Successful Lesson Planning Portfolio
Lesson planning
Successful lesson planning is key to delivering effective teaching and learning
Examine the link between a long-term curriculum plan and an individual lesson plan
Produce a section in your portfolio on lesson planning and examine the link between a long-term curriculum plan and an individual lesson plan.
The interface between lesson planning and longer-term curriculum planning is clearly explained using more than 4 examples (5 is enough) from subject disciplines to illustrate the points which are made
Successful Lesson Planning Portfolio Example
Successful lesson planning is vital to the teaching and learning process of the students, and this is because a well-prepared teacher ensures a thriving instructional experience. Lesson planning enables teachers to know the abilities, skills, and knowledge that students should have by the end of the learning process (Fujii, 2019). Therefore, they play a crucial role in a student’s learning process, and this is because they state what students are expected to understand as well as what they are expected to do. Hence, it is an important component of an effective teacher or instructor. It is a process that allows teachers to synthesize their understanding of what they expect the learners to acquire by the end of the lesson. Lesson planning helps teachers to envision the learning that they want to see and analyze various learning experience that is important in ensuring effective learning.
There are several benefits to writing lesson plans for delivering learning and teaching. Lesson planning generates more cohesive lessons and provides teachers or educators the opportunity of thinking deliberately about their option of teaching goals, the kind of the actions that will achieve these goals, the sequence of learning activities, materials needed, time allocation for each activity, as well as how learners must be grouped (Nagro, Fraser & Hooks, 2019). And in so doing, teachers or educators can easily reflect on the connection between one activity to the other activity, the connection between the present lesson and any future or past lessons, and the relationship between the learning activities and evaluation practices. Since teachers consider these relationships in lesson planning and can make the relationships clear to the students, it makes the lessons to be more important to them. The process of lesson planning permits educators to assess their own understanding of the content to be delivered to the students. For instance, if a teacher or an instructor has to teach a difficult grammatical structure and is not certain of the rules involved, the teacher would know this during the planning process of the lesson and can take steps of acquiring the needed information. Similarly, if teachers are not certain about pronouncing new vocabulary terms, teachers would know this during the planning process of the lesson and can take the necessary measures.
The opportunity that is presented by lesson planning for teachers to assess their own understanding of the content to be delivered to students helps teachers to acquire information from many different fields that are important in supporting the learning process. Therefore, teachers with lesson plans are more confident as compared to those without lesson plans. Teachers with lesson plans are clear, and they state what students are expected to understand as well as what they are expected to do. And this makes the lesson to flow smoothly since all the required information has been collected, the teachers will not misuse class time opening through the coursebook, imagining of what is supposed to be done next, or dashing to make copies for the lesson (Kumpas-Lenk et al., 2018). The confidence of the teachers that comes as a result of lesson planning inspires respect from the students, thereby decreasing discipline problems and assisting the students in feeling comfortable and more open to learning. The use of lesson planning in teaching and learning saves time since the plans can be utilized again in the future. For instance, teachers store the files of the previous lessons which they can use in facilitating planning for their present classrooms. Lesson plans can also be helpful to other people in the teaching fraternity; for instance, substitute teachers or educators experience the problem of teaching their colleagues’ classes, however, with a lesson plan, it is easy to follow and ensure effective learning. Understanding that a replaced teacher teaches according to the lesson plans gives confidence to the normal classroom teacher that the time is being utilized effectively in his or her absence. Additionally, lesson plans as well as document what is happening in class to school administrators (Fujii, 2019). For instance, if an administrator wants to understand what happened in class, say three weeks ago, the educator or instructor only refers to the lesson plan of that day. Finally, lesson plans are important in teaching and learning since they can serve as proof of the professional performance of teachers. Sometimes, teachers are requested to include their lesson plans together with other materials to prove their yearly performance evaluation. Teaching styles and organizational skills are important in teaching, and therefore new teachers are always requested by their employers to provide their lesson plans to confirm these skills.
Both Long term and short term lesson plans are important in developing assignments, projects, and course units (Mitchell, 2017). A long term lesson plan is prepared by teachers to meet the learning needs of the entire unit. It considers the long-range goals of the unit that are, for instance, how long to spend on every topic and what the students need to understand by certain dates in the academic year. It provides teachers or educators the opportunity of thinking deliberately about their option of teaching goals, the kind of actions that will achieve these goals, the sequence of learning activities, materials needed, time allocation for each activity, as well as how learners must be grouped.
While on the other hand, short term lesson plans deal with the immediate consequences and effects, are concerned with the present needs of the students in the classroom. A short term plan considers factors that originate from the external and internal sources, and these include cognitive, emotional, and environmental factors. Additionally, it increases the rate of achieving the long term plans of the curriculum and gives direction about the type of learning styles and approaches to use in achieving the immediate learning needs of the students (Nagro, Fraser & Hooks, 2019).
They both, for instance, first, help teachers to make sure that an extensive, as well as balanced curriculum, is used and both the present and future learning needs of the students are achieved. Second, they give a summary of the present and future goals to be attained in every subject area basing on the judgment of the abilities, skills, and knowledge of the students in the class. And therefore, they both help teachers in envisioning the learning that they want to see and analyze various learning experiences that are important in ensuring effective learning. Third, they are all important processes of effective teaching, and they enable teachers to know the abilities, skills, and knowledge that students should have by the end of the learning process. Fourth, they both allow teachers to synthesize their understanding of what they expect the learners to acquire by the end of the learning process (Mitchell, 2017). Fifth, they both help the learners in attaining the learning objectives, both in the long term and short term.
References
Fujii, T. (2019). Designing and adapting tasks in lesson planning: A critical process of lesson study. In Theory and Practice of Lesson Study in Mathematics (pp. 681-704). Springer, Cham.
Kumpas-Lenk, K., Eisenschmidt, E., &Veispak, A. (2018). Does the design of learning outcomes matter from the students’ perspective?. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 59, 179-186.
Mitchell, D. (2017). ‘Curriculum making,’ teacher and learner identities in changing times. Geography, 102, 99-103.
Nagro, S. A., Fraser, D. W., & Hooks, S. D. (2019). Lesson planning with engagement in mind: Proactive classroom management strategies for curriculum instruction. Intervention in School and Clinic, 54(3), 131-140.