Planning a lesson
Before teaching, deliberate lesson planning will ensure teaching and learning in the classroom is focused towards the achievement of long to medium term learning goals.
Without a plan, instruction can become a random assortment of activities with little rhyme or reason. Designing an effective lesson involves making decisions about:
- what the students will learn
- how you will know that the learning has taken place
- how you intend students to learn it.
Lesson design process
This 4 step process supports the decision-making process and helps to maintain a focus on learning:
- Clarify the lesson purpose and identify the learning goal/intention for the lesson:
- What do you want the students to learn?
- Why does this learning matter?
- Consider assessment:
- How will you know the learning goal has been achieved?
- What will the students do/produce?
- Structure the lesson as a series of episodes:
- How will the lesson flow to ensure the learning/goal intention is achieved?
- Decide what will occur within each episode:
- Which learning experiences and resources best support the achievement of the learning goal/intention?