What is a lesson plan?

Lesson plan

A lesson plan is a systematic and detailed outline developed by educators to structure an instructional period. It serves as an essential roadmap for a teacher, ensuring that a lesson’s objectives, contents, activities, and assessments align with the desired learning goals.

Importance of lesson plan

Using a lesson plan in the classroom is pivotal for several reasons.

• It guarantees the educator a well-defined sequence to follow
• Facilitating a smooth transition between various lesson components. This fosters a coherent and engaging learning experience for students.
• A lesson plan allows a teacher to align the instruction with students’ specific needs, abilities, and interests, thereby promoting differentiated learning.
• It enables a teacher to assess the effectiveness of the lesson through predetermined success criteria, aiding in the continuous improvement of teaching practices.

Components of lesson plan

A typical lesson plan consists of several components that are meticulously interconnected. These are;

• Objectives: The objectives are the educational goals that students will clearly achieve by the end of the lesson.

• Introduction: A brief overview of the topic, often including an engaging hook to capture student interest.
• Body: A structured series of activities and instructions designed to facilitate the understanding and mastery of the subject matter.
• Assessment: This section covers the methods and tools employed to evaluate students’ grasp of the material, such as quizzes, discussions, or projects.
• Closure: A summary or conclusion reinforces key concepts and connects them to future learning.
• Material and Resources: This includes a list of necessary materials, tools, or technology resources to conduct the lesson.

Types of lesson plan

1. Weekly lesson plan

The weekly lesson plan is a plan of the lesson to be taught within a week. Most school subjects occurred on the school time-table more than once a week. The teacher therefore needs to select his topic for the week from his diary (scheme of work) and distribute appropriately into the number of periods his subject is appearing on the school time-table.

Weekly lesson plan will enable the teacher to see the scope of possible coverage of the entire topic for the week.

A weekly lesson plan can afford the teacher the possibility of completing his syllabus.

A typical format of a weekly lesson plan is shown below.

Date: (Monday) —————- to (Friday) ————

School————————————————————

Name of Teacher: ——————————————

Class: ————————————————————-

Subject: ———————————————————-

No. Of periods per week; ———————————

General topic for the week——————————-

Objectives for the week———————————–

Lesson No.——————————————————-

Topic —————————————————————

Objectives ——————————————————–

Content ————————————————————

Pupils’ Activities ———————————————-

Instructional materials ————————————-

Remark ———————————————————
1———————————————————
2———————————————————
3———————————————————

2. Daily lesson plan

A daily lesson plan is a unit of lesson to be taught for a time duration of 30 to 45 minutes. This depends on the school schedule and level of the learner. It is the layout of how the teacher intends to handle a lesson from the beginning to the end. A lesson plan is the instrument with which a good teacher can effectively perform his daily classroom teaching.

A good teacher is expected to plan his lesson on daily basis stating the steps or procedures to follow to achieve the stated objectives.

Sample of Lesson Plan Format

(1) Name of teacher ……………………………………..
(2) Subject ………………………………………………………
(3) Class ……………………………………………………………
(4) Topic …………………………………………………………….
(5) Duration ……………………………………………………..
(6) Date ……………………………………………………………..
(7) Objectives (i)………………………………………………………………………
(ii) ……………………………………………………………………(iii) …………………………………………………………………..

(8) Previous Knowledge …………………………………
(9) Method of Teaching ………………………………….
(10) Teacher’s Activities …………………………………
(11) Learners’ Activities …………………………………(12)Introduction …………………………………………..(13) Presentation ……………………………………………Step I: ——————————————

Step II: ——————————————-

Step III: ——————————————

Step IV: ——————————————
(13) Evaluation …………………………………………………
(14) Summary/Conclusion …………………………….
(15) Assignme ………………………………………………….