Guide to Lesson Planning for Interns and Student Teachers

You will plan collaboratively with your cooperating teacher for the first few weeks. While experienced teachers often write brief lesson plans in a plan book, you will need to do much more thorough planning as an intern/student teacher and for the first few years of teaching. Your first seminar class will focus on lesson planning.

Create a LESSON PLANS folder and place it on your desktop.

HEADER

Insert a header on your lesson plan document. Using the Microsoft Word template provided, go to View on the toolbar. From the pull-down menu, select Headers and Footers. Include the following in your header: Date, Name, Student Teacher, Grade, School, District. When you click on Close your header will be set. Use font size 10 for your header. Save the document and duplicate it several times in the Lesson Plans folder. Dates will automatically change on documents. 

FONT

Use at least size 12 for most of your planning. Print on two sides to save paper.

Print three copies of weekly lesson plans:

Notebook Copy: This is considered the field supervisor’s copy. Arrange each week’s set of plans behind the Weekly Checklist, which must be initialed by the cooperating teacher prior to implementation. Your field supervisor will examine plans and sign this form weekly. Place the notebook/field supervisor’s copy behind the Weekly Checklist in your student teacher notebook.

Cooperating Teacher Copy: Your cooperating teacher examines plans, suggests improvements, and finally signs your weekly checklist after revisions are made. Your cooperating teacher or a substitute may need to use this copy in your absence.

Student Teacher Copy: Use your clipboard or another notebook for these. Highlight key steps you are concerned about forgetting. Add helpful notations or marks as you review plans before teaching.

DRAFTS

You may wish to print several copies (front and back) to use for drafting plans in pen/pencil. Feel free to make and use abbreviated forms for drafts, or you may wish to use a lesson plan book that you purchase. However, final plans must be typed on a computer using the form provided.

Field Supervisor REQUEST

Your field supervisor may request an e-mailed copy of specific plans on occasion. If so, please save the plans.

LEARNERS COME FIRST!

Do not work on lesson plans while students are present in the classroom, even when your cooperating teacher is teaching. Instead, assist individual students, observe students carefully, and make note of effective strategies your cooperating teacher uses. If you notice some teaching behaviors that are less effective, note those also, so you can explore alternative techniques.

The following information should help guide you as you complete each section of the lesson plan form. We do not expect to see all suggestions on each lesson plan. However, we should see thorough planning involving a variety of activities and strategies. Student teacher plans are expected to be more thorough than those used by experienced teachers. Effective use of computers allows for thorough planning and continuous improvement.

LEARNING GOALS / OBJECTIVES / EXPECTED OUTCOMES

Address the emotional, physical, intellectual and social development of your students.

You may use academic or behavioral management objectives such as “respond quickly to signal system,” “move through hallways quietly,” “return center materials as directed,” “participate in a class meeting,” or “work cooperatively in pairs.” We will assume that the phrase “The learner will…” could precede these statements.

 Select appropriate objectives. Choices should reflect your knowledge of student skills, developmental differences, motivation, approaches to learning, interests, concerns, out-of-school experiences, needs and cultural heritage. If you set an appropriate learning goal not addressed on the TEKS, TAKS or MATRIX, type N/A in that box.

Do not type TEKS/Matrix information. Instead, copy and paste selected items onto your plans. If you use only letter/number references when drafting plans, you will be able to add complete text to plans rapidly by using copy and paste. Print only the TEKS for your grade level, but familiarize yourself with those for grades bordering your level. You can also download the TEKS from the TEA Web site at https://tea.texas.gov/index2.aspx?id=6148.

PREREQUISITES

Include essential knowledge or skills learners must possess to succeed with this lesson.

ACTIVITIES / PROCEDURES

Number steps!

Plan a logical sequence to support student success.

Strive to provide the following through careful planning: An effective focus to activate student interest, motivation and purpose, meaningful experiences.

Clear expectations

• Active student engagement with content
• Ongoing assessment and checks for understanding
• A variety of effective instructional strategies
• Only brief periods of direct instruction
• Smooth transitions to minimize loss of instructional time
• Content-specific pedagogy
• Activation of prior knowledge
• Solid scaffolding for new learning
• Effective ordering of activities (quiet to physical, direct to group interaction, independent to sharing)
• Sense of self-worth, success and belonging for all students
• Opportunities for social interaction

CLOSURE / REFLECTION

This is the time to "tie up" a lesson.

Consider the usefulness of these techniques:

• Review
• Connections to real world, other disciplines, out-of-school experiences
• Reinforcement of key points
• Transfer of concepts or skills to new contexts
• Key questions
• Main ideas recalled by students
• Challenge with higher-level, open-ended questions
• Celebration of student accomplishment

REACHING LEARNERS

Address individual differences shaped by prior learning, motivation, interests, experiences, learning approaches, learning rates, cultural heritage, attention, developmental levels, linguistic characteristics, disabilities, impairments, gifts, and personality traits.

ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING

Ongoing assessment shapes instruction. Base your summative assessments upon many factors, including:

1. Purposeful, systematic and day-to-day observation (academic and social situations); and
2. Collections of representative work samples or portfolios.

Additional guidelines include: 

• Look for individual student behavior patterns, strengths and weaknesses, group interactions, participation, problem solving, critical thinking, and self-monitoring.
• Incorporate assessment throughout lessons.
• Consider linguistic factors.
• Provide opportunities for student self-assessment.
• Consider progress over time.
• Balance process and product.
• Chart long-range progress. Use authentic assessments and performance-based assessments.
• Increase efficiency with rubrics and checklists.
• Invite student participation in setting criteria for mastery.
• Employ holistic scoring of student writing.
• Collect representative selections of student products in portfolios.

MATERIALS

Indicate special room arrangements, other locations, or guest presenters in this section. Consider this list of materials and add your own ideas.

With cooperating teacher approval, send requests for materials from home a week or two before they are needed.

RESOURCES FOR REFERENCE

Give brief documentation of Web sites, books, articles, individuals, or files.

FOLLOW-UP

Include anything that you anticipate when planning, and then add to this section other needs that occur following the lesson. Include reminders to yourself; for example, you may need to:

• Return borrowed equipment or materials
• Display student products.
• Document progress.
• Add an additional activity to a learning center.
• Plan a re-teach or extension lesson for a group or individual.
• Thank volunteers or guest presenters. Plan additional reinforcement or enrichment activities.
• Plan future activities based upon student interests.
• Prepare additional reinforcement activities.
• Add words to word wall.
• Plan to provide additional guided practice.
• Provide information for Homework Helpline or Homework Online.

NOTES (Self-assessment following lesson)

Frequent, effective use of this section provides documentation of the reflective quality of your teaching. Make these brief remarks in pen or pencil, but take the time to return to your computer to save changes or suggestions that will benefit your later teaching. Record comments such as improvements or changes, lessons learned from mistakes, or time required for certain steps. You might also ask students to help you assess the effectiveness of a lesson, or consider using a student survey.