Ready to plan? Consider the following

These are some points to consider before we sit down and plan.

Before you begin consider the following:

 1. Atmosphere:  Adopting the persona of one of your students, can you visualise how they might experience the lesson? Will your lesson plan enable you to achieve the learning experience?

2. The learners: When thinking about your lesson, have you considered how it will engage your learners? Will they enjoy the lesson and more importantly will it be of benefit to them?

3. The aims: This is largely informed by your learning outcomes, but it is important to not only consider what the learners will achieve, but also what you are hoping to achieve. In addition, good lesson plans clearly state the aims of each lesson.

4. The teaching point: Has the subject matter of the lesson and where it fits within the broader picture of your unit been clearly described in your lesson plan?

5. The tasks and teaching procedures: When documenting the 'active' component of your lesson, consider what you want the learners to do or practice. In addition, your lesson plan should consider whether the activities chosen are appropriate, and if so, how they will be sequenced to scaffold learning. You should also clearly indicate activities that are to be completed before, during or after class by the learner, with clear directions for how feedback will be provided to students.

6. The challenge: Are there parts of the lesson that learners will find challenging? In your plan, have you made time to alert students to these conceptually difficult tasks and have you made allowances to accommodate different speeds and styles of learning and acquisition?

7. Materials: What texts, video, audio or other material, such as butcher's paper are required for the lesson to be successful? For activities that require a device or specific software, are the students required to bring their own device or will they be able to use equipment with the necessary software/hardware already installed?

8. Classroom management: Good lesson plans will document how you introduce a concept, assign time to tasks and arrange students in the classroom or online space. They should also explicitly indicate how student interaction is to occur. For example, Teacher to Student, Student to Teacher or Student to Student.

Would you add any other? 

More interesting material for teachers at https://learningandteaching-navitas.com/navitas-learning-teaching-podcasts-series-one-transformation-tertiary-education/