Foundation Skills/The why, what and how of planning a lesson/session sequence/What can be included in a lesson plan?

What can be included in a lesson plan?
The challenge for teachers, who are always working to tight timeframes, is to decide what should be included in a lesson plan and how much detail should be included. This will depend on your context - perhaps your team uses a common template, or not much details are required in the lesson plan. The important point is that the lesson plan should be a document that you are comfortable to work with.


 * As a rule of thumb, I think that your lesson plan should be detailed and complete enough so that another lecturer who is knowledgeable in your subject area could deliver the lesson without needing to contact you for further clarification.

To get the most out of a learning session time and effort needs to be put into the planning. A great place to start is with a framework. One such framework is the 5 W’s.

Consider:


 * Who are your students/participants?
 * Where is the learning session to take place? – environment, resources
 * When will this occur? – time of day, length of session
 * Why is this session being run? – the intent and aim of the session?
 * What is the focus and content of the session?

Or you may want to use a three-part framework by starting to ask yourself the following questions:


 * Where are your students going?
 * How are they going to get there?
 * How will you know that they’ve arrived?

Here are some of the things that could be included in a lesson plan - the lists are by no means exhaustive!

'''Where are your students going? This is the Introduction to the lesson.'''
 * Arousing interest
 * Broad goals & specific objectives
 * Lesson description
 * Prerequisites
 * Setting the scene
 * Providing links
 * Importance of topic

'''How are they going to get there? This is the Body of lesson.'''
 * Content – knowledge, skills, attitudes
 * Delivery – teaching strategies, e.g. lecture or discussion using PowerPoint slides
 * Student-centred activities, e.g. group discussion, focus questions
 * Resources, materials

'''How will you know that they’ve arrived? This is the Conclusion of the lesson.'''
 * Bringing it all together
 * Answering student questions
 * Assessment of learning
 * Student satisfaction
 * Linking lessons

Once you've decided what to include, think about the timing of each event or episode and how the lesson will flow and be organised.