that.

It is obvious that effective lessons get students thinking and allow them to interact and ask questions, allowing them to tap into their prior knowledge and develop new skills. In this article, I will offer practical advice for both general and special education teachers on how to plan engaging lessons that will help students retain more of what they learn.

Many approaches to lesson planning are content-driven, with teachers being given boxes to fill out. While these approaches include what teachers want to teach, they frequently do not include how they intend to teach it. The “how” makes all the difference in whether or not students learn.

Effective lesson planning requires teachers to determine three essential components: the objective, the instruction (motivation, modelling, & assessment), and a reflection. To start, it is essential to come up with an active objective that is aligned to course content and curriculum. Instead of, “Today we will cover the causes of Civil War,” the teacher should try reframing it so that the lesson appears a little more engaging.  “Today we will explore the various reasons that the Civil War began” may seem like a subtle change, but instead of signaling that you are going to lecture, it allows space for student to figure out together with you.

It is very important for teachers to create lessons that allow students to investigate several possibilities – even wrong answers – so that they truly understand why something is right. As a good teacher, you cannot wing that kind of lesson, you have to set it up intentionally.

Once you have an active objective, it is time to plan the body of the lesson. The body of the lesson is where all the work lies. This is the sections where either the teacher will motivate and engage students in the lesson and model the skill or learning objective in a way that students will be able to comprehend and practice the learned skill independently. While trying to figure out some of the strategies to utilize in the body of your lesson, I suggest writing down open-ended questions and deciding how you will ask them and what you will do if your students do not or cannot answer these questions. How will you probe their thinking? You need to continually facilitate the lesson to keep students focused. I would also encourage teachers to create opportunities for higher-order thinking. Find ways to let students reveal things and put that into your lesson plan. You may want students to interpret a map, analyze a document, and so on. Always make sure they are building their skills.

Next, as a teacher you need to reflect on your teaching to have an understanding of whether students understood the objective or not. Ask students what they learned academically and socially and what they think you could have done differently. The answers you obtain will help you close the lesson thoughtfully. The strategies explained below can assist teachers to create the most engaging lesson plans best suited for the individual learning needs of their students.

1. Determine the purpose of the lesson: If you have a clear expectation, so will your students. Remember that as teachers, we are preparing students for jobs that we don’t even know about yet. They need to learn how to take ideas they hear and come up with new and creative ideas. The lesson plans we create need to provide these kinds of opportunities.
2. Create Space for Student Thinking and Discussion: It is essential for teachers to ensure that their questions allow for student discussion. Can students agree, disagree, and explain their reasoning? Can they arrive at different conclusions and discuss with their peers in a comfortable, safe environment?
3. Be prepared to push student thinking further. It helps so much to have prompts in your lesson plan. How will you take them to the next level? How will you reach the ones who are not getting it? Students must have an opportunity to apply their thinking independently. This should be part of the lesson and can be whole-group, mini-group, or individual work.
4. Make time for reflection. This is the time when you come together with your students and summarize what worked and what didn’t. By listening to students, you will know if you have met your goals and determine if any changes need to be made. It is also important to listen to your students and encourage them to do the same for their peers.

To create safe, collaborative classrooms, teacher should consider building communities that address all levels of learners. They should think with the end in mind, asking, what are my students gaining in this learning? Will they be able to transfer it or apply it to something? The moment you begin planning lessons in a more strategic way, you will be amazed at the difference you will see in student engagement, behavior, and enjoyment. In the end, teachers must have all the students in mind, every decision has to be about the success of every student.

Here are some tips on developing effective lesson plans for your students. Click here to talk with a professional.

1. Incorporate student interests into your lesson
2. Select purposeful activities and assignments
3. Make your lessons relevant
4. Share lessons with your colleagues
5. Refine lessons based on feedback.

Do you need help developing lesson plans for your classroom??? Click here and talk to a professional.