Creating Meaningful and Effective Lesson Plans

by Melony Brown

Ever take a vacation? Likely you didn’t just jump in the car and drive aimlessly once you decided where you were going to visit. Instead, you chose a location, decided how long you’d be gone, and packed all the items you’d need while there. You planned ahead of time so you and your traveling companions would enjoy the time away to the fullest extent possible.

Lesson planning has many similarities to taking a vacation. You need to know where you’re going, as well as the items you’ll need while there. Knowing how long the lesson or unit will take is essential to gauging how much time to allot. Using your knowledge of your students’ strengths and weaknesses will ensure they get the most out of your lesson.

Teaching before a group of students is an incredible responsibility. Those students are expecting you to be prepared, know/understand the material, engage them in the learning process, present various opportunities to demonstrate their understanding, prepare them for the evaluation, and care about each one of them.

How do you plan effective lessons?

First, you must know your students. Which ones learn best with hands-on activities? Which ones will absorb the material no matter which method you use? How long can you expect them to sit quietly and listen? Build in breaks or movement in the classroom to hold their attention. Would creating groups for a project be the best way for them to demonstrate their understanding? Most students do not learn much from a lengthy lecture. In our technologically advanced world, the lessons you teach need to be short and direct. Using technology as often as you can will reach your students as this speaks “their language.”

Effective lessons are meaningful to your students. Students will benefit from and retain the information of your lessons if you make the information meaningful to their lives. How do you do this? Take a lesson about finding the price of an item after a discount. Instead of just showing them the math formula and computing it on the board, bring in a shirt from one of their favorite stores. Give them the original price, the amount of discount, and ask them to tell you what the new price is. If you read one of Shakespeare’s plays, discuss a current example of the problem in the play and how they would solve it. Now, the material has meaning for them.

Next, you must be very familiar with the material. Don’t limit yourself to the materials your school provides you at the beginning of the year. Challenge yourself by using technology to teach your lessons. Is there a person you could bring in as a guest speaker for that topic? Is there a hands-on project they could create in lieu of a scan-tron test? Be prepared to answer their questions about the subject. Above all, make sure you have all the needed materials/persons on the day(s) of your lesson.

Once you’ve decided what information needs to be presented and you’ve collected the materials, you need to look ahead to what you expect your students to know at the end of the lesson/unit. Create goals and objectives that will point you and your students to the outcomes.

Because testing is so much a part of the teaching profession, you need to make sure the quality of the lessons you teach will propel your students toward a long-term retention of the material. Remember, pencil and paper tests are not the only way to evaluate whether or not your students learned the material. Be creative with your assessments.

Effective lesson planning requires you, the teacher, to challenge yourself as much as you challenge the students.