You want your lessons to be effective. You want motivated learners. You don’t want to spend hours and hours writing lesson plans.
What if we could give you an easy lesson plan formula that practically guarantees successful lessons?
Recently we were in Toronto for a conference. This was not a teaching conference, but a conference about working in the online world. We have both been teachers for a long time, so we weren’t expecting to walk away with a new lesson plan template. Sometimes stepping out of our usual world is a good thing. Looking at the world through a new lens gives new perspective. We have to say, that although our teacher was not an educator in the traditional sense, and did not have a background in education, he was amazingly insightful when it comes to effective learning.
One of our sessions was “How to Teach So People Learn.” We’ve taught Educational Psychology and multiple courses about effective teaching methods. Yet we were blown away by the simplicity and basic common sense in his lesson plan formula and want to share it with you.
The 5 Part Effective Teaching Lesson Plan
1.The Hook
Teachers often complain about unmotivated learners. The hook changes that. The hook tells students why they need something, what its purpose is, or intrigues them to listen for more. It can be short and sweet, even one sentence. Our friend Joyce once began a fifth-grade math lesson with the question, “Who wants to be rich?” All eyes were glued to her lesson about counting money.
2.The Story
People love stories and stories help us to remember. Stories help us to relate to something, to attach meaning, and to see the relevance. Stories draw us in and make us want more.
We used two stories in this post. Intrigued?
3. The Teaching Points
This is the meat of the lesson, the things you want students to know or remember. Keep it tight by using bite sized bits of information. Break content into smaller chunks. It is more effective to have more but shorter lessons. This gives students a sense of progress and a positive feeling that momentum is on their side.
Our teaching points? We gave it to you in the bolded heading just above this section. We learned a lot at our conference, but narrowed this post to one thing- the 5-step effective lesson plan.
4.The Summary
Tell them what you told them. Ask them to repeat or retell the main points.
What are we teaching you in this post?
5. The Action Item
In order to learn, we need to do something with information. Students can discuss, experiment, apply, create or try something. This part takes learning from theory to consolidation.
Try this formula with one of your own lesson plans. We challenge you to spend TEN minutes rewriting a lesson you have taught or will teach. Was it easy? Do you think it will be effective?
We would love to know your thoughts in the comments below. If you like this formula, we have created a template where you can just fill in the blanks. If you want the template just fill in the form below!
Happy lesson planning,
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