There are umptillion ways to create perfect structures and ideal road maps to guide your students to a successful learning experience. Maybe you write your own lesson plans, collaborate with a colleague, or follow a scripted program. No matter the approach, here are eight questions to ask yourself so you can tweak any plan to be effective in your classroom.
1. Who am I teaching?
Take stock of your students and their specific needs. What are their backgrounds? What are their abilities? What is your class's personality? Are students courteous, and do they follow directions easily? Or are they rowdy and need to move a lot? Can they digest direct instruction? Consider who students are and what the group is like as an entity.
2. What do students already know?
Find out what students have previously learned that relates to what you are teaching. Your lesson plan will build upon that foundation.
Chuck, a veteran elementary school teacher, was following a tried-and-true lesson plan to introduce fractions. His students quickly ate up the assignment, finishing the 25-minute lesson in just five minutes. He was flabbergasted. Then one student raised her hand and said, "I saw this when you taught it to my brother a few years ago. I don't know everything about fractions, but I know this!" The other students chimed in, letting him know what they knew. Chuck immediately identified his mistake: "Never start anything without first asking what they know about the topic. That student taught me more in 15 seconds than I learned in grad school."
3. How can I make this work for everyone?
Lessons can quickly unravel when a group of students finishes early and starts to distract the class. You can avoid this pitfall by factoring differentiation into every lesson plan. Which students need a challenge? Which need the material to be scaffolded in a more intentional way?
I like starting my lessons by speaking to the entire class, and then meeting with smaller groups to differentiate the lesson material. Is it more work, and does it take more time to plan? Yes. But does it pay off? Always.
If you work with small groups, make them flexible. If a student needs more challenge or review, move him to another group, even if it's just for that lesson. Don't let academic skill be the only factor you consider when creating groups. If you know that two students don't work well together, split them up.
Also, for early finishers, I always plan for extra work, the next step, or a fold-back-into-the-lesson task that allows students to help others with the material. This prevents them from sidetracking students who are still focusing on the original task.
4. What materials will work best?
Make a list of the exact materials you'll need. Then decide which of these materials work well for you. For instance, if you like teaching with small dry-erase boards, then incorporate them into the lesson.
Jaime, a middle school teacher, liked to jump-start her lessons by allowing her students to read, write, and draw in response to an inquiry-based question. But the lesson plan her school gave her was scripted in a way that killed her natural rhythm as a teacher. The manipulatives were old-fashioned, and the script was boring. She changed the entire lesson to make it her own, and the lesson went perfectly.
Rewrite it. Change it. Make it work for you.
But don't avoid learning something new, like how to use different technology or other tools. The first year I taught with an interactive whiteboard was a steep learning curve for me. I have always been pretty savvy with technology, but the board felt like a monster. Luckily for me, the new science curriculum I followed incorporated the whiteboard in each lesson, slowly teaching me to use it. My students applauded my efforts; by June, I was a wiz, and they were, too.
5. What are my students' roles?
Kindergarten teacher Alonzo always thinks about a "silent action plan."
"This is what you will see if you walk into the classroom and turn the volume to zero," he said. "It separates what students are learning from what they are physically doing."
There is a temptation to incorporate only the ideas of the lesson into a plan. I like to add more details, designing not only what will be taught but also how it will be digested. That equates to an action plan. Are the students working in groups? Do they need to travel around the room to complete the task? Do they work on their own, and later review one another's work? By writing down these details, you will discover just how much students will be doing.
Administrators also like to know what they will see students doing when they visit your class. It lets them know what they can expect. And, if you need to make changes on the fly, as often happens, it shows how those changes affect the original plan.
I also share a few sentences with students to tell them exactly what they will be learning and what they will be doing. Write an agenda with the different steps in the lesson, post it, and refer to it as a group, just like you would for a daily schedule. Cross off the steps as you complete them.
6. Am I prepared?
Actors and athletes review their script or game plan before they appear on stage or the whistle blows, and you must do the same. Do you know what you need, and do you have it? Are you comfortable with what you are teaching? If you need to rely on a script, then convey the importance of the material by telling your students, "I am looking at my lesson plan to be sure I'm doing what I planned and not leaving out any steps."
7. How will I know what my students have learned, and how will they know what they have accomplished?
Did you do a quick check for understanding in small groups? Did you collect students' work, or give them a quiz? These are good ways to monitor students' progress.
In your lesson plan, add a few questions that will encourage students' self-reflection when the lesson is complete: Why did we do this? What did you learn? How do you think you will use this tomorrow? Questions like these help students absorb the information and make the experience stick.
8. How will my classroom management skills complement this lesson?
Keep in mind that management and curriculum go hand in hand. If you don't have strong classroom management techniques, you won't be able to teach anything, no matter how inventive and captivating the lesson plan. Likewise, if you don't teach anything thought-provoking or new, your finely tuned management skills will be worthless.
Also, while you assess whether your management skills are keeping a steady course, you must also consider whether your students can manage themselves. Can they function independently and deal with frustration and challenge? Do they know what to do if they get stuck on a problem? If they don't, that's an invaluable lesson to teach.
The Best Laid Plans
Of course, this isn't a complete list of questions you should ask yourself when reviewing or writing a lesson plan? It's simply meant to inspire you to think about your lesson plan, review and revise it, and look forward to teaching it.
A good lesson plan is a living document. It is not set in stone, but rather it is a guide that keeps you—the classroom practitioner—engaged and thinking about what you are teaching. Reviewing your plan gives you the opportunity to make alterations and make it more effective before the show begins. Use what works for you, and be sure to plan so it brings out the best in you as a teacher—and in your students.
