What is a lesson plan?

A lesson plan is a well-detailed pedagogical document that clearly describes the course of instruction or “trajectory” for a class lesson. A daily lesson plan is developed by a teacher to guide and monitor students’ learning. The amount of details in the lesson plan will vary depending on the experience of the teacher, the component being covered, and the needs of the students.

Components of a lesson plan

the title of the lesson

Time required to complete the lesson

Modes of interaction

Modes of work

Techniques

Instructional materials

Objectives, competencies and goals

Stages of the lesson (warm-ups…)

Procedures and transitions

Practice activities

Evaluation and assessment

Reviews and reflections

Goals and objectives

Teachers need to have a precise concept of educational goals/objectives/standards/competencies. Depending on the lesson, teachers will have to identify which objectives, standards, and competencies students will be required to achieve.

Materials

Also known as teaching and learning materials. They are a set of objects, human, non-human resources that teachers rely on to teach their students a certain language element. Instructional materials are so important because they make learning exciting, meaningful, joyful, and interactive.

Printed materials	Textbooks, handouts, study guides, manuals, worksheets, journals, texts
Audio materials	Cassettes, microphone
Visual materials	Charts, real objects, photographs, transparencies
Audiovisuals	Videos, tapes, films, television, multimedia
Electronic Interactives (tools)	Computers, graphing calculators, tablets, interactive whiteboards, data projectors, DVD player, audio player

Input

Input (content) is chosen according to the needs of students. The content must be:

Interesting,
Meaningful,
Engaging,
Appealing.

Instructional procedure

Teachers need to have a plan to provide direction toward the attainment of the selected objectives and goals. They must decide how to sequence the teaching items according to the approach they are adopting. Sequencing may be from easy to difficult, from known to unknown, from familiar to unfamiliar …etc.

Timing

The teacher will have to carefully plan time. Effective teachers are time managers. They know how to systematically and carefully plan the time they have.

Evaluation procedure

At the end of each lesson, there should be some kind of evaluation to determine who achieved the lesson objectives and who didn’t. Note that continuous assessment is already taking place.

Remember that lesson plans are so important for teachers. Yet, you will not stick to them every single time. Sometimes, you will have to improvise or change something depending on the situation. Just as precise preparation is important, flexible delivery is equally important.