How to Create
an Effective
Lesson Plan
By D i a n e T r i m
Special Report
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents ................................................................
................................................................................................
..........................................................................
.......................................... 1
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan ................................................................
.......................................................................
....................................... 2
Step One: Assemble Materials.................................................................... 4
Step Two: Objectives.................................................................................. 5
Step Three: Major Activities....................................................................... 7
Step Four: Content Mapping....................................................................... 8
Step Five: Calendar................................................................................... 10
Step Six: Unit and Lesson Planning ......................................................... 12
Step Seven: Send out Photocopies, Reserve Resources............................ 14
Quick Start Guide to the Unit and Lesson Planning Tool ............................................
............................................ 15
Unit Planner .............................................................................................. 17
Planning Calendar..................................................................................... 19
Daily Lesson Planner ................................................................................ 21
Unit Binder Cover Page ............................................................................ 24
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
HOW TO CREATE AN EFFECTIVE
EFF ECTIVE LESSON
PLAN
For new teachers who are learning their craft and seasoned
veterans who are implementing new curriculum, lesson planning
can be daunting. Teachers struggle to cover as much of the
curriculum as possible while also differentiating instruction to meet
students learning styles and multiple intelligences.
To be effective, learning needs to follow Blooms Taxonomy as well
as the latest brain research and learning styles. Teachers try to
integrate technology and have authentic assessments.
Thats a lot to ask of a lesson plan.
This free printable report is a practical guide. Youll find an indepth, step-by-step method for creating your unit and daily lesson
plans and provide you a planner to create a unit, unit calendar, and
daily lesson plans.
The unit and lesson planning tool is categorized according to sound
educational theory: Blooms Taxonomy, Learning Styles,
Standards-Based Learning, and Differentiated Instruction all make
up the basis for the unit and lesson planners.
Effective planning for instruction is time-consuming and thoughtintensive. However, planning well up-front will pay off over time.
Youll be able to create a unit binder that you can use year after
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
year and adapt your lessons no matter how your curriculum or
textbooks change.
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
STEP ONE: ASSEMBLE MATERIALS
M A T ER I AL S
N E ED E D :
Computer with a printer
State and district standards (one set for each course)
Textbooks and other materials for the unit
Post-it notes to use as flags and reminders
School calendar with holidays and major events
Ring binder dedicated to the unit and a three-hole punch
A copy of the Unit Planner, pages 17 - 18
A copy of the Planning Calendar, pages 19 - 20
Several copies of the Daily Lesson Planner, pages 21 - 23
A copy of the Unit Binder Cover Page, page 24
Helpful but not essential: a flash drive to store tests, quizzes,
handouts, and presentations
Helpful but not essential: a printer with photocopying and
scanning abilities
Organize materials where youll do your planning. Just as youd
advise students to have a dedicated area at home to do homework,
have a dedicated area at school, home, or both for lesson planning.
Keep the materials above handy in the lesson planning area.
If youre a teacher who shares a classroom or travels among
schools, keep a lesson planning kit in an oversized briefcase. Tote it
from one room to another and still have your materials organized.
Its also wise to scour the school textbook room for preview copies
for your teachers edition textbooks. If you can find one of these,
keep it in your lesson planning area at home so you dont have to
haul heavy books when you plan.
If you havent downloaded the Word-friendly planning documents
that accompanied this Free Report, visit
www.InsideTheSchool.com and download them from The Free
Reports section.
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
STEP TWO: OBJECTIVES
When you lesson plan, its best to begin with the end. In other
words, ask yourself: what do I want the students to achieve?
Develop a central concept or theme. Instead of naming your
unit Chapter 22 or Animal Farm, label the unit with something
thats linked to the theme of the unit. Shift away from the
content, which will likely change when the district implements
new textbooks, and stick with a theme that will outlast any
changes in content. For example, instead of naming a unit
Animal Farm, I might name it Satire instead. Choosing Satire
over the book title allows me to switch books and teach
Gullivers Travels instead. Some of the lesson plan will change
according to the content; however, much of the work will
remain the same.
Discover the why. Students, like many adults, are practical
souls. They want to know why theyre learning the quadratic
equation. Will it help them buy a car or refinance a home? Come
up with a connection for the unit before you plan anything else.
Prepare to mine your own connections with the content so you
can spark an interest for your students. Career opportunities,
life skills applications, social interactions, sports, and money are
all good places to find student interest that aligns with your
content or concept. Write down your connection next to your
concept and try to play to the connection as much as possible
when planning activities.
Develop your learning goals. What do you want your students
to learn to prepare them for the next level of study in your
discipline? What should they know if they want to go to
college? What should they know if they want to use the
information in life? The answers to these questions will
probably all be different, but theyre a great first step to writing
objectives.
Use the state standards as a guide. Have a copy of your states
and districts objectives or standards handy for lesson planning.
If you teach more than one course, make copies of the relevant
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
HELPFUL VERBS
standards for each course. When you select state standards to
target for your unit, write an abbreviation for the unit next to
the standard. Keeping track in this simple way will ensure that
you cover all the state and district objectives for your discipline.
Write the objectives. With your learning goals and the state
standards side-by-side, you can develop objectives for your
unit. Objectives should be written either beginning with,
Students will learn to or with just the verb Observe a
chemical reaction and note observations in a lab journal.
Remember to keep your objectives specific and measureable
because youll want to assess students over these objectives.
FOR
WRITING OBJECTIVES
I keep a list of verbs in my lesson planning kit. Print this off and
youll have one, too.
Apply
Appraise
Arrange
Assemble
Build
Calibrate
Categorize
Change
Classify
Combine
Compare
Compose
Compute
Construct
Contrast
Create
Critique
Defend
Define
Demonstrate
Describe
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
Develop
Differentiate
Discuss
Edit
Evaluate
Experiment
Explain
Extend
Formulate
Generalize
Identify
Infer
Interpret
Judge
Justify
Label
List
Locate
Measure
Modify
Name
Organize
Outline
Perform
Plan
Predict
Produce
Proofread
Read
Recall
Recognize
Record
Reflect
Relate
Revise
Rewrite
Select
Show
Solve
Summarize
Verify
Write
STEP THREE: MAJOR ACTIVITIES
While looking at the objectives Ive selected, I list those in the Unit
Planner, page 17, column under objectives. I try to slot them into
the correct row according to Blooms Taxonomy, which youll see
on the right of the table. If youre not familiar with Blooms
Taxonomy, the table has a referencer on the left. Youll find a brief
explanation of his work on page 12 of this report.
The Activities column is tied to the Assessment column so youll
remember to assess students throughout the unit. Tying together
your objectives, activities, and assessment at the planning state
ensures that your students will achieve the objectives and not
spend time on activities they dont need.
The unit planner is available on InsideTheSchool.com in the
Printables section as a Word-compatible document. Feel free to add
rows, delete unused objectives and assessments, and expand
columns to make it work for you.
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
STEP FOUR: CONTENT MAPPING
We live in an information age where content comes in traditional
formats like books, workbooks, and videos as well as digital
formats like CDs, the Internet, and electronic documents.
Our students are digital natives. They carry iPods, cell phones, and
flash drives. When not in class they IM, e-mail, and text message
one another while playing video games or surfing the Net.
The challenge in the information age is to sort through the
messages and separate the valid and credible from the noise. Its
the teachers job to sort through the information and offer students
sources of content that come from both traditional and digital
sources. Books are still valid, but are often out of date at the time of
printing. Articles, Web pages, and digital texts are good sources of
real world content that are both relevant and speak to the students
need for current information.
Gather materials. When planning a unit, gather the classroom
textbooks and materials. Conduct an Internet search for credible
current sources. Find realia (articles or objects from the real
world), video, or audio to use in your unit. Choose sources that
will appeal to your digital natives.
Mind map. Just as youd recommend mind mapping or
webbing ideas to your students, do the same with your content.
In the center of your map, place your concept. Around the mind
map, place your learning objectives. Off of the learning
objectives, map your content.
Connect your content to your objectives right away to ensure
that all content is important. Often teachers will keep content or
an activity that theyve always done with students, but which
doesnt match up to a learning objective. A good example of this
mismatch between content and objectives is an activity where
students build a replica of the Globe Theater for a unit about
one of Shakespeares works. Building the theater out of Popsicle
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
sticks might seem interesting and engaging; however, it doesnt
involve reading, writing, speaking, or listening and is unlikely
to align with state standards for English/Language Arts.
Content Mind Mapping
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
STEP FIVE: CALENDAR
Its a wise idea to create a calendar for each unit, and indeed, the
entire school year. Teachers who plan well find plenty of time at
the end of the semester to finish grading papers and for students to
review before exams. Teachers who dont plan well need to cram
content into the last two weeks before the end of the semester or
risk sending students to the next course with too few skills to be
successful.
Having a unit calendar also makes it easy for you to plan your
work load. You can schedule a batch of research papers to arrive on
your desk just before winter break so you can pace yourself over
the holiday with four or five papers to grade per day, not 20.
Students can plan better, too. When you give your class the
calendar with objectives, activities, assignments, and assessments
on it, students can work ahead if they know they have a sporting
event or social activity. If a student is absent, she can check the unit
calendar and stay on track.
Special education teachers will thank you for your unit calendar
when you give them a copy. They can assist students to turn in
missing work and adapt lessons for their students needs.
Look at your scope and sequence. Before you fill out the
calendar on page 19, look at your curriculum and scope for
the year. How many units do you have to teach? How many
days can you allow for each unit? Write the number of days
in your curriculum guide next to each unit.
Find the district calendar. Locate the school calendar in
your lesson planning kit. Find the month that youll be
teaching the unit and block off the days in pencil that youll
need for teaching. Take special note of national, religious,
and school holidays or special events. Its unwise to plan a
unit final test for the same day as the Homecoming game.
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
10
Likewise, avoid ending units on days when a majority of the
class will take standardized tests.
Print a working calendar. Or two. Turn to page 19, or
download the Word document file that accompanied this
report from www.InsideTheSchool.com Mark off the days
that you have available to teach the unit. Add rows or delete
them from the document as you need them.
Neatness doesnt count. Its smart to have a few copies of
the calendar on hand its a working document and you
should feel free to scribble and erase without worry. The
calendar uses abbreviations: T = topic, O = objective, A =
activity, and AA = assessment. Feel free to abbreviate as
much as you need to on the working copy of the calendar.
Begin with the end. Outline the last day of your unit with a
highlighter. Do you plan to end with a final test or project?
Enter that test or project in the highlighted square next to
AA (assessment).
Work backwards. Working from the end date, fill in the
other important dates and benchmarks in the unit. Wait to
fill in the activities and minor assessments until youve
finished completing the Unit Planner Tool.
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
11
STEP SIX: UNIT AND LESSON PLANNING
On page 17 of this free report or in the downloadable Word
documents that accompany this report online at
www.InsideTheSchool.com, youll find the Unit Planner. The
Planner takes all the information from Step Fours Content Map
and fits it into Blooms Taxonomy, a hierarchy of learning.
Educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues
created a taxonomy of knowledge in the 1950s, and his research
and theories are commonplace in education.
Bloom created categories for knowledge and ordered them in a
hierarchy from the simplest learning tasks to the most complex,
from the most concrete ideas to the most abstract. For more
information on Blooms Taxonomy, see:
Krathwohl, D.R. (2002.) A Revision of Blooms Taxonomy:
An Overview. Theory into Practice. The Ohio State University,
211-218.
Sort your mind map. Arrange your objectives from your
mind map into the Taxonomy, making sure that you have
objectives at every level of the hierarchy. If you have gaps,
go back to your mind map and revise both your objectives
and content to make sure that your students have both a
strong knowledge base and opportunities to participate in
higher-level thinking.
Fill in the Unit Planner. Place check marks in appropriate
boxes, insert objectives, and fill in just the barest sketches for
activities. Youll flesh these out in the Daily Lesson Planner,
page 21, complete with matching them up to learning styles.
Fill in the Daily Lesson Planner. Youll need a copy of the
Daily Lesson Planner for each day of your unit. Heres
where we get specific and flesh out the activities and
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
12
objectives. Include an estimate of how much time each
activity will take and match activities up to learning styles,
multiple intelligences, and assessments. If you havent done
so already, download the planning files from
www.InsideTheSchool.com. Youll find the files as Wordfriendly documents that accompanied this Free Report.
Check your work. Make sure each activity has some sort of
assessment, whether its formal (test, quiz, or assignment) or
informal (check for understanding). Double-check that
youre addressing many learning styles and multiple
intelligences.
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
13
STEP SEVEN: SEND OUT PHOTOCOPIES, RESERVE
RESOURCES
Gather master pages for photocopying. Its useful to gather
all pages for photocopying into packets to distribute to
students at the beginning of each unit. Include a unit
calendar in the packet, too. Distributing packets reduces the
amount of time youll spend passing out paper during class
and helps students who are absent or in extra-curricular
activities catch up on class work.
Organize materials and resources. Once youve made your
plans, transfer the materials you need from your individual
Daily Lesson Planner sheets to the Binder Cover Sheet
(pages 21-24). Note on the Binder Cover Sheet the resources
youll need to reserve for the unit. (To receive these pages as
a downloadable Word document, go to the Free Reports
page at www.InsideTheSchool.com and choose How to
Create an Effective Lesson Plan.)
Use color, when possible. Try color-coding your units: red
for those in the beginning of the year, violet for those at the
end. Use a color cover sheet for handout packets and color
for your tests or quizzes. It makes grading easier, especially
when tests or quizzes come in late. You can easily match up
photocopies to the correct unit binder without much time or
energy.
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
14
Quick Start Guide to the Unit and Lesson Planning
Tool
O R G AN I Z I N G
TH E
U N I T B I N D ER
When I plan lessons, I stack the sheets Ill need to photocopy as I
write out the individual plans. I gather these pages into two stacks:
assessment and handouts. Include your rubrics in the handout
stack. I keep each stack in clear plastic ring binder sleeves. When it
comes time to photocopy, I send the whole batch to our districts
copying service at once.
From the handouts stack, I create a packet to give students at the
beginning of the unit. Its easier to hand out a big batch of papers
once every three weeks than to pass out papers individually every
day. The copying service punches them to fit in three-ring binders,
so students have an easier time keeping track of the handouts as
well. I make five extra classroom packets and one for myself that I
can mark up with notes from class discussions. Its useful to
include a unit calendar in the packet, too. When a student is absent
she can refer to the calendar and know what classroom activities
shes missing.
When organizing a unit binder, I put the Cover Page, Unit Planner
and Planning Calendar on top (pages 17-20), followed by the plastic
protectors full of master copies. The individual Lesson Planner
sheets (pages 21-23) for each day should go next. Its wise to have
all the answer keys together at the back of the binder. I dont
recommend putting the keys together with the individual lesson
plans; some students have make-up quizzes or tests and its easier
to have them all at the back of the binder.
When you re-use the binder for the next year, be sure to look at
your notes on the bottom of the individual lesson plan sheets. Make
necessary changes to handouts, tests, and lesson plans before
sending the work off to the copying service.
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
15
HOW
TO
USE
TH I S
PLANNING TOOL
This is a flexible tool that you can put on your hard drive and use
as a template for multiple units. Download these planning pages as
Word documents in the Free Reports section of
www.InsideTheSchool.com.
Copy the Daily Lesson Planner pages at the end of this free
report. Youll need one daily lesson plan, pages 21 23, for
each day of your unit.
Delete unnecessary tick boxes. If youre planning at your
computer, feel free to delete rows or choices you dont use.
Theres no need to keep empty options for assessment or
objectives on your plan.
Appeal to learning styles and multiple intelligences. Try to
offer your students a variety of teaching activities that
appeal to the various learning styles and multiple
intelligences and select different options for assessment as
well. The brain loves novelty. Try not to repeat activities too
often over the course of the unit.
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
16
UNIT PLANNER
This tool is a big picture worksheet. Youll list what concepts you want to teach, what
objectives, and what activities
Curriculum to cover (list readings, concepts, skills that students will learn):
Blooms
taxonomy level
Knowledge
Recalls data or
information
Comprehension
Understands the
information and puts
it into her own words
Analysis
Separate information
into parts to
understand its
structure
Verbs for
objectives
Objectives
Activities
Assessment
Defines
Describes
Identifies
Reorganizes
Matches
Labels
Lists
Reproduces
Names
Outlines
Recalls
Selects
Converts
Defends
Computes
Constructs
Demonstrates
Manipulates
Modifies
Predicts
Prepares
Solves
Differentiates
Paraphrases
Observation
Journal entry
Mind map
Exit slip
Essay
Diagram
Objective
questions
Discussion
Simulation
Analyzes
Compares
Contrasts
Diagrams
Identifies
Outlines
Experiments
Debates
Measures
Develops
rubrics
Researches
Observation
Field work
Lab work
Essay
Diagram
Demonstration
Interview
Exit slip
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
Observation
Journal entry
Mind map
Exit slip
Essay
Diagram
Objective
questions
Discussion
Simulation
17
Synthesis
Creates a new
product from the
information
Evaluation
Categorizes
Combines
Develops
Organizes
Generates
Plans
Revises
Rewrites
Appraises
Compares
Critiques
Judges
Evaluates
Justifies
Supports
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
Observation
Debate
Presentation
Publication
Product, model
Exit slip
Observation
Debate
Presentation
Publication
Product
Exit slip
18
PLANNING CALENDAR
Heres where youll match up the objectives from the above chart to the actual days you
have to teach the unit. Write in the date above each big rectangle. Make note of any
special days (Homecoming, day before a holiday, major testing days). Fill in the big
events first: the beginning of your unit, the culminating activity, and where the objective
test should go. From there, fill in the smaller activities. T stands for topic, O stands for
objective, A stands for activity, and AA stands for assessment.
Monday
Day 1
Tuesday
Day 2
Wednesday
Day 3
Thursday
Day 4
Friday
Day 5
T:
T:
T:
T:
T:
O:
O:
O:
O:
O:
A:
A:
A:
A:
A:
AA:
AA:
AA:
AA:
AA:
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
T:
T:
T:
T:
T:
O:
O:
O:
O:
O:
A:
A:
A:
A:
A:
AA:
AA:
AA:
AA:
AA:
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
T:
T:
T:
T:
T:
O:
O:
O:
O:
O:
A:
A:
A:
A:
A:
AA:
AA:
AA:
AA:
AA:
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
19
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20
T:
T:
T:
T:
T:
O:
O:
O:
O:
O:
A:
A:
A:
A:
A:
AA:
AA:
AA:
AA:
AA:
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
20
DAILY LESSON PLANNER
From the Planning Calendar, insert the day # at the top left as well as the unit and days
topic. Strive to insert a time for each activity and check off some kind of assessment (you
can add or remove parts from the list as needed). Describe in detail the activities. You
might be handing this plan off to a substitute teacher or using it next year. Do the work
once and be grateful youve finished it! Feel free to erase this text as well as the example
in the first row. Its a good idea to highlight any technology that youll have to reserve in
advance in yellow so youll remember to reserve it.
Opening connects the lesson with student prior knowledge
Time
Objective
Activities
Learning
Styles,
multiple
intelligence
s
Assessme
nt
Materials
Students will
connect their
previous experiences
with motion with the
acceleration and
velocity.
Students develop lists of transportation in
groups. As a class, we list all
transportation on the board and then sort
transportation from fastest to slowest,
from fast acceleration to slow acceleration.
Auditory
Interpersonal
Observation
Discussion
none
Visual
Auditory
Kinesthetic
Observation
Journal
entry
Mind map
Exit slip
Essay
Diagram
Objective
questions
Discussion
Simulation
Technology
Example
00:00
Linguistic
Logical
Spatial
Musical
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Naturalistic
Teaching activities gives students knowledge base for learning activities
Visual
Auditory
Kinesthetic
Linguistic
Logical
Spatial
Musical
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Naturalistic
Visual
Auditory
Kinesthetic
Linguistic
Logical
Spatial
Musical
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Naturalistic
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
Observation
Journal
entry
Mind map
Objective
questions
Discussion
Exit slip
Observation
Journal
entry
Mind map
Objective
questions
Discussion
Exit slip
21
Learning activities gives students opportunities to practice and explore
Visual
Auditory
Kinesthetic
Linguistic
Logical
Spatial
Musical
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Naturalistic
Visual
Auditory
Kinesthetic
Linguistic
Logical
Spatial
Musical
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Naturalistic
Observation
Journal
entry
Discussion
Simulation
Field work
Lab work
Essay
Diagram
Demonstratio
n
Interview
Exit slip
Debate
Presentation
Publication
Product,
model
Observation
Journal
entry
Discussion
Simulation
Field work
Lab work
Essay
Diagram
Demonstratio
n
Interview
Exit slip
Debate
Presentation
Publication
Product,
model
Closure offers students reflection and extension opportunities
Visual
Auditory
Kinesthetic
Linguistic
Logical
Spatial
Musical
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Naturalistic
Observation
Journal
entry
Exit slip
Homework
Visual
Auditory
Kinesthetic
Linguistic
Logical
Spatial
Musical
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Naturalistic
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
22
Post-lesson Reflection:
How did it go?
1
Terrible
Not Great
O.K.
Pretty Well
5
Fabulous!
What worked?
What didnt work?
Changes for next time:
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
23
UNIT BINDER COVER PAGE
Use this cover page as the first page in your unit binder. Record the units concept here
as well as whatever resources and materials youll need to reserve or gather before the
unit begins.
Its also a good place to record your reflections about the unit. Each time you finish
teaching the unit, put the binder back in order and jot a quick note to yourself about
changes youll need to make for next time.
Unit Concept
Materials Needed
Changes for Next Time:
Date or Year
Change needed
How to Create an Effective Lesson Plan
InsideTheSchool.com
Resources to Reserve in Advance
Done?
24
