Virginia Tech—English Education
Lesson Plan Template
Name:
Date:
Class Period:
Cooperating Teacher’s Name:
Room #:
Overarching Concepts or Binding Theme: What general concept creates a sense of unity across
multiple units and lessons? How does this lesson connect thematically to other lessons? How will you
bring the content into dialogue with the students’ lives? (See Smagorinsky Chapter Four for more
information). You may also phrase these in the form of Essential Questions; however, they should be
written in a way that there is no “right” answer. They should emphasize concepts, while requiring
students to use knowledge in developing answers, and it should cause the students’ learning to
uncover and recover important ideas. For example, “What can we learn from viewing the world from
the perspective of our of our rivals?”
Unit Goals: List goals from the larger unit that this lesson addresses? (Should be written in studentfriendly terms. What will the students know, understand, and be able to do, and/or create as a result of
this unit?)
Standards Addressed: List SOLs this lesson will address and assess.
Lesson Objectives/Goals: What will students know, understand, and be able to do (create/apply) as a
result of this lesson. Be specific and be sure to use active verbs that can be assessed.
Materials Needed: List materials needed (including page numbers for discussion questions/items
from texts).
Technology: List technology needs for this lesson.
Introduction/Hook: How will you draw students into the lesson, engage them, and help them see the
relevance of the lesson to their lives?
Instructional Processes/Steps: This is the roadmap for your lesson. This is the longest part and
should be a step-by-step instructional manual of the lesson (I would strongly suggested making a note
of pacing estimates).
 Bullets and/or a numbered lists of steps and/or activities are often the best way to present this
part of the lesson plan.
 Be sure to include the questions you will ask students to stimulate discussion or check for
understanding.
o List page numbers or areas from texts that you will reference
 Identify what information the teacher will disseminate (direct instruction/teacher-centered)
and how the students will be involved in their learning (indirect instruction/student-centered).
This can be done by simply labeling the steps in the process as direct or indirect – just put the
Revised 1/15, T.T. Stewart
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appropriate term in parenthesis at the end of the statement, i.e., as above. Be sure to think
about how you will model and guide students through concepts and check for understanding.
Guided Practice: Describe activities that will scaffold student learning related to the learning
goals.
Independent Practice: Describe activities that students will engage in independently (during or
after class) to reinforce learning.
Differentiation of Instruction: List ways lesson will make accommodations for individual students’
needs.
Interdisciplinary Connections: List ways this lesson connects to other content areas. (Be realistic.
Do not make up connections simply to list them)
Assessments/Rubrics: How will you assess the students’ understanding of concepts, skills, and
strategies? What will you do to know that the objectives of the lesson and the larger unit were met?
Multiple forms of assessment should be used and described here. Any rubrics being used should be
attached to the lesson plan.
PLN Inspiration: How did your professional learning network (including books, teacher scholars,
cohort, class instruction, internet resources, etc.) help you create this lesson?
*Note: This template is just that: a template. It is one way to organize a lesson plan. You might find
that other ways of organization work better for you. You might also find that your cooperating
teacher would prefer that you use a different format. Both cases are fine. I simply ask that you try this
format to get started and ensure that whichever format you eventually adopt includes the elements
listed above.
Revised 1/15, T.T. Stewart