You might be a little bit afraid of doing your first lesson plan. I know very well that feeling and I’ve been in that place too, but there’s nothing to be afraid of.
You might be a little bit afraid of doing your first lesson plan. I know very well that feeling and I’ve been in that place too, but there’s nothing to be afraid of. Actually, it’s very simple, and once that you understand the reason why you’re planning in specific that activity or requesting that material it would be way more easier.
Some schools of collages will give you a template that you have to follow, but some of them will let you do so with the format that best fits you and that’s okay too. Here you’re going to learn how to create one and review it.
First thing first. The most important part of a lesson plan it’s the format, you have to decide if you want to place everything in very detail or just place the important points, both ways are fine, and what works best for you matters.
Now, how do you know which one works better? well, that’s very simple. No one knows you better than yourself, you prefer to have everything written it down with all the details or you prefer to just have the keypoints because you remember almost everything, or maybe in some parts you will detail everything and in other parts, you just need key points, it will depend directly on you.
Another thing that you need to know it’s that you can create a lesson plan daily, weekly or monthly. I prefer to do it daily because it helps me to remember all the information about the class, I also have the weekly tracker when I place on which date I have to impart the class, with which group, and the time.
In all the lesson plans it will be a common factor that yes or yes to have to have:
We will detail everything in 3 parts:
In this section you have to delimit the following information:
You must set the goals of the class because based on this it will be easier to do your lesson plan, if you know your destination you will be able to create your route.
As I mentioned before in other articles, you must know very well the subject that you’re imparting. How you expect to teach something that you don’t even dominate, it’s okay if you don’t remember everything about a topic but you must know what are you talking about, you have a responsibility to your students and they trust you and your knowledge so the last thing that you can do is be prepared for your class.
Someone once gave some advice: If you expect your students to be interested in your class from the beginning you have to be able to catch their attention, and there’s nothing that will catch more your attention than the topic of your class. Once I understood that I started creating interesting titles for my classes and I noticed the difference.
The majority of the teachers do not pay attention to this step but it is very important as well. The icebreaker doesn’t refer to playing a game it has a purpose and it is to stimulate the brains of your students and create a connection from the beginning of the class.
Now, here it comes the challenge, this is one of the most important parts of your lesson plan. In this part, you have to be very careful about what you place here because this part will guide you through the entire class.
In this part, you have to delimit if the students will have homework, and if they have it you have to prepare a space to provide the instructions, shows them an example, and clarify doubts. After you finish your class you must keep records of all the information about the class, if something in particular happens, if you complete all the activities in your class, and if the goals of the class were accomplished. This will help you to keep a record of your accomplishements through each class and if there’s anything that you have to improve or keep track of something.
The last thing, is you have to time everything, how much time you will dedicate to each section in that way you will be able to approach all the time that you have available.
