Lesson Planning

Teaching does not automatically translate into learning. However, student learning can be influenced by carefully planning what students will do before, during, and after each class, and by crafting significant learning experiences that support learning for all students.  

Lesson Plans include:

    • Lesson-level learning objectives that align with course-level learning outcomes; 
    • A hook and/or connections to students’ prior knowledge; 
    • Content that is presented in appropriately-sized “chunks”; 
    • Teaching and learning activities that align with course-level learning outcomes and provide opportunities for students to apply and practice with the new content being presented; 
    • Presentation materials and activities that meet accessibility standards; 
    • Assessment methods, including formative and/or summative assessments; and 
    • An opportunity to reflect on your lesson to consider what worked/didn’t work, and notes on what you would change for next time. For more on this, see the Reflective Practice page. 

Lesson Planning Templates

We have provided three templates for you to download and use for your lesson plans: 

Key Questions to Consider when Planning Lessons

(from Meyer, A., Rose, D., Gordon, D. Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice, p. 59) 

Think about how learners will engage with the lesson: 

    • Does the lesson provide options that can help all learners regulate their own learning? 
    • Does the lesson provide options that help all learners sustain effort and motivation? 
    • Does the lesson provide options that engage and interest all learners? 

Think about how information is presented to learners: 

    • Does the information provide options that help all learners reach higher levels of comprehension and understanding? 
    • Does the information provide options that help all learners understand the symbols and expressions? 
    • Does the information provide options that help all learners perceive what needs to be learned? 

Think about how learners are expected to act strategically and express themselves: 

    • Does the activity provide options that help all learners act strategically? 
    • Does the activity provide options that help all learners express themselves fluently? 
    • Does the activity provide options that help all learners physically respond? 

Other Lesson-Planning Considerations

A Starter Activity to Begin Any Class  

Looking to change up how you start your classes each week? In “A Starter Activity to Begin Any Class,” author Laura Schisler shares how she uses “starter activities” in the form of writing prompts in her classes to “review content, establish a foundation for the day’s topic, encourage student participation, and get students prepared for the day’s activities.” 

Chunk up your lectures  

Segmenting your face-to-face or online lectures and lessons into shorter “chunks” is a useful strategy to support student learning. Paul Moss from the University of Adelaide shares a strategy for chunking that helps increase student interaction, supports cognitive load for learners, and helps learners transfer new learning into their long-term memories. Here are the segments he suggests:  

  1. Introduce new content and set the stage for the lesson   
  2. Students then practice, process, or discuss the content or skills that were taught  
  3. Introduce more new content  
  4. Conduct a student-led formative assessment  
  5. Introduce more new content  
  6. Summarize the lesson together with students  

You can visit this site to view his video and read the article for more information on chunking lectures and how that supports student learning. 

In-Class Sharing Strategies

Checking in with students during teaching is important. Aside from posing a question and having an individual student respond one at a time, why not engage more students at once? You can try the age-old “Think-Pair-Share” strategy in which you pose a question and ask students to first “think” about their own response before sharing with a partner and then finally asking several “pairs” to “share” with the whole class. Another method, suggested in this article from Faculty Focus, is a “trio” method with specific roles assigned to each students in the group.Â