How Do You Create A Good Lesson Plan?

If you're teaching in many state schools or other organisations, there may well be a lesson plan provided for you, or at least a blueprint offered which shows which areas are regarded as important. If the organisation you're working for hasn't offered any guidelines on planning, it's worth asking your head of department to give you some help. Apart from that, there are certain things which should always be borne in mind. A good lesson plan starts with the question "What will the learners be able to do/ know at the end of this lesson that they couldn't do before?" In other words, it's a statement of aims. Once you've decided that, you need to decide how this aim will be achieved – eg will you explain the topic first or let the students work it out through the materials? will there be any testing and if not, how will you assess what they've learned? will they work alone or in groups? what materials will you need? and so on. Whether you write all this down depends on you, but the questions themselves soon become second nature.