3 Tips for Making Lesson Plans Work for You

In college I wrote so many lesson plans. Every class I took required lesson plans for this or that reason. I’m more of a free spirit and I strongly disliked being accountable for every minute of my class. I couldn’t wait to break free and do it my own way once I was in my own classroom! So, as I started teaching on my own, I only jotted down a few ideas, page numbers or keywords that I thought would be enough to jog my memory. What I found, though, was that my memory was a bit frozen that first month or so. I needed to re-evaluate what “my own way” meant and find a more plausible solution.

I started to pay attention to my lesson planning. I noticed I would read though the textbook and other supplemental resources and my creativity would come alive! I would think of such great ideas of how to present the information or get my students to do something with it. I was so enthusiastic about these ideas that I thought there was no way I would forget my ideas; they were just way too cool. But then I’d get in the classroom and my creative rush was gone and I would only remember half of what I thought of and it would turn out only about a quarter as good as I had imagined.

After each lesson I would review to see what I missed or what didn’t go the way I thought it would. I began to categorize these lesson-execution jumbles so I could plan better to avoid them and then make a conscious effort to write those plans down! I found that I typically forgot cool transitions I had thought of, or I would forget activities I had created to practice new concepts and, heaven forbid, I even forgot a few grammar rules that I was trying to teach.

It took my own mistakes and less-than-successful lessons to realize the real benefits of lesson plans. My attitude shifted from a chore I had to do to please my professors to a tool I could use to successfully execute a well-thought out lesson. Once I personalized my lesson plan format so that it contained information I knew I needed help remembering, my mental processes were freed during my class to interact with my students and adjust as needed. I found I could be more flexible because I could always look back at my lesson plan to see what came next and how I wanted to transition into it. I didn’t have to worry anymore about forgetting the important information that makes a lesson run smoothly.

Okay, here are those three tips! Tip #1: Personalize your lesson plan to your needs. Figure out what you need help remembering when you’re in front of your class and make sure you include that information in your lesson plan. If you know you will always remember to welcome your class, then you don’t need to write that down in your lesson plan! But, make sure you write down what will help you be a better teacher.

Tip #2: Let your lesson plan enhance your teaching style. I hated the rigid format of lesson plans because I value flexibility in my classroom. I found that by writing down all my ideas, transitions, activities and explanations, I was free to bounce around as my students seemed interested or confused and I always had my lesson plan to go back to as a reference point for moving forward.

Tip #3: Use past lesson plans to reinforce concepts. I found that my lesson plans were a great mini-history of my class. I could refer back to them to see how we discussed a topic or which activities seemed to be a big hit. This information helped me to reinforce concepts because I could say, “Remember when we did such and such?” and that would help them remember the concept that went with the activity. It was great for reviewing before tests. Another benefit, I could remember activities that worked in the past and reuse them or modify them to fit a new concept. Students who had become familiar with a game loved to play that game again because they were successful at it and it helped them focus on new content. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. If you test out new activities and they work great, then your lesson plans act as a list of fun, successful activities to choose from when you are in a creative lull.


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