What is a Lesson Plan

A lesson plan is the smallest written piece of teacher planning. Every teacher writes one for each lesson, sometimes informally and sometimes very formally. Despite how common lesson plans are, many teachers confuse them with activity schedules.

What is not a lesson plan

Imagine a document that lists activities by minute, with no other information.

Is this a lesson plan? No. The document divides time among activities. It tells the teacher what to do at each minute mark. But it does not include any of the things a lesson plan needs: objectives, rationale, learning outcomes, assessment, or connection to a unit.

This is called an activity schedule. It schedules activities in time. It does not plan a lesson.

The core principle

A lesson belongs to a unit. It serves a unit’s learning outcomes. It develops a unit’s processes. It connects to other lessons in the same unit.

An activity schedule treats a lesson as 40 or 50 minutes to fill. Fill it with reading. Fill it with discussion. Fill it with writing. The minutes pass. The teacher has done something with each one. But the lesson has no purpose beyond filling the minutes.

A lesson plan treats a lesson as a piece of a unit. The unit on Light needs ten lessons. Each lesson is one piece. The first might be on what light is. The second on primary and secondary colors. The third on transparent versus translucent. Each lesson plan describes one piece of this larger unit.

This connection is what gives a lesson plan its purpose. The teacher does more than fill 40 minutes. They advance one specific piece of the unit’s larger work.

Defining a lesson plan

Two phrases matter.

“Systematic design.” The lesson plan has structure. It is not random notes. The teacher has thought through the lesson and produced an organized document. Every part has a purpose.

“Development, implementation, and evaluation of instruction.” The plan covers all three:

1. Development. What is being taught and how it is being taught.
2. Implementation. How the lesson runs in real time.
3. Evaluation. How the teacher checks whether the lesson worked.

A document that covers only one or two is not a complete lesson plan. A plan that has activities but no evaluation cannot tell the teacher whether learning happened. A plan that has objectives but no implementation cannot be used in class.

A second useful framing from: a lesson plan is a rehearsal for delivering actual instruction. The teacher walks through the lesson on paper before walking through it in class. The rehearsal catches problems before they happen.

Components of a lesson plan

A lesson plan should include each of the following components.

1. Subject and unit topic. The subject (e.g., Science) and the unit this lesson is part of (e.g., Light). Knowing the unit is essential because the lesson serves the unit.

2. Lesson topic. The specific topic of this lesson (e.g., Primary and Secondary Colors). The lesson topic is more granular than the unit topic.

3. Instructional objectives. What students will be able to do by the end of this 40-50 minute lesson. The same principles apply here.

4. Rationale. Why these specific objectives were chosen for this lesson. The rationale connects the lesson’s objectives to the unit’s learning outcomes and the curriculum’s broader standards.

One detail. In a unit plan, the rationale appears at the unit level (why this unit, why this content). In a lesson plan, the rationale appears at the objective level (why these specific objectives), because the unit-level rationale was already given in the unit plan.

5. Procedures. The detailed plan for how the lesson runs. The procedures break into five sub-steps:

1. Focusing event. How the lesson opens to capture attention.
2. Teaching procedures. What the teacher does.
3. Student activities and participation. What the students do.
4. Formative check. How the teacher checks understanding during the lesson.
5. Closure. How the lesson ends, with summary and connection to next lesson.

These five sub-steps are specific to the lesson plan and do not appear in the same form in the unit plan.

6. Resources. Materials the lesson needs. Best practice is to write resources parallel to the procedures, so the teacher can see what is needed at each step. Many teachers list resources at the top in a single list, but knowing where each resource is used in the lesson helps preparation.

7. Assessment. How the teacher will evaluate student learning at the end of the lesson. Assessment includes both criteria (drawn from the objectives) and method.

8. Teacher’s notes. Any extra notes the teacher needs. Reminders. Common questions students ask. Pitfalls. Things to watch for.

A complete lesson plan addresses all eight components. Skipping any of them weakens the lesson.

Flashcard

What are the five sub-steps of 'procedures' in a lesson plan?

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Answer

Focusing event, teaching procedures, student activities, formative check, closure

These five steps describe how the lesson runs in real time:

1. Focusing event: how the lesson opens.

2. Teaching procedures: what the teacher does.

3. Student activities and participation: what students do.

4. Formative check: in-lesson learning checks.

5. Closure: summary and connection forward.

Lesson plan as part of unit plan

Makes another useful framing: a lesson plan is part of the unit plan. They share many components.

Shared components:

1. Subject and topic.
2. Objectives (different scale: unit vs lesson).
3. Content and processes.
4. Resources.
5. Learning activities.
6. Assessment.

Unique to the lesson plan:

1. The five-step procedure (focusing event, teaching, student activities, formative check, closure).
2. Lesson-level instructional objectives.
3. Lesson-level rationale (why these objectives for this lesson).

Unique to the unit plan:

1. Unit-level rationale (why this unit grouping).
2. Unit-level objectives that span multiple lessons.

The lesson plan is essentially a detailed working-out of one piece of the unit plan. It originates from the unit and is much more granular.

Why lesson plans matter for new teachers

1. They develop thinking skills. Writing a lesson plan forces the teacher to think through every part of the lesson. The thinking itself improves over time.

2. They let teacher educators observe thought processes. A pre-service teacher’s lesson plan reveals how they think about teaching. Their teacher educators can read the plans and assess where development is needed.

3. They predict future teaching performance. A pre-service teacher who writes strong lesson plans is more likely to teach well later. The lesson plan is a predictor.

These are called provisional purposes: they matter most during teacher training, less so after years of experience. But every new teacher should plan in detail. The thinking is the point.

Flashcard

Why is the principle 'a lesson is a piece of unit, not a block of time' important?

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Answer

It distinguishes lesson plans from activity schedules

An activity schedule fills 40 minutes with activities. The minutes pass; nothing larger is served.

A lesson plan treats the lesson as one piece of a larger unit. It connects to the unit’s learning outcomes, develops the unit’s processes, and builds toward the unit’s evaluation.

A lesson without unit context is just minutes filled.