As a Con-Ed P/J student, we're all in the same boat. This is the final semester of our undergrad before we embark on the year where we are supposed to gain all the practical skills to run a classroom, Teachers College. One of the benefits of the Concurrent program is we have the opportunity to learn select skills before we enter our 5th year through compulsory education courses. One of the most important and foundational skills we have been learning is lesson planning. I am luck enough to have been lesson planning in some capacity for years, but the skill is ever developing. Every lesson is different, every student is different and no two experiences will ever be the same. From teaching a simple camp game, to teaching long division, lesson plans are essential in the effectiveness of your teaching.
Here are some of the key tips I have gathered through out the years:
1. KNOW YOUR STUFF!
The better you understand what you are teaching the better able you are to impart that knowledge on your students. Be able to answer the questions that students more than likely will have. Be prepared with alternative ways to explain concepts. The means understanding the curriculum documents and all of the essential understandings.
2. BE CLEAR
The best advice I ever got on lesson planning came from my boss a couple years ago. He told me to "write the lesson plan, like the person reading it has never played soccer before". I was writing out plan for a drill I intended to run. With out thinking, I made the instructions quite vague, writing under the assumption that whoever read it would know what I was talking about. After a discussion with him, I went back to the drawing board, re-wrote clear instructions on how to carry out each step and included what equipment would be needed as well as diagrams to further show what I had envisioned. Turns out, I was sick the day the lesson needed to be done, and someone else had to work off my lesson plan! The drill may have been a disaster if I had failed to go back and put the time and work into making it user friendly.
3. BE PREPARED
The world isn't perfect. You could have the best math lesson lined up, where you planned to use lego to teach addition. It was going to be fun, hands on and effective. The day comes... and you realize you don't have enough lego for everyone, or the teacher down the hall needs it at the same time. This is when my nature as a planner gets tested. There are two options here:
Option 1. Go back in time and ensure you have all the lego you need, and you have made sure it's all yours for the period OR
Option 2: IMPROVISE. Work in partners, combine classes, move the lesson! The possibilities are endless for you to be flexible and prepared to change your plan and adapt to the curve balls life in the classroom is sure to throw at you.
4. ADAPTATIONS
Wouldn't it be nice if every single student learned exactly the same way as you. They had the same strengths, understood things in the same ways? I think we all know this is unrealistic, and to be quite frank, boring. Every person you encounter has a different set of strengths, understandings and weaknesses. In your classroom you are sure to encounter some exceptionalities that may make it difficult for that student to complete your lesson in the way you had hoped. These could range from a learning disability to a language barrier to a physical limitation and beyond. Be aware of these exceptionalities and be ready to adapt your lesson plan.
5. BE EXCITED
The more excited you are about the lesson, the more the students will buy into it!
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