Writing the Lesson Plan
STEP 1 REVIEW CONTENT AREA STANDARDS: Guidelines for Using Content Area Standards
Standards are broad goals defined at national, state, and local district levels by experts in each subject field. As broad goals,
standards describe “enduring understandings” that go beyond discrete facts or skills. They focus on concepts, principles,
processes, and procedures that bring coherence to a topic and are applicable to new situations within or beyond a topic.
One of your responsibilities as a teacher is to align your instructional objectives, procedures, and assessments with national,
state, or local standards. Before you write your lesson objectives (in Step 3), take time now to find the standards appropriate
to your state, content area, and grade level(s) that match the goals of your lesson.
You would not likely cover all of the standards for a particular topic in one lesson. You would choose one or more concepts
that could be appropriately taught in one lesson and then design additional, sequential lessons to build on students’
conceptual understandings to cover all the grade level concepts.
STEP 2 WRITE LESSON OBJECTIVES: Guidelines for Writing Lesson Objectives:
An instructional objective often contains three main components: the Audience, the Behavior, and the Context. In these
ABCs of objectives, the audience is expectedly the learners or students for your grade level or a span of grade levels. In
constructing lesson objectives, your focus then lies in:
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Identifying the behavior or type of performance you will want your students to engage in during the lesson and,
Describing the context in which students will demonstrate that behavior or performance.
Action words such as compute, identify, demonstrate, predict, analyze, summarize and so forth should be used to explain or
describe what you want students to do. When you write your objectives begin with, “Students will be able to” and then name
the behavior and context for each objective.
STEP 3 THE LESSON INTRODUCTION: Guidelines for Planning a Lesson Introduction
Guided by standards and objectives, teachers bring the content of the lesson into the familiar world of the student through
lesson activities and procedures. Learning activities that engage students in “doing” rather than reading or listening, shift
their roles from passive knowledge receivers into more active roles as constructors of meaning.
The introductory activities in a lesson are especially important to its success. Begin the lesson with a “hook” that creates
interest, arouses the motivation of the students, and prepares them for coming activities. An introductory activity can also
enable you to assess the prior knowledge of your students so you can more carefully plan for instructional modifications
during the course of the lesson. Your imagination, creativity, and prior experiences as a student and teacher are called for
here, but be sure to stay true to your lesson content, instructional objectives, and the standards.
Different introductory activities can be used to engage students, create interest, arouse motivation, and assess prior
knowledge. Here is an example.
Create a “Hook” Open the lesson by showing brief segments of videos, pertinent websites, introducing a walk through the
illustrations of a book, a newspaper or magazine article, or some other brief opportunity to pique student interest and
perhaps gauge prior knowledge.
Stimulate Dialogue. Dialogue between students and between you and students can be initiated by questions.
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Ask: What is weather? What factors are important in producing weather? How are these various factors measured?
How are these factors used in predicting the weather?
Guide Student Discourse. In guiding student discourse, try to go beyond surface knowledge and probe for connections that
demonstrate understanding.
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Even as your goal here is to have students observe something specific, be generally accepting of students’ answers.
Record them in your own notes and/or on the chalkboard. Remember that the purpose of an introductory activity is
to engage students in “doing,” to create interest, and to arouse motivation. There will be plenty of opportunities in
later activities for students to confront and clear up misconceptions and construct new knowledge and
understandings.
Introductory activities should be brief. Your goal here is to open a door to learning. As soon as possible, escort your
students through the door by moving on to the next sequence of activities.
STEP 4 PLAN FOR AND SEQUENCE LESSON ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES: Guidelines for Designing and
Sequencing Lesson Activities
Your lesson plan should include a step-by-step order to identify each student activity and teaching strategy you will use to
reach your instructional goals. Note that some lessons you plan will be completed in one class session but many will take
place over several days. Plan accordingly.
Here are some considerations in designing and sequencing lesson procedures.
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Consider what content and skill tasks can best involve the students in gathering information, organizing it, and
using the new information in some way.
Key all lesson procedures to the instructional objectives you created for the lesson.
Design original activities and consult various lesson sources for developmentally appropriate strategies and ideas.
Select lesson activities and procedures that fit a particular instructional approach. For example, lesson formats for a
guided inquiry lesson, reading and writing workshop, or direct instruction would each use a specific sequence of
strategies.
Ask yourself appropriate questions to guide your planning and lesson procedures. For example, in an inquiry lesson,
ask: What questions related to the introductory activities can students investigate? What information or data should
they collect? How can I have them organize the information? How can I help them make sense of the information
gathered? How will students apply what they learn to demonstrate their learning?
Steps might include:
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Data gathering
Interpretation of gathered data
Extension
STEPS 5 DIFFERENTIATE INSTSRUCTION TO MEET ALL STUDENTS’ NEEDS: Guidelines for
Differentiating Instruction
Where Students May Struggle
Begin by brainstorming a list of areas within your lesson where students may struggle. Consider common misconceptions as
well as the individual needs of the students in your classroom. Ask yourself:
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Is there vocabulary to address up front?
Is there prior knowledge students need to build upon?
Are there steps in the procedure that might be new and should be reviewed?
Differentiating Instruction
Building on this list, generate specific adaptations that will help the lesson reach all students in the classroom. Be sure to
interact with all of your students and be prepared to provide moment by moment scaffolding assistance as needed. Ask
yourself:
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Should vocabulary be translated to English learners’ home language(s)?
Are there physical adaptations that could be made for students with visual, hearing, or physical disabilities?
Can additional challenged be embedded for gifted learners?
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STEP 6 ENGAGE IN FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT THROUGHOUT THE LESSON: Guidelines for Engaging in
Formative Assessment
Assessments that are directly related to the lesson objectives need to be built into lesson planning. Formative assessment
involves gathering information during the lesson through listening to and observing students, assessing their performances,
or examining their products. In ongoing assessment, student performances might be assessed by asking students to discuss,
write, measure, collect and organize information, make a visual or audio presentation, and so on. Ongoing assessment could
also involve tangible products such as writing samples, data tables, models, reports, written explanations, and problem
solutions.
Ongoing assessment may begin at the onset of a lesson by accessing prior knowledge and continue throughout the lesson to
determine students’ learning. Assessment during a lesson will allow you to check individual student understanding or the
development of skills, abilities, and knowledge and to make adjustments while the lesson is in progress.
STEP 7 DEVELOP RUBRICS: Guidelines for Developing Rubrics
Rubrics can be used as ongoing or end of lesson assessment tools. These are scoring guides to document and judge the quality
of student performances or products. A checklist is simply a list of expected abilities or performances, with space available for
teacher observations and notes. A rubric defines several different levels of knowledge and abilities in specific terms.
Teacher-made paper and pencil tests or tests provided by basal publishers can also be used to provide a basis for feedback to
students and for monitoring and adjusting instruction for continuous improvement of learning.
STEP 8 PREPARING SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT: Guidelines for Preparing Summative Assessments
End of lesson assessments ask students to demonstrate learning through performance tasks or with paper and pencil tests.
Performance tasks offer a wider range of options than traditional tests for students because they ask students to communicate
what they know and what they are able to do with their knowledge. Performance assessment tasks are generally authentic.
Performance tasks always require student performances that can be observed or a product that can be examined.
Performance tasks are particularly useful for allowing students to demonstrate new abilities, and at the same time, display
their understanding by applying what they know.
Creating a good performance task involves determining the focus of the task, setting the context for the task, writing
directions for students, and developing a scoring guide. Checklists and rubrics might serve as scoring guides.
STEP 9 CHOOSE AND LIST LESSON MATERIALS AND RESOURCES: Guidelines for Choosing and Listing
Lesson Materials and Resources
Research indicates that people do not learn just from being told. In the process of constructing new knowledge, students
need opportunities to try things out, process the results of their activities, learn from their mistakes, and try again.
Regardless of the subject area, good lessons must utilize an abundance of materials and resources for student use.
Materials are the physical objects you will need to implement student activities and instructional procedures. These may
include laboratory materials and microscopes in science; measuring instruments, such as rulers and balance scales in
mathematics and science; maps and globes, calendars, or primary source documents for social studies.
Resources include the information sources you may use in your lessons. Examples include the Internet, the library, reference
books, videos, DVDs, and so on. Once you have written your lesson activities and determined the teaching strategies and
assessment tools you will use create a list of materials and resources you will need for your lesson.
Create a list of materials that you will need to teach your lesson and that student groups will need to conduct weather
investigations. Include:
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Teacher Materials
Student Materials
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Lesson Plan Template and Instructions
Grade/Age:
Common Core Standards addressed/ modified standards/ alternative standards:
Content Area Standards addressed:
Content Objectives:
Language Objectives:
Key Vocabulary: Vocabulary / terms the children might learn. Include also strategies you will use to ensure access to all children.
Materials: List of all (teacher and student) materials needed for the lesson (including books)
Pre-assessment: Include also your pre-assessment – How does the pre-assessment help you plan for the lesson? How does the preassessment link to post-assessment?
Motivation / Connection to Prior Knowledge: Prior learning and experiences. Introduction of children’s academic content
knowledge, language development, cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development, family/cultural assets, interests and lived
experiences.
Clock Time
Procedure
Focus Learners adaptions/
accommodations/
modifications
Focus Learners link
to individuals goals
Creative Introduction/ mini-lesson
Behavioral Expectations/ Classroom
management clarifications
Body including group/ independent
practice
Closure, summary, or sharing
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Extension/ Homework
ASSESSMENT
PREPARING SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
Guidelines for Preparing Summative Assessments
End of lesson assessments ask students to demonstrate learning through performance tasks or with paper and pencil tests.
Performance tasks offer a wider range of options than traditional tests for students because they ask students to communicate
what they know and what they are able to do with their knowledge. Performance assessment tasks are generally authentic.
Performance tasks always require student performances that can be observed or a product that can be examined.
Performance tasks are particularly useful for allowing students to demonstrate new abilities, and at the same time, display
their understanding by applying what they know.
Creating a good performance task involves determining the focus of the task, setting the context for the task, writing
CHOOSE AND LIST LESSON MATERIALS AND RESOURCES
Guidelines for Choosing and Listing Lesson Materials and Resources
Research indicates that people do not learn just from being told. In the process of constructing new knowledge, students
need opportunities to try things out, process the results of their activities, learn from their mistakes, and try again.
Regardless of the subject area, good lessons must utilize an abundance of materials and resources for student use.
Materials are the physical objects you will need to implement student activities and instructional procedures. These may
include laboratory materials and microscopes in science; measuring instruments, such as rulers and balance scales in
mathematics and science; maps and globes, calendars, or primary source documents for social studies.
Resources include the information sources you may use in your lessons. Examples include the Internet, the library, reference
books, videos, DVDs, and so on. Once you have written your lesson activities and determined the teaching strategies and
assessment tools you will use create a list of materials and resources you will need for your lesson.
Create a list of materials that you will need to teach your lesson and that student groups will need to conduct weather
investigations. Include:


Teacher Materials
Student Materials
Part III - COMMENTARY
Using Assessment to Inform Instruction: Reflect upon your experience teaching this lesson and consider what you learned about
yourself. Analyze the effectiveness of your instruction and plan for your next steps.
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Identify lesson objectives from the learning segment measured by each daily assessment record.
Describe any changes in the assessment, records, or objectives from what was identified in lesson and
describe why the changes were made.
Summarize each focus learners progress towards lesson objective (chart or paragraphs).
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Analyze what each focus learner appears to understand or do well and where s/he continues to struggle, or
needs greater changes. Describe patterns, misunderstandings, errors, confusions, or needs.
Analyze connections between each focus learner’s outcomes and instruction, support, and/or the learning
environment. How did your instruction, support, or modifications of the learning environment lead to each
focus learner’s progress on or attainment of lesson objectives? Cite evidence from the assessments to
support your conclusions.
Submit either student work samples, copies of assessment tools or copies of your data collection procedures. Please
use worksheets ONLY for Kindergarten and above.
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