Lesson Planning

A lesson plan can help:

• Align learning outcomes with class lessons.
• Organize course content.
• Ensure there is time for instruction and planned activities.
• Prepare instruction with available reference materials for each lesson or unit.
• Serve as a guide for a teaching assistant to teach the course in your absence.

Although lesson plans can be adapted to fit the needs of a course, most should include:

• Date(s) and time(s)
• Learning objectives
  What you would like students to know or be able to do after the lesson?
• Anticipatory sets/hooks
  Develop an introduction to the material that will capture the students’ attention.
• Teacher modeling
  How will you demonstrate a specific skill or strategy?
• Guided practice
  After introducing new content, provide students with an opportunity to work collaboratively to complete a task with faculty guidance.
• Learning activities
  What activities will engage the students?
• Independent practice
  Provide students with the opportunity to practice alone what has been presented in lecture.
• Assessments
  These can be formative or summative in nature and help monitor student learning.
• Resources
  What materials will be made available to supplement learning?
• Reflection
  Choose an activity that will encourage learners to think about what they have learned or experienced and help make meaning of it.

Wiggins and McTighe (2005) developed a comprehensive lesson-planning tool to guide faculty through lesson planning. The following guide and template have been adapted to apply to a higher education environment and include new important planning elements. The needs of your lesson plan will depend on the characteristics of your course.

Use the following steps and template as a starting point.