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Lesson Plan Guide: How to Create Lesson Plan Outlines

Author: Darian Khalilpour

Date: March 28, 2024

Tags: Educational Staffing, Lesson Plans, Substitute Teaching, Teaching, Teaching Jobs

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Being a school teacher isn’t easy, especially for new teachers. One of the best ways to be an effective and engaging teacher is to create clear lesson plan outlines. Lesson plans translate the curriculum into learning activities that help students understand the objectives and goals of what they are learning. But learning how to create a lesson plan can take some practice. To offer some tips to help, we put together this lesson plan guide.

How To Create a Lesson Plan

1. Lesson objectives: Once you have identified the standard you’re working on, the first step is to define the objective by setting specific goals for your students. Measuring student success becomes a lot clearer once the objective has been explicitly stated. One of the most popular goal-setting strategies is using the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Sensitive) criteria. Student goal setting throughout the lesson can increase buy-in, and help students recognize when they may need additional help with the skill.
   • Example: For a 5th-grade science lesson on the water cycle, a SMART objective could be: “By the end of this 45-minute lesson, students will be able to correctly label all four stages of the water cycle (evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection) on a diagram with 90% accuracy.”
2. Lesson materials: Next, you’ll need to consider what materials you need to teach the lesson. When choosing, you want to be sure that you find content and material that is relevant to your students. Materials can include textbooks, activity sheets, supplies like scissors and glue, and various technology when appropriate. A detailed, written list of materials can help you remember to print lesson handouts and have supplies ready to go when students need them.
   • Example: For English teachers, it may be helpful to create a material list for each book your class will read. This could include the number of copies you’ll need, character analysis worksheets, a projector for displaying key quotes, colored markers for group work on themes, and exit ticket slips for assessment.
3. Lesson procedures: When planning the order of your lesson, it’s important to remember that each student in your classroom has a unique set of needs and varying ability levels. This makes it vital to plan your lessons in a way that will ensure success for everyone, like allowing time for brain breaks, work with a partner, or independent work time.  To help stay on track while managing these needs, it could be helpful to break down your weekly lesson plan into a timeline, especially if there is a lot of information to cover in a short amount of time.
   • Example: Here is a sample timeline for a 3rd-grade math lesson on multiplication:
     • 5 minutes: Warm-up with quick mental math exercises
     • 10 minutes: Introduction of multiplication concept using visual aids
     • 15 minutes: Guided practice with manipulatives in small groups
     • 5 minutes: Brain break with a math-related movement game
     • 10 minutes: Independent practice with differentiated worksheets
     • 5 minutes: Wrap-up and preview of next lesson
4. Assessment methods: Throughout your lesson, be sure to use various assessment methods to measure whether your students are meeting objectives. Assessments can include exit tickets, quizzes, group projects and presentations, writing assignments, or summative end of unit tests. The assessment method chosen should depend on the lesson’s objectives and what students should be showing mastery of by the end. By using quick formative assessments throughout a lesson, you can learn if your students are fully understanding the subject or if your lesson plans need to be adjusted.
   • Example: For a middle school history lesson, you could implement the following assessments:
     • Formative: Think-Pair-Share discussions on key events
     • Group project: Creating a timeline of significant moments
     • Exit ticket: Writing lesson recap and one remaining question after each class
     • Summative: Essay comparing two historical figures from the period covered
5. Lesson reflections: Once you have finished the lesson, it is always valuable to reflect on what went well, what you may need to reteach, and how you can adjust your upcoming lesson plan outlines to meet the needs of your students. Think how the timing of your lesson plan went. Did you have to rush over certain parts? Did students struggle to understand the information? Were they engaged in learning? How did they do on their assessments? Considering these questions can help you improve your teaching style.
   • Example: Here is a sample reflection for a 1st-grade reading lesson: “Today’s lesson on short ‘a’ sounds went well overall. Students were engaged during the hands-on portion of the lesson, but I noticed some confusion during independent practice. Next time, I’ll provide more guided practice before moving to independent work. The exit tickets showed that 80% of students met the objective, but I’ll need to work with a small group tomorrow to reinforce the concept. I’ll also adjust the pacing to allow more time for hands-on activities.”

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