Lesson Planning

Below is a list of 13 tips for effec­tive les­son plan­ning. To down­load the infor­ma­tion below, click on Cre­at­ing Effec­tive Les­son Plans.

  1. Define Clear Learn­ing Out­comes
  • Focus on what stu­dents should be able to know or do by the end of the ses­sion
  • Use mea­sur­able verbs (e.g., ana­lyze, design, eval­u­ate) rather than vague ones like under­stand
  • When plan­ning a class, refer to the learn­ing objec­tives in the course out­line. Each class should feed into the ‘whole’ of the course
  • Take a look at Clas­si­fi­ca­tions of Learn­ing to ensure inclu­sion of a vari­ety of oppor­tu­ni­ties to engage with the intel­lec­tu­al, phys­i­cal, emo­tion­al, and spir­i­tu­al aspects of learn­ing
  • It’s impos­si­ble to address every domain of learn­ing in one class. The idea is to cre­ate bal­ance and vari­ety across class­es. Think of it as imag­in­ing what a paint­ing will look like when it’s fin­ished. Each class is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to paint one part of the whole paint­ing
  • Keep out­comes aligned with assess­ment meth­ods
  1. Know Your Audi­ence
  • Find out about stu­dents’ back­ground, lev­el of expe­ri­ence in this aca­d­e­m­ic area, and oth­er sup­port they may need
  • Adjust lan­guage, exam­ples, and depth accord­ing to each cohort of stu­dents
  • Explain­ing jar­gon, acronyms, and any cul­tur­al ref­er­ences that may be unfa­mil­iar to some stu­dents
  1. Orga­nize the Class Around Key Con­cepts or Out­comes
  • Avoid con­tent over­load
  • Pri­or­i­tize depth over breadth to build last­ing under­stand­ing
  1. Choose Engag­ing Teach­ing Strate­gies
  • Active learn­ing pro­motes reten­tion and crit­i­cal think­ing
  • Exam­ple activ­i­ties include group work, debates, and sim­u­la­tions
  • Choose mul­ti­modal deliv­ery: com­bine slides, visu­als, demon­stra­tions, and short videos
  • Scaf­fold the learn­ing: build from sim­ple to com­plex con­cepts
  1. Pre­pare Mate­ri­als & Resources
  • Slides, hand­outs, or dig­i­tal tools (e.g., polling apps, col­lab­o­ra­tive boards)
  • Use real-world exam­ples or case stud­ies rel­e­vant to the dis­ci­pline
  • Cre­ate back­up activ­i­ties in case of extra time or tech issues
  1. Inte­grate Assess­ment
  • Use for­ma­tive assess­ment tools (quizzes, reflec­tion prompts) dur­ing class to assess where stu­dents are in their under­stand­ing
  • Align sum­ma­tive assess­ments (exams, projects) with learn­ing out­comes
  • Con­sid­er using mul­ti­ple small­er low-stakes forms of assess­ment that offer oppor­tu­ni­ties for scaf­fold­ed feed­back and learn­ing
  1. Map Out Time
  • Plan seg­ments (e.g., intro, activ­i­ty, reflec­tion)
  • Leave buffer time for ques­tions or dis­cus­sion, or for some sec­tions of the class to take longer than planned
  • Have ‘back-up’ activ­i­ties in case the stu­dents get through the activ­i­ties more quick­ly than antic­i­pat­ed
  • Here’s a Les­son-Plan-Tem­plate
  1. Make It Rel­e­vant
  • Let stu­dents know the theme/objectives of the class
  • Use exam­ples from real-world con­texts, indus­tries, or cur­rent events
  • Rel­e­vance boosts moti­va­tion and mean­ing
  • Ensure ‘rel­e­vance’ does not inad­ver­tent­ly leave out some stu­dents
  1. Use Tech­nol­o­gy Wise­ly
  • Add val­ue with tools like videos, polls, or col­lab­o­ra­tive plat­forms
  • Keep it pur­pose­ful
  • Take into con­sid­er­a­tion what tools your stu­dents have both access to and con­fi­dence in using. It’s fine to intro­duce a new tech­nol­o­gy if we give stu­dents time to learn how to use it
  • Remem­ber, any tool we use has to com­ply with BC FIPPA reg­u­la­tions
  1. Be Flex­i­ble
  • Plan for unex­pect­ed issues (tech prob­lems, pace changes)
  • Hav­ing adapt­able con­tent ready is essen­tial in case we need to switch things up to meet our stu­dents where they’re at that in any spe­cif­ic class
  1. End with Reflec­tion
  • Revis­it learn­ing goals and sum­ma­rize take­aways so stu­dents can see their progress
  • This also helps in iden­ti­fy­ing if there are poten­tial gaps in learn­ing
  • Pose a reflec­tion ques­tion or prompt for deep­er think­ing
  • Use activ­i­ties like exit tick­ets (stu­dents write on a piece of paper a ques­tion they still have, or one thing they learned, etc. In online learn­ing, these could be com­ments in the chat, or post­ed on an asyn­chro­nous dis­cus­sion board)
  1. Assign Pre-/Post-Class Work Inten­tion­al­ly
  • Pre: Brief readings/videos or ques­tions to set up the les­son
  • Post: Activ­i­ties that extend or rein­force learn­ing
  • Doing both above ensures that time in class is mean­ing­ful. Stu­dents need to know that com­ing to class is worth their time
  1. Review and Refine
  • Reflect after each class: What worked? What didn’t?
  • Make notes. We think we’ll remem­ber lat­er, but usu­al­ly we don’t
  • Use that input for future class­es and for iter­a­tions of the course