<h1><span id="hs_cos_wrapper_name" class="hs_cos_wrapper hs_cos_wrapper_meta_field hs_cos_wrapper_type_text" data-hs-cos-general-type="meta_field" data-hs-cos-type="text">What Is a Lesson Plan and How Do You Make One?</span></h1>
<strong>A lesson plan is a teacher’s daily guide for what students need to learn, how it will be taught, and how learning will be measured.</strong>

Lesson plans help teachers be more effective in the classroom by providing a detailed outline to follow each class period.

This ensures every bit of class time is spent teaching new concepts and having meaningful discussions — not figuring it out on the fly!

<strong>The most effective lesson plans have six key parts:</strong>
<ol>
 	<li>Lesson Objectives</li>
 	<li>Related Requirements</li>
 	<li>Lesson Materials</li>
 	<li>Lesson Procedure</li>
 	<li>Assessment Method</li>
 	<li>Lesson Reflection</li>
</ol>
<div class="altblock">
<div><strong>Method 1</strong></div>
</div>
<h3 class="in-block sticking"><span id="Creating-the-Basic-Structure" class="mw-headline">Creating the Basic Structure</span></h3>
1- <b class="whb">Know your objective.</b><sup id="_ref-1" class="reference" aria-label="Link to Reference 1"> </sup>At the beginning of every lesson, write your lesson plan goal at the top. It should be incredibly simple. Something like, "Students will be able to identify different animal body structures that enable eating, breathing, moving, and thriving." Basically, it's what your students can do after you're done with them! If you want to do a bit extra, add <i>how</i> they might do this (through video, games, flashcards, etc.).
<ul>
 	<li>If you're working with very young students, you may have more basic aims like "Improving reading or writing skills." It can be skill-based or conceptual. See the related wikiHow on how to write an educational objective for more specific information.</li>
</ul>
2- <b class="whb">Write your overview.</b><sup id="_ref-2" class="reference" aria-label="Link to Reference 2"></sup>Use broad strokes to outline the big ideas for the class. For example, if your class is about Shakespeare's <i>Hamlet</i>, your overview might include covering where in the Shakespearean canon "Hamlet" resides; how factual the history described might be; and how themes of desire and subterfuge might relate to current events.
<ul>
 	<li>This depends on the length of your class. We'll cover about half a dozen basic steps to any lesson, all of which should be included in your overview. You're welcome to have more, however.</li>
</ul>
<b class="whb">3- Plan your timeline.</b><sup id="_ref-3" class="reference" aria-label="Link to Reference 3"></sup>If there's a lot to cover in a fixed amount of time, break your plan into sections that you can speed up or slow down to accommodate changes as they happen. We'll use a 1-hour class as an example.
<ul>
 	<li>1:00-1:10: <i>Warm up</i>. Bring class into focus and recap yesterday's discussion on great tragedies; relate it to Hamlet.<sup id="_ref-4" class="reference" aria-label="Link to Reference 4"></sup></li>
 	<li>1:10-1:25: <i>Present information.</i> Discuss Shakespearean history briefly, focusing on his creative period 2 years before and after Hamlet.</li>
 	<li>1:25-1:40: <i>Guided practice</i>. Class discussion regarding major themes in the play.<sup id="_ref-5" class="reference trusted" aria-label="Link to Reference 5"></sup></li>
 	<li>1:40-1:55: <i>Freer practice.</i> Class writes single paragraph describing current event in Shakespearean terms. Individually encourage bright students to write 2 paragraphs, and coach slower students.<sup id="_ref-6" class="reference trusted" aria-label="Link to Reference 6"></sup></li>
 	<li>1:55-2:00: <i>Conclusion.</i> Collect papers, assign homework, dismiss class.</li>
</ul>
<b class="whb">4- Get to know your students.</b> Identify clearly who you are going to educate. What is their learning style (visual, auditory, tactile or a combination)? What might they already know, and where might they be deficient? Focus your plan to fit the overall group of students you have in class, and then make modifications as necessary to account for students with disabilities, those who are struggling or unmotivated, and those who are gifted.
<ul>
 	<li>Odds are you'll be working with a pile of extroverts <i>and</i> introverts. Some students will benefit more from working alone while others will thrive in pair work or in groups. Knowing this will help you format activities to different interaction preferences.<sup id="_ref-7" class="reference" aria-label="Link to Reference 7"></sup></li>
 	<li>You'll also wind up having a few students that know just about as much as you do on the topic (unfortunately!) and some that, while smart, look at you like you're speaking Neptunian. If you know who these kids are, you'll know how to pair them up and divide them (to conquer!).</li>
</ul>
<b class="whb">5- Use multiple student interaction patterns.</b><sup id="_ref-8" class="reference" aria-label="Link to Reference 8"></sup>Some students do well on their own, others in pairs, and yet others in big groups. So long as you're letting them interact and build off each other, you're doing your job. But since each student is different, try to allow opportunities for all types of interactions. Your students (and the cohesion of the class) will be better for it!
<ul>
 	<li>Really, any activity can be manipulated to be done separately, in pairs, or in groups. If you have ideas already mapped out, see if you can revamp them at all to mix it up. It often just encompasses finding more pairs of scissors!</li>
</ul>
<b class="whb">6-Address a variety of learning styles.</b><sup id="_ref-9" class="reference" aria-label="Link to Reference 9"> </sup>You're bound to have some students that can't sit through a 25-minute video and others who can't be bothered to read a two-page excerpt from a book. Neither is dumber than the other, so do them a service by switching up your activities to utilize every student's abilities.
<ul>
 	<li>Every student learns differently.<sup id="_ref-10" class="reference" aria-label="Link to Reference 10"> </sup>Some need to see the info, some need to hear it, and others need to literally get their hands on it. If you've spent a great while talking, stop and let them talk about it. If they've been reading, come up with a hands-on activity to put their knowledge to use. They'll get less bored, too!</li>
</ul>
<div class="altblock">
<div><strong>Method 2</strong></div>
</div>
<h3 class="in-block"><span id="Planning-Out-the-Stages" class="mw-headline">Planning Out the Stages</span></h3>
<b class="whb">1- Warm them up.</b> At the beginning of every class, the students' brains aren't primed yet for the content. If someone just started explaining open heart surgery, you'd probably be all, "Woah, woah. Slow down. Go back to "take the scalpel."" Ease them into it. That's what the warm up is for -- it not only gauges their knowledge, but it gets them into your groove.<sup id="_ref-11" class="reference" aria-label="Link to Reference 11"></sup>
<ul>
 	<li>The warm up can be a simple game (possibly about vocab on the topic to see where their current knowledge lies (or what they remember from last week!) or it can be questions, a mingle, or pictures used to start a conversation. Whatever it is, get them talking. Get them thinking about the topic (even if you don't explicitly say it yet).</li>
</ul>