LESSON PLANNING 63
KAREN TEACHER WORKING GROUP
Topic Summary
Topic: Planning for classroom teaching.
Goals: Teachers will decide upon the value of annual, monthly, weekly and daily
lesson plans. Teachers will be able to develop lesson plans according to
their own teaching style and to the needs of their students.
In brief:
Lesson planning is a way of organizing ourselves as teachers. It helps us take
long term teaching objectives and order them in a step by step way which will
be most beneficial for our students. As teachers we have many tasks, by
planning in advance, we can guide our students in an ordered way, a way that
makes sense.
There is no one right way to plan your lessons. Each teacher must consider
her/his own teaching style and also the learning styles of the students before
making lesson plans.
In this section we will look at 4 types of lesson planning:
Annual
Monthly
Weekly
Daily
Content Reading:
Two Lesson Plans
Year Plan
Monthly Plan
Weekly Plan
Daily Plan
Self-Analysis Activity
Questions Before Planning
Task Sheet:
Let's practice our Lesson Planning
Trainer's Guide
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Introduce the topic of Lesson Presentation. Explain that the lesson will likely take 2
days.
Trainer to the whole group:
What is a lesson plan?
Write all participants ideas on to the blackboard and encourage the group to
discuss amongst themselves. Attempt to have the group come to some decision.
Have trainees get into to groups of 5-8 people and then ask small groups:
Why is lesson planning important? Is it important?
Encourage trainees to discuss this question fully and then have one member from
each group report to the whole group.
Trainer introduces 4 kinds of lesson planning:
Annual
Monthly
Weekly
Daily
Trainer should briefly explain each kind of planning.
Have trainees return to their small groups. Trainers asks:
Why do we need annual planning?
monthly planning?
weekly planning?
daily planning?
Small groups share their answers with the whole group. Answers should be
written down on the blackboard or on sheets of paper.
To the whole group:
Should all teachers use/have the same knid of lesson plan? Why?
Encourage as many people as possible to voice their opinion. You might need to
ask trainees to discuss the question in small groups if people choose not to speak
to the whole group.
Ask trainees to read 'Content Reading: Two Lesson Plans'.
In small groups (referring to the Content Reading), trainer asks:
a. Which lesson plan do you like the most? Which is most like
something that you would write?
b. What are the advantages of each lesson plan?
c. What are the disadvantages of each lesson plan?
After small groups have finished discussing, the trainer can explain that:
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KAREN TEACHER WORKING GROUP
Trainer's Guide
There is no one right way to plan your lessons. Some lesson plans could be long,
comprehensive, fully descriptive step-by-step; other plans may be more open-
ended. As teachers become more experienced, the teacher will discover or
develop a style of lesson plan that is most suitable for the teacher's own personal
teaching style.
Have trainees read 'Self-Analysis Activity: Questions Before Planning'. In small
groups, trainees should share their thoughts on the questions.
Trainer explains that we will now look more closely at the four types of lesson planning.
Year Plan
Trainer to the group:
What should we think aobut when planning for the year?
Trainer should write down all of the teachers ideas. Here are some examples of
possible answer:
Where will the students sit?
What will I put on the walls?
What will the classroom rules be?
What should students learn throughout the year?
What will the year plan for learning be?
Trainees read 'Content Reading: Year Plan'.
In small groups, teachers should discuss the year plan examples they generated from the
question above, as well as examples provided in the Content Reading.
After completing the Year Plan reading and discussion, small groups should repeat the
same steps for:
'Content Reading: Monthly Plan'
'Content Reading: Weekly Plan'
'Content Reading: Daily Plan'
**Note to Trainer: For each Content Reading and follow-up discussion, the trainer
should encourage small groups to discuss in depth and thoroughly. It are these steps
which are meant to help teachers fully understand the purpose and goals of lesson
planning. The trainer should circulate between each of the small groups and help them
by asking questions and giving suggestions.
Have trainees, individually, look at and complete the 'Task Sheet: Let's practice our
Lesson Planning'. After all the trainees have completed their task sheets, then trainees
should join small groups (5-8 people) and present their task sheets to the group. The
group is expected to respond and give suggestions to each others task sheets.
When every member of the small group has finished, then one member of the small group
is chosen to present their task sheet to the entire group. Again, the whole group is
expected to respond to each presentation. The trainer should give some advice too!
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KAREN TEACHER WORKING GROUP
Trainer's Guide
When everyone has presented, the trainer should thank everyone for their presentations
and their great effort! The trainer should ask if there are any questions and then provide a
short summary of the entire lesson.
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KAREN TEACHER WORKING GROUP
Content Reading
Two Lesson Plans
The following is two lesson plans written by two different standard 5 Math teachers.
Examine each lesson plan and while doing so, anwer the following questions:
Which lesson plan do you like the most? Which is most like something that you
would write?
What are the advantages of each lesson plan?
What are the disadvantages of each lesson plan?
LESSON PLAN 1
Subject: Math
Date: December 15th/98
Standard: 5
Teaching Objectives: a. ask each child at least one question
b. praise at least 10 children
c. complete the entire lesson within the given time
Learning Objectives: a. to divide 2 digit numbers
b. to reverse division operations into multiplication
c._______________________
Materials Needed: For teachers:rocks, diagrams, chalk, chalkboard
For students: pen and paper
Teaching Methods to be used: discovery and direct teaching methods
Lesson Presentation: use real objects to demonstrate division principles
Method of Evaluation: short classroom work
LESSON PLAN 2
- teach division (e.g. 24/12=2)
- ask questions
- standard 5 class
- use rocks and the diagram in the teacher's office
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KAREN TEACHER WORKING GROUP
Content Reading
Year Plan
A year plan is the way we organize our classrooms and teaching for the
whole year. A year plan helps us to move step by step in our teaching,
to keep things moving in a good way. There are many things that we
should think about when planning for the year. Here are some
examples:
1. Where will students sit?
2. What will we put on the walls?
pictures? diagrams? flowers?
clock? timetable? posters?
what else?
3. What should students have learned by the end of the
year?
Standard 2
Karen Math English Burmese
-express in simple -addition -basic communication -
construct
sentences -substraction sentences
4. What will the Year Plan be? (example of a YEAR PLAN)
School:_______ Teacher:__________ Standard:_____ Subject:_______
Month Topics of Lesson
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
January
February
March
Content Reading
Monthly Plan
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KAREN TEACHER WORKING GROUP
Monthly planning is very similar to the year plan. You can use
the same form as the year plan (with some small changes).
Amonthly plan is more specific than the year plan. Here are
some questions you can ask when planning for the month.
Which topics will be covered in each subject area?
What information should be included?
What information will be included in term or monthly tests?
What will be necessary for every lesson?
What activities will be necessary to make learning pleasant?
What special assistance will students require?
An example of a Monthly Plan:
Teacher:_______________
Subject:_______________
Standard:______________
Month:________________
WEEK TOPIC OF LESSONS
1
2
3
4
Content Reading
Weekly Plan
We use weekly plans to decide when we will teach, what we
will teach and how long we will teach for. When making these
decisions, we must think about our own teaching objectives as
well as student needs and capabilities.
What time of the day is most suitable for specific subject learning?
When are students most alert and ready to concentrate?
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How long can students concentrate on one subject for?
Are there times when students can study one subject better than
another?
Are some subjects best taught one after another?
Can you think of any other questions?
Here is an example of a weekly plan:
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
9-9:30 ENG KAR BUR KAR ENG
9:30-10 HEALTH HEALTH HEALTH HEALTH HEALTH
10-10:30 MAT MAT MAT MAT MAT
10:30-11 HIS GEO HIS GEO HIS
11-11:30 ENG KAR BUR BUR KAR
11:30-12 PHYSICAL EDUCATION
12-1 BREAK
1-1:30 SCI SCI WRIT SCI SCI
1:30-2 POL CULT CULT POL POL
2-2:30 KAR BUR ENG ENG KAR
2:30-3 KAR BUR ENG BUR KAR
Content Reading
Daily Plan
When we think of lesson planning, we usually think about daily
planning. Here are some questions we should think about when
developing a daily plan.
What are the learning objectives for the lesson?
What materials are necessary for this lesson?
What teaching methods will help most in attaining the learning
objectives?
What modes of evaluation will be used?
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KAREN TEACHER WORKING GROUP
These are some advantages for using a daily plan (they're also true for
lesson planning):
1. Arrangement made on the lesson is prescribed – it enables the teacher to start
teaching at the beginning of school.
2. Remind the teacher what to do next.
3. Provide reference examples when teaching is evaluated.
4. Help coordinate time, work and thought so that teaching goals are reached.
5. Brings satisfaction to the teacher.
6. Brings about better student learning.
7. Records what has been done and experienced.
8. Allows administration, as well as other teachers, to better understand the current
situation of the classroom.
9. List materials needed so that nothing is forgotten.
10. Especially useful for new teachers.
11. Helps the teacher be more organized and better able to respond to students' needs.
Example of a Lesson Plan
Subject:_______________
Date:_________________
Standard:______________
Teaching Objectives: a._______________________
b._______________________
c._______________________
Learning Objectives: a._______________________
b._______________________
c._______________________
Materials Needed: For teachers:__________________________________
For students:__________________________________
Teaching Methods to be used:_________________________________________
Lesson Presentation:_________________________________________________
Method of Evaluation:__________________________________
Content Reading
Suggestions for Lesson Planning
Any teaching method used will fulfill only a certain number of the objectives and might
not reach certain goals (or students). Teachers are advised to use several teaching
methods during one lesson.
Alternate Plan
For several reasons there will be times when you cannot teach according to your plan and
have to teach differently or change your lesson. In such cases, it is useful to teachers to
have an alternative plan.
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KAREN TEACHER WORKING GROUP
Self-Analysis Activity
Questions Before Planning
Close your eyes and imagine yourself in your classroom. Can you see it? Now imagine
all of your students in the class with you. Now, ask yourself the following questions:
What materials do I have?
Which class am I planning for?
How much time do I have/need?
What are some of the possible difficulties I might face?
How can I motivate the students?
Are the students ready to learn the material?
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KAREN TEACHER WORKING GROUP
What activities will be necessary to foster learning?
Should individual or group activities be used?
How much practice is needed for valuable learning to occur?
What are the differences between students?
How will these differences affect learning?
Task Sheet:
Let's practice our Lesson Planning
Remember that each teacher has their own teaching style and their own way to make
lesson plans. The examples that we have shown you today are only examples. Think of
your own class and develop your own personal lesson plans.
Annual Plan:
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Monthly Plan:
Task Sheet
Weekly Plan:
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KAREN TEACHER WORKING GROUP
Daily Plan: