Lessons & Lesson Plans

A lesson is a segment or chunk of teaching given at one time (usually a single class period).

Lessons are the basic building blocks of teaching (Berger, Woodfin, Vilen, 2016), and when well constructed and sequenced can lead to student understanding (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). The goal is to nest lessons intentionally within units in ways that use compelling, challenging, and authentic work to build student thinking (Berger, Woodfin, Vilen, 2016; Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). Effective lessons involve clear learning targets that are understood by the students and that require higher order thinking skills, are structured for maximum student engagement, foster students ability to track their own progress, and use an established lesson structure (Berger, Woodfin, Vilen, 2016).

A Lesson Plan details, in 1-2 pages, a teacher’s approach to a particular lesson.  All lesson plans include learning objectives, a sequence of learning activities, and some form of assessment of learning.

Better lesson plans include: 

• An opening that typically includes some form of an introduction or “hook,” or a guiding “essential question,” a connection to prior knowledge, a sharing of the lesson’s long-range objectives for students

• Learning activities intended to engage students in learning that moves them towards the lesson objectives

• A closure that incorporates ways to consolidate or wrap up a lesson.  

• Means of assessing student mastery of the objectives are incorporated into the lesson, either as part of the closure our integrated into the learning activities (or both).

There are many  different types of lessons, each designed for different types of learning, and each of which elaborate on the basic features described in this post.

Sources:

Berger, R., Woodfin, L., & Vilen, A. (2016). Chapter 1: Planning and delivering lessons that challenge, engage, and empower Learning that lasts: Challenging, enhancing, and empowering students with deeper instruction. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design, 2nd Edition (2nd ed.). Alexandra, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

New Teacher Center. (2009). Foundations in Mentoring. Retrieved from Santa Cruz, CA: