How to Write a Lesson Plan (With Examples)
A lesson plan is a decision about time. You have roughly 45 minutes, and the plan is where you decide how much of it goes to explaining, how much to practising, and how you will know whether it worked.
Start with the objective, not the activity
Write what students will be able to DO, not what they will cover. "Students will add two-digit numbers with regrouping" is an objective. "We will do addition" is a topic. The difference matters because the objective tells you what to check at the end.
Work backwards from the check
Decide how you will know who got it before you plan the middle. If your check is "sort the practice pages into three piles," then the lesson has to produce a page worth sorting. Planning forwards tends to produce a nice activity that assesses nothing.
Budget the minutes honestly
Most plans over-budget explaining and under-budget practice. A rough split that survives contact with a real classroom: five minutes warm-up, ten modeling, ten guided, fifteen independent, five to close. Write the minutes down, or the modeling will eat the practice.
Use gradual release
I do, we do, you do. Model it yourself, work some together, then release them. Skipping the middle step is the single most common reason independent practice falls apart.
Plan both ends of the room
Write one support move and one extension move. Not a whole second lesson, just the one adjustment you will actually make when a student stalls or finishes in four minutes.
Keep it one page
A plan you cannot see at a glance is a plan you will not follow while teaching. If it does not fit on a page, the lesson is probably two lessons.
