A daily lesson plan is a detailed outline of instruction that an educator has put together. Typically, a daily lesson plan is used in classrooms to assist the teacher as a step-by-step instructional guide in whatever they are teaching.
A daily lesson plan template, on the other hand, is a ready-to-use document for teachers to write down their lesson plans.
They are used to provide structure and detail to a lesson, and to ensure that nothing is missed. If a teacher loses track of what comes next, a daily lesson plan template will be able to remind them. Educators can make them as detailed as they wish, although some seasoned educators prefer less detail. Nevertheless, a daily lesson plan template is a helpful document that keeps the lesson’s objectives and purposes alive.
How to Make a Lesson Plan?
Creating a lesson plan requires several important features to be filled out. The first things first are to get to know your students. Because a lesson plan is designed to teach your students, it must be tailored to meet their needs. Next, you will want to identify what the objective of the lesson is. For example, perhaps you want to teach students “how to count to twenty in Spanish”. You don’t have to worry about fancy language, in the beginning, just jot down ideas to start an outline. Other objectives could be “Students will be able to list the order of the planets”. With a goal/objective in mind, this will help successfully guide the rest of your lesson.
The next part of the lesson plan is the overview. The overview is what you intend the students to learn at the end of the lesson. For instance, in a language arts lesson about adjectives, you may wish students to learn what an adjective is and be able to write their own sentence using one. The next step is to plan your timeline.
For example, it may look like this:
8:25-8:40 AM: Read chapter 5 in Lord of the Flies. Have students read their character’s parts. Teacher reads the narrative part.8:40-8:50 AM: Have a class discussion about what occurred in the chapter.
8:50-9:00 AM: Talk about the response assignment.
9:00 AM-9:30 AM: Have students work on assignment during class. They can move around the room if they wish but must do so quietly.
9:30 AM: Collect papers as students leave room.
This is just a sample idea of an overview, and yours may be more detailed or less detailed. Just remember, if there is a substitute teacher, the more detailed the lesson plan is the more helpful it will be. It is also very helpful to plan an extension of the lesson, in case you have extra time and need something for the students to do.
Standard Format
Within the daily lesson plan template, you will want to include activities or assignments that reflect your students. If you have a class of shy students, you may want to encourage them to find their voice through group discussion activities or class presentations.
The standard format of a daily lesson plan template may look different for each person. However, there are main components that must be in a daily lesson plan template, no matter the layout. These components are the targeted curriculum area, grade, overview, big idea, what the students will learn/how they will learn/and why they are learning what they are learning, flexible learning content, material needed, timeline, and notes/reflections.
- The targeted curriculum area is where you write whether it is language arts, science, etc.
- The grade is where you write what grade you are teaching.
- The overview is what you intend the students to learn about.
- The big idea is what the lesson is going to target (Example for a P.E. class: Daily participation in different types of physical activity influences our physical literacy and personal health and fitness goals)
- Students will learn/how they will learn/why they are learning is important to clarify what you want your students to take away from the lesson plan.
- Flexible learning content focuses on how you will adapt your lesson if need be. This can be for students who are hard-of-hearing or who may struggle with a certain subject.
- Materials needed is where you list what you need for the lesson.
- Timeline is where you detail what you will do each minute/hour.
- Notes and reflections is where you write any extra side-notes or what you hope students will take away from the lesson.
Daily Lesson Plan Templates
Following are a few daily lesson plan templates that can be customized as per needs:
Conclusion
With all this in mind, a daily lesson plan template may include more things if needed. What it is designed to do is provide a thorough outline of what will be taught, how it will be taught, and what learning goals it will target. A lesson without a plan is a plan to fail, so it is very important to design one with each thing you teach.