Unit 2: Lesson Planning

By
Naveed Shahzad
Need of Lesson Planning
 A road map
 Shows what and how will be taught
 Describes course of instruction
 Guides instructions
 Describes preferences of subject being covered,

activities being held

 Ensure students about lesson being taught
Lesson planning is beneficial because
• It helps in achieving goals and objectives, and same can be said
on the part of the students.
• It helps to get rid of problems or avoid them.
• It gives a reality check of everyday performance.
• It improves the habit and attitude of the students.
• It improves the teaching skills.
• It makes teaching ordinary and easy.
• It makes the teacher organized during teaching.
• Lesson planning determines when to include the interesting facts
to attract the students’ attention.
 • It enables the teacher to impart the things the students can do at

the best of their abilities.

Process of Lesson Planning
A successful lesson plan addresses and integrates these
three key components:
• Objectives for student learning
• Teaching/learning activities
• Strategies to check student understanding
Stages of Lesson Planning
Pre-planning Stage
Before teaching the teacher has to think about the lesson plan for
a particular class. The Center of Excellence in teaching (1999)
recommends that the answers to the following questions may
help the teachers to proceed for effective planning:
- What are my objectives for this class?
- What are the objectives for this class?
- Why is this material important?
- What content will be covered in the particular class?
- What will the students already know?
- What materials will be needed?
Designing a Lesson Plan
1-Introduction
• Provide an outline of what will be done in the class. Giving a
structure helps the students to organize their thoughts and
integrate new ideas.
• Summarize the previous lesson if the ideas are similar to this
class. Recall of previous knowledge helps the students to
relate new ideas too.
• Present an issue related to the topic and ask students to
generate a list of questions. Connecting the lesson with these
questions will give a picture of students’ experiences, they are
familiar with and be able to relates the topic to their lives.
This shows that what you are teaching is relevant and draws
their attention.
2- Development

 Development is an important part as it describes about

teaching, or “instructional methods” such as, lectures,
discussions, labs, collaborative learning, etc.
• Try to engage students as much as possible in the learning
process. Active learning is one of the ways to engage
students. It not only retains students’ attention but also
helps them to develop higher-level thinking skills.
• Attempt to use a variety of teaching methods in a class. Any
single method may not work for all students. A variety of
methods keeps their attention and enhances learning.
• Give students the chance to apply the taught skills by using
the concepts. This will help them learn and give a chance to
the teacher to assess informally. This assessment will
provide clarification of learning and need for further
3- Conclusion

 Ask for questions:

The last few minutes of class are an excellent time to have students raise
questions and explore the ideas on their own.
 Summarize the main points and explain how they relate to the
course:
Students do not always see how everything fits together. The teacher
makes the link between the activities of one class to the larger course. In
this way a teacher best helps the students develop a conceptual
understanding.
 Next lesson:
Again, this shows relevance to the lessons linked to one another and
helps students develop a conceptual understanding.
 Recapitalize or one-minute writing about the taught lesson:
With one or two minutes remaining in class, ask students to take out a
sheet of paper and, without putting their name on it, write what they
believe was the main idea of the class and one question they have about
the lesson content.
Post-planning Stage
 The teacher’s lesson planning process should take into
consideration the need to assess whether students have
learned? How effective the lesson was?
 This assessment is not a complicated or difficult task. It

is very simple and informal. For instance, using part of

the class to let students work on problems you have
given them, or discuss issues and apply concepts, can
give you a good sense of what and how much they have
learned. The one-minute writing about the lesson or
homework problems can be similarly helpful.
Approaches to Lesson Planning
Common lesson planning elements include:

• 3-5 lesson objectives

• Content to be covered
• Activities (lecture, group work, problem-solving, etc.)
• Resources and materials needed (including technology)
• Timing
• Out of class work and assessment
Classical lesson planning models
The following classic lesson planning models are most
popular in lesson planning. These are:

1) Gagne’s frame work for instructional development,

2) Hunter’s seven steps of lesson planning and
3) The 5 E's lesson planning model
Gagne’s frame work for instructional
development
The nine events of instruction are:
i) Gaining attention:- Students attention is gained towards the
lesson. There
are many ways to gain students’ attention; such as teacher links the
lesson with the students’ previous knowledge, start from the daily
experiences of the students related to the lesson.
ii) Informing learners of the objective:- state the objectives of the
lesson. Make the students aware of what they are going to learn.
iii) Stimulating recall of prior learning:- in order to make link with
the previous knowledge, the teacher may asks questions to recall
the prior learning.
iv) Presenting the content:- the teachers present the new concepts.
Define and describe the details of the concepts before the
students.
Cont…
v) Providing learning guidance:- the teachers use the audio and visual
aids in order to create a best learning environment.
vi) Providing opportunities to practice:- the teachers use examples from
the daily life and provide opportunities to revise/drill the new lesson.
Sometimes the teachers give class work for the improvement in
learning.
vii) Providing feedback (information about how to improve):- the work
assignments of the students are checked by the teacher and comments
are given. The students are asked to correct the work.
viii) Assessing performance (exam, tests, papers):- the evaluation
methods are used to check the students’ performance on the learned
concepts. The assessment of students’ progress can be carried out by
daily/monthly tests, examinations, etc.
 ix) Enhancing retention and transfer:- the teacher organize activities

to help students remember and retain the learned concepts.

Madeline Hunter’s Seven Steps Lesson
Plan
Hunter developed a seven steps model of lesson planning. These steps are
associated with the direct instruction method and behavior change
practices.
The seven steps fall under four categories as follows:
I. Getting students set to learn
Step 1: Review -- Typically at the beginning of the lesson, review
previous material that is relevant to this lesson.
Step 2: Anticipatory Set -- Getting students to focus their attention on
the material to be presented -- getting them interested or prepared for
what they are about to learn.
Step 3: Objective -- State the objective for the lesson.
II. Instruction
Step 4: Input and Modeling -- Presenting new information to students.
Once the material has been presented, using them to show students
examples of what is expected as an end product of their work.
III. Checking for understanding
Step 5: Checking Understanding -- Determining whether
or not students are making sense of the material as the
material is being presented.
Step 6: Guided Practice -- Immediately after instruction
students are given the opportunity to apply or practice
what they have just learned and receive immediate
feedback.
IV. Independent practice
Step 7: Independent Practice -- After students appear to
understand the new material, they are given the
opportunity to further apply or practice using the new
information. This may occur in class or as homework, but
there should be a short period of time between instruction
and practice and between practice and feedback.
5 E's Lesson Planning Model
The 5 E's Lesson Planning Model is most often
associated with constructivist
learning design. It involves following 5 E’s:
• Engage - students come across the material, define
their questions, do the basic work for their class work,
make connections between new and known ideas,
identify the relevant practices from their daily life.
• Explore - students directly involved with material,
go through the learning process to solve the
problems. They work in a team to share the knowledge.
• Explain – the student gets an opportunity to explain the learned
concepts
such as discoveries, processes, and ideas by written/ verbal assignments or
through creative writing/ projects. The teacher supplies material, books/
resources, gives feedback, enhances vocabulary, and clarifies
misconceptions/wrong points if any.
• Elaborate – the teachers can enhance students’ knowledge with the
help of
other examples and expand their knowledge by explaining similar
concepts, and asking them to apply it to other situations. The learning of
the new concepts also raises questions relating to other concepts (lead to
new inquiry).
• Evaluate – evaluation of learning is an on-going (continuous) process.
Both teacher and learner check the understanding of the concepts. Different
evaluation techniques can be used such as rubrics, checklists, teacher
interviews, portfolios, problem-based learning outputs, and assessments
results. Results are used to evaluate the students’ progress and to modify
instructional needs in future.
Course and Unit Planning
Once you have determined the needs of learners, it is
time to consider designing and planning the course.
Following are some suggested steps in this process.
- Decide a topic
- Determine objectives
- Identify learning outcomes- (the desirable results)
- Determine assessment
- Design learning experiences and organize material- the
content
- Develop evaluation mechanism-evaluation
- Information marketing-course description
Cont…
 Deciding a Topic
 Planning Backwards
 Overarching Goals
 Learning Outcomes
 Levels of Abstraction
 Writing up Outcomes
 Discussion of Outcomes
 Check of Understanding
 Assessment
 Planning Content
 Important Points
 Evaluation
 Course Description
Strategies for daily and weekly planning

The following points demonstrate why planning is so critical to

success.
• Planning can greatly reduce your stress quotient. Proper
planning gives you the peace of mind of knowing that you
have formulated a feasible plan of action and that your goals
are attainable.
• Planning also helps you to be prepared for obstacles because
part of the planning process is creating a emergency pan for
unexpected problems.
• Planning serves as a way to evaluate your progress as you
work. Planning your daily and weekly activities will clearly
illustrate whether or not you are staying on schedule.
Tips for Planning to achieve objectives
 Clearly define your objectives
 Brainstorm on the tasks
 Define the roles your take in fulfilling goals
 Daily weekly scheduling
 Keep evaluating your performance and progress
 Review your planning at the end
Always Remember
Make SMART objectives: that is
1. Specific
2. Measurable
3. Achievable
4. Realistic
5. Timed
Steps in Lesson Planning
Outline Learning Objective
• What is the topic of the lesson?
• What do I want students to learn?
• What do I want them to understand and be able to do at the end
of class?
• What do I want them to take away from this particular lesson?
Develop the Introduction
• How will I check whether students know anything about the
topic?
• What are some commonly held ideas (or misconceptions) about
this topic
that students might be familiar with?
• What will I do to introduce the topic?
Plan the specific learning activities (the main body of the lesson)
• What will I do to explain the topic?
• What will I do to illustrate the topic in a different way?
• How can I engage students in the topic?
• What are some relevant real-life examples, similarities, or
situations that can
help students understand the topic?
• What will students need to do to help them understand the topic
better?
Plan to check for understanding
• What questions will I ask students to check for understanding?
• How will students demonstrate that they are following?
• Going back to the list of learning objectives, what activity students
can do to
check whether each of those has been completed?
Develop a conclusion and a preview
Conclude the lesson not only by summarizing the main
points, but also by making
its link to the next lesson. How does the topic relate to
the one that’s coming up
next? This opportunity will increase students’ interest
and help them connect the
different ideas within a larger context.
Create a realistic timeline
A realistic timeline will reflect your flexibility and
readiness to adapt to the specific classroom
environment. Here are some strategies for creating a
realistic timeline:
Cont…
• Estimate how much time each of the activities will take,
then plan some extra time for each.
• When you prepare your lesson plan, next to each
activity indicate how much time you expect it will take
• Plan a few minutes at the end of class to answer any
remaining questions and to sum up the key points
• Plan an extra activity or discussion question in case you
have time left.
• Be flexible – be ready to adjust your lesson plan to
students’ needs and focus on what seems to be more
productive rather than sticking to your original plan
Lesson Plan Format
I. Title of the lesson
II. Time required to complete lesson
III. List of required material
IV. List of objectives
V. The Set (bridge-in) cards, pictures, models etc
VI. An instructional component (sequence of events in lesson)
VII. Independent practice for students
VIII. A summary at the end
IX. An evaluation component
X. Analysis component (teacher reflects on lesson)
XI. A continuity component (reviews & relates content from
previous lesson)