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Download lesson plan template in Microsoft Word format.
Make Your Life Easier with a Lesson Plan Template
Are you a teacher or other professional looking for an easy, yet comprehensive lesson plan template to help you with your daily and weekly lesson plans? Have you considered borrowing from one of the many templates of this kind online? Writing lesson plans is a necessary, yet cumbersome task, but with a quality template you’ll find this task takes less than half the time of writing one out by hand. In this article we will outline the value of a daily or weekly lesson plan, and show you some of the things to look for in a lesson plan template.
Do I Really Need to Write a Lesson Plan?
If you’re a beginning teacher, one of the most important tools of your new trade is the daily lesson plan. Lesson plans help keep you organized and well-paced during the course of a classroom session, and allow you to impart all of the required daily knowledge in a particular subject area. Lesson plans also help to break down the class session into various blocks or components; allowing students time to practice and demonstrate the new knowledge they have received in the early part of the lesson. For this reason, most school districts require new teachers to write and share their lesson plans with the administrative staff on a regular basis.
Unfortunately, far too many experienced teachers will forgo the daily lesson plan, but some of the most successful teachers admit that these plans are a vital part of their classroom preparation and tools they could not live without.
What Should Be Included on a Lesson Plan Template?
If you’re searching for a lesson plan template online, one of the things you’ll undoubtedly find is that each of these templates differs slightly from one to the next. This should not discourage you, though. Depending on the state in which you live and the particular guidelines of your school district, lesson plans will vary slightly, but at minimum, all templates should contain space to input at least the following information:
- Lesson Plan Title. The title of the lesson plan, along with the subject and standards the lesson plan addresses, should be at the top of the document.
- Goals/Objective. Each lesson plan you create should have an end goal and several specific objectives. This will help you with your assessment which will come after the class session has concluded.
- Required Materials. Listing the required materials for the lesson—items such as books, paper or even a VCR—will help you prepare for your lesson beforehand.
- Anticipatory Set. The anticipatory set, which usually occupies the first 5 minutes of the lesson, is a way to get students’ attention and get them thinking about the lesson. This could be a short writing assignment, a relative quote, etc.
- Direct Instruction. Direct instruction is where you as the teacher will use various procedures to impart the required knowledge.
- Guided and Independent Practice. Teacher-guided practice, followed by independent practice or home work, will help you assess whether or not the information was retained.
- Assessment and Reflection. Finally, in the assessment portion of the lesson, you will reflect on how well the daily or weekly goals and objectives were met and make plans to improve or adjust this lesson plan in the future.
Using a lesson plan template will help ensure that all required elements have been met and nothing has been omitted, while also saving you plenty of time and hassle in the process.