Lesson 4: Lesson Planning
Making a Lesson Plan From Scratch
After you have some experience using ready-made lesson plans, you may want to try making your own. Parents who have needed to adapt the lessons they found have a head start, because they have learned to look at the plans creatively.
Begin by choosing a lesson plan you admire. Study the plan to find out what makes it work. Do you like the variety of teaching methods used? Is the lesson paced to prevent boredom or overstimulation? Does the lesson use interesting resources? The more you can learn from lesson plans you and your children enjoy, the easier it will be to create your own.
Select a topic for your lesson plan. The first time you write one, choose something you enjoy. If you have been using a single topic for previous assignments, continue to use that topic for this assignment. It is perfectly acceptable to combine elements from other lesson plans. You are not writing these for publication, so you are free to borrow. If you post your lesson plans on our board, please list all sources used.
The first step to creating a lesson plan is to come up with a single purpose for the lesson. You don’t want to teach a dozen unrelated bits of information or accomplish too much. A good statement of purpose might be:
Students will discover the causes of the Civil War
Students will figure out the difference between a square and a rectangle
Students will learn to combine the primary colors to create new colors.
Teach students how blood flows through the heart.
As you prepare your lesson, continually refer back to this statement. No matter how much fun a teaching method might be, you should not use it if it does not help the student accomplish the purpose of the lesson.
Now make a list of the major points you want to teach in this lesson. Suppose you are teaching the difference between squares and rectangles. What does your child need to know in order to learn this? He needs to know how many sides each shape has. He needs to know that the sizes of the lines will help you tell each shape apart. He needs to know that the lines are straight.
Once you have decided what needs to be taught, make a plan for teaching the lesson. Think about how your child learns. You will want to use the ways your child learns best, but you may also want to sometimes include a method that is not as easy for your child, so that he develops new skills. Perhaps you decide that your child cannot do a worksheet to do this, because he doesn’t write well or can’t sit still or focus well enough. A hands-on method is best for your child. How can you teach shapes using a hands-on method? You will need squares and triangles he can touch. You can buy these at a school supply store, but you can also make them by using flannel, cardboard or any other material you like. Wooden building blocks also work. You may even want a variety of methods because you realize that even if he learns the difference between a square building block and a rectangular one, he is the sort of child who won’t then recognize them in a flat form. Under your statement of purpose, begin listing all the materials you need for this lesson, even those so obvious you think you won’t forget them. Leave space to add additional supplies as you think of them.
Now, what are you going to do with these shapes? Perhaps you want him to touch them first, running his fingers around the edges and discussing them with you. Under the list of materials, begin listing each step in your lesson.
What will he do after he has touched and discussed? Is he ready to try sorting them out? How will you teach him to sort if he doesn’t already know? Can he learn it in this lesson, or will he need to practice before he tries this lesson?
Continue adding steps until the lesson is complete. Be sure to take into consideration his attention span. The lesson can’t go too long or you will lose his interest. If he can’t sit still, plan action. Alternate between active and quiet activities. If he is deaf and his sign language is limited, plan more hands-on activities. If he is blind, spend more time touching.
At the end of the lesson, include a way to evaluate learning. This is covered in the next section. You will soon learn what sort of lesson works best with your child. Don’t get upset if a lesson fails. Some lessons I worked very hard on were disasters and others I simply threw together are still talked about. Sometimes there is no way to predict how a lesson will work. Your accuracy will improve as you gain more skill as a teacher. If a lesson does not work, try a new method. Then think about the lesson that didn’t work and try to figure out why it did not.
Keep all of your lesson plans in a folder. You may need them for future children, or you may want to repeat a lesson plan. If you have a web page, consider posting them for others to enjoy. After you have been teaching for a few years, take your first lesson plans back out and look at them. You will be amazed at how much you have learned about teaching!
