importance of methodology in lesson plan

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The importance of lesson planning for student success.

Navigate the educational landscape and unlock the secrets to successful teaching with our blog on lesson planning for student success. Explore its significance to teachers and understand why a lesson plan is important in teaching. This comprehensive guide outlines the importance of lesson planning for teachers and provides valuable insights into creating well-structured plans that resonate with curriculum goals. Immerse yourself in strategic lesson planning for a transformative teaching experience that fosters student success and educator growth.

Lesson Planning Is Essential to Teaching

Any experienced teacher will tell you that lesson planning is a big part of the job. Teachers around the world routinely spend as much as half of their working time on non-teaching activities, and lesson planning accounts for much of that time. 1, 2

Lesson planning is how teachers synthesize the curriculum goals with pedagogy and knowledge of their specific teaching context. 3 Ask ten teachers about the benefits of lesson planning, and you might very well get ten unique answers. There are also different opinions about how far ahead a teacher should plan lessons. Some recommend working a week out, while others advocate planning a month ahead. 4, 5

In the end, though, creating successful learning outcomes for students is the goal. Although well-designed lesson plans take time and thought, it's an investment that can provide returns in many ways. Explore the elements to consider when creating lesson plans and what factors teachers can include in planning to assure success for themselves, their classrooms and, most importantly, their students.

The Many Reasons Why Lesson Planning Is Important

Effective lesson planning contributes to successful learning outcomes for students in several ways. A well-designed lesson plan:

• Helps students and teachers understand the goals of an instructional module
• Allows the teacher to translate the curriculum into learning activities
• Aligns the instructional materials with the assessment
• Aligns the assessment with the learning goal
• Helps assure that the needed instructional materials are available
• Enables the teacher to thoughtfully address individual learning needs among students

Effective lesson planning can also contribute to the teacher’s own success and well-being. Teachers teach because they want to support students, and effective lesson planning can contribute to job satisfaction when a lesson is successful or a student does well on an assessment. Having a skillfully-planned lesson can also make the act of teaching more pleasurable by increasing the teacher’s confidence in themselves and letting them focus more on interaction with the students than on what is supposed to happen next. Importantly, good planning can save time by avoiding last-minute efforts to buy supplies or create materials needed for a day in the classroom. Teachers can use that reclaimed time for themselves or other parts of their lives, increasing work-life balance.

The Importance of Lesson Planning to Effective Curriculum Delivery

“Curriculum” is a word with many meanings, depending on the context. At the most abstract level, curriculum theory addresses such different aspects of teaching as what elements are included in the course of study, along with considerations of how it is taught and tested. See “What Are the 8 Types of Curriculum?” for more on curriculum theory.

Some curricula are more detailed and structured than others. 6 Regardless of the level of detail, the importance of lesson planning is that it bridges the curriculum’s intent with the daily teaching and learning in a classroom. At a minimum, lesson planning adds the element of time, breaking the curriculum into units delivered each session. Usually, though, teachers incorporate their training and knowledge of their students into the task, translating a previously developed curriculum into an action plan for their classroom.

The Importance of Lesson Planning to Student Assessment

The lesson plan translates the curriculum into clear daily goals for student learning that include a description of the objective and a way to measure the student’s attainment of it. 7 A few standard measurement methods are tests, homework assignments and group work. One benefit of the lesson plan is fitting the assessment to the particular goal while accounting for your specific situation. Some educational writers argue that teachers should design the evaluation before designing the learning activities.4 Working outward from the central idea of the learning objective allows teachers flexibility in choosing the type of assessment that will best suit their students and the classroom environment.

Why Lesson Planning Is Important for Classroom Management

Building the lesson plan outward from your learning goals also offers much-needed flexibility in adapting instructional delivery and classroom management during uncertain times. Classes that move from onsite to online or hybrid require different delivery methods, requiring adjustments to existing plans. Such situations highlight the importance of lesson planning in keeping the class moving smoothly from task to task regardless of the learning environment. Advance lesson planning also minimizes the need for discipline and allows you to make the most of your time with students.

Better Lesson Planning Creates More Student Success

Student success and good behavior are more likely when your pupils are actively engaged in classwork. A thoroughly planned lesson facilitates that desirable state by considering unique student educational needs. “All successful teachers need to be pupil-focused; in other words, you have to think about how the learning activity you have set up will be experienced by each pupil, and how this experience will generate your intended learning outcomes.” 8

​​Better Lesson Planning Is Important for Teacher Success

Teacher success is predicated on student success. Beyond that, the documents you create as part of the planning process are usually part of your evaluation by school administrators. Therefore, having well-prepared and documented plans is an integral part of your success as a teacher. Your lesson plans also become a repository of your growing knowledge as you continue to teach. The importance of lesson planning in furthering your professional growth is undeniable. Cultivating good habits for preparing and reviewing your lesson plans prepares the ground for your success.

• Retrieved on January 20, 2022, from oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/5js64kndz1f3-en.pdf?expires=1642704108&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=793A8F13FA53BD6FF0680CA7F2DDD448
• Retrieved on January 20, 2022, from businessinsider.com/teachers-time-spent-after-school-work-2019-10#planning-lessons-can-take-several-hours-a-week-4
• Retrieved on January 20, 2022, from tesol.org/docs/default-source/books/14002_lesson-planning_ch-1
• Retrieved on January 20, 2022, from edutopia.org/blog/9-ways-plan-transformational-lessons-todd-finley
• Retrieved on January 20, 2022, blog.planbook.com/lesson-plan-classroom-management/
• Retrieved on January 20, 2022, from https://www.edglossary.org/curriculum/
• Retrieved on January 20, 2022, from edutopia.org/article/how-universal-design-learning-can-help-lesson-planning-year
• Retrieved on January 20, 2022, from educationblog.oup.com/secondary/english/why-is-planning-so-important-for-effective-teaching

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Lesson Plan Procedures: A Guide for Teachers

Lesson Plan Procedures

In this article, we will explain how to properly perform a lesson plan in school by diving deeper into lesson plan procedures. We will discuss the three major steps involved in lesson plan procedures and share how teachers can self-evaluate their lesson plan success.

What is a Lesson Plan Procedure?

Lesson plan procedures are the sequence or step-by-step guidelines detailing how a teacher plans to deliver a lesson to students. This includes the activities, methods, materials, and timing necessary to effectively facilitate learning.

Typically, there are three stages of a lesson plan that make up the lesson plan procedure. These stages are the motivational opening, the development of the lesson, and the closing of the lesson. However, there may also be some form of formal or informal periodic assessment. Periodic assessment throughout a lesson will alert you to any misconceptions or misunderstandings students may have long before they conclude the lesson.

Let’s take a closer look at the three major stages of effective lesson planning.

The Three Stages of Lesson Plan Procedures

Step 1: the motivational opening.

The first stage of a lesson plan is critical! It’s how you’ll stimulate students’ interest in the topic.

Start by asking students a thought-provoking question, such as, “How would you like to sleep for four months every year?” or “Did you know we can measure any tree on the playground without climbing it?”Other attention-grabbing openers can include the use of models, maps, apparatus, or a demonstration.

When starting a lesson, don’t make the mistake of assuming what students know. For example, just because students studied  American history  in elementary school, had a basic  history  course in middle school, and are now in your high school history class, don't assume they know all there is to know about American history. Take the time to find out. Bottom line: Always know what your students know!

Step 2: The Development of the Lesson

The development of a lesson plan is the heart of any lesson. It’s the portion where you teach and students learn.

This vital stage is when students will obtain valuable information, manipulate data, and engage in active discovery through total involvement. Include some of the following elements in this stage:

• Lesson methodologies.  Not only is it important to give some thought as to what you're going to teach, it is equally significant that you consider the methods of presentation as well. I'm sure you've been in a class where the only method of instruction was dry, stale lectures. You undoubtedly found the class boring and wearying. The same fate awaits your students if you provide them with an overabundance of one type of teaching methodology to the exclusion of others. (These are addressed in  Lesson Methodologies )
• Problem-solving.  As I discuss in  another article , problem-solving is an inherent part of any lesson. Providing students with the opportunities to solve their own problems in their own way is a valuable motivational technique.
• Creative thinking.  Learning is much more than the memorization of facts. Any lesson must allow students opportunities to manipulate data in new and unusual ways.
• Hands-on activities.  It's critical that students have sufficient opportunities to create products based on what they learn. These might include but are not limited to posters, dioramas,  charts, graphs , mobiles, notebooks,  portfolios , and models.
• Students critique the directions or set up for a presentation or demonstration.
• Students verbalize the steps they're taking during the completion of an activity.
• Students manipulate objects or devices and verbalize their feelings about their actions.
• Students work in small groups to share information learned and how it relates to prior knowledge.
• Students graph or illustrate significant points on the chalkboard for class critique.

Teaching Tip! When creating lesson plans, consider both short-term and long-term projects for students. This will keep the learning experience interesting as you switch up styles.

Step 3: The Closing of the Lesson

The closing of the lesson is a vital stage where you recap key points and help students consolidate their learning. It’s an opportunity to review the lesson's objectives and assess whether they have been met. This can be done through summary discussions, quizzes, or reflective activities.

It's also important to provide an outlook for the next lesson, thus creating a seamless transition and maintaining students' interest.

Teaching Tip! To keep your students engaged, try ending the lesson on a cliffhanger. This can be by proposing a question or telling them an enticing bit of information (e.g.“, Tomorrow I'll bring in a creature with eight eyes. You won't want to miss it!”).

Lastly, it’s good practice to end the lesson on a positive note to boost students' confidence and encourage them to look forward to the next session.

Self-Evaluation in Creating Lesson Plan Procedures

As you write lessons, include a brief section at the end that allows you to self-evaluate. This will be important when and if you decide to teach the lesson again. It will also provide you with some important insights relative to your perceived level of success.

You might consider some of these self-evaluative questions:

• “How was my pacing?”
• “Did students understand the content?”
• “Did students understand the important concepts?”
• “Did I use my time appropriately?”
• “What changes should I make the next time I teach this lesson?”
• “Were students engaged and involved?”
• “What new activities or procedures could I include?”
• “Did I present the lesson well?”

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