Lesson Plan Template

Lesson planning is the decision-making that is made before instruction. Planning a lesson is the teacher’s mindful effort to develop a coherent scenario of activities that paves the way for learning by the students.

Each lesson plan contains student objectives, background information for the teacher, a list of commonly held alternative ideas, step-by-step directions on how to carry out the lesson, and assessments. In addition, there are helpful hints that can support teaching methods.

At a minimum, lesson plans should include:

- State- and/or district-adopted student academic content standards that are the target of student learning.
- Informal and formal assessment tools and/or procedures used to monitor student learning.
- Instructional strategies and learning tasks used to support student learning, including what the teacher and the students will be doing.
- Resources and materials.

A good lesson plan will take into account the differentiated ability level of the students in the class. By incorporating this into the lesson plan, teachers show an understanding and a responsiveness to student learning—and outcomes.

Even the most veteran teacher who has a series of detailed and highly-structured lesson plans rarely follow the plan in lock-step fashion. Every lesson plan should be considered as a guide, not a blueprint. Have fun while teaching. Don’t be afraid to improvise. Remember a good teacher is an artist. The better prepared the teacher, the more flexibility he or she has in the presentation of the material.

Below you’ll find a lesson plan template designed to make lesson plan writing easier, while ensuring that all lesson plan goals are met. Download this printable Lesson Plan Template as a Microsoft Word document to save and reuse.