agreement and assignment in lesson plan

• Teaching and Learning

Applying Learning Agreements in the Classroom

• July 13, 2009
• Loren Kleinman

As a former editor in the business profession and now educator, I see connections between business and classroom best practices, especially when it comes to using academic learning agreements to promote student engagement and leadership. Such learning agreements can increase student accountability in the classroom and lay the foundation for a successful college experience by helping them understand the importance of adhering to their own best practices and goals.

This particular learning agreement is used in the classroom, and preferably with first-year students in order to establish a pattern of regular learning behaviors, which can be applied and reflected upon throughout college.

Learning agreements can be created on the first day of class or early in the first week. The agreement should help students recognize ideas and themes within their subject matter; approach these ideas and themes in several ways; and allow them to perform their understanding of the subject matter in a range of ways (i.e. one minute summaries) (Gardener 2006).

To start setting the tone of the learning agreement, include it as a required (non-graded) component of the course. On the first day of class create a grid on the board with columns such as learning goals/objectives, tasks performed to meet the learning goals/objectives, timeframe expected to complete goals/objectives, and, finally, a column where the students can reflect upon how they know they achieved their goals.

Next, engage the students in a short discussion about some of their insecurities about college, what they hope to achieve in this particular course or at the college, and what challenges they would like to overcome (i.e. improve time management, focus on study skills, etc.). Start filling in the columns with the feedback they provide during the discussion. Use this as a way to prepare the students to start thinking in terms of their own learning agreement.

This discussion alone is a type of assessment that helps to distinguish what characteristics are most important to students’ understanding of their own learning process. Afterwards, start passing out the learning agreement sample template that students can manipulate for their own use. Please note that you can structure your agreement as you like. There are many ways to address topics you would like your students to think about. This is only a sample. I encourage you to research other forms of agreements and see which works for your needs best.

The final page of the learning agreement is the Commitment Page. This is where the student commits to their proposed plan. The instructor keeps a copy of the agreement and the original goes to the student. (Remind the students that this is a non-graded, ongoing reflective tool, and they can add or remove goals/objectives, the timeframe, and even their plans for achieving their goals.)

At the end of the course have the students review their learning agreement and complete a short memo for the instructor explaining if and how they followed their agreement. They can also comment if this was a helpful tool for them in achieving their academic goals, and if they plan on adding to their plan throughout their college years.

By incorporating this practice into classroom management, students will have the opportunity to start monitoring and reflecting on their commitment to their learning. Learning agreements also provide perspective and direction to students’ academic goals. The agreement should not be used as a way to frighten or discourage students from performing in the classroom; it should motivate them to become proprietors of their own learning.

Access a sample learning agreement template here.

Loren Kleinman is the assistant director of academic support centers at Berkeley College.

References: Gabelnick, F., Leigh-Smith, B., MacGregor, J., & Matthews, R (2004). Learning communities: Reforming undergraduate education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Gardner, Howard, (2006). Five Minds for the Future. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Gross Davis, B. (2009). Tools for teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Haines, C. (2004). Assessing students’ written work: Marking essays and reports. New York: Routledge Falmer. Instructions for Creating a Learning Agreement (2009). University of California, Berkeley School of Social Welfare. Retrieved June 24, 2009 from LaSere Erickson, B., Peters, C., & Weltner Strommer, D. (2006). Teaching first-year college students. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Lacoss, J. (2009). The dog ate my homework: How to deal with unprepared students. Teaching Concerns. Retrieved May 19, 2009. Tips for Generating a Learning Agreement (2009). St. Norbert Career Services. Retrieved June 24, 2009.

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Sample Lesson Plan: Generating Classroom Shared Agreements

This tool presents a process for co-creating agreements as a class community, reflecting how students want to be treated and how they plan to treat others.

• Our Mission

3 Steps to Writing Better Lesson Plans

The secret to writing great lesson plans is ensuring that the objective, assessment, and instruction are closely aligned.

In my first months as a social studies teacher, I struggled each time I sat down to plan lessons for the upcoming school week. When I opened my laptop each weekend, I spent hours at a time trying to figure out a basic class period. I could not understand how lesson planning seemed so easy to my more experienced colleagues. As I progressed through my first school year—daunted, determined, and eager to improve—I began to learn valuable teaching strategies and engaging student activities to fill my lesson plans. This was a formative time in my development as an educator—but I had yet to learn the most critical component of lesson planning.

Now, as an instructional supervisor, I often see first- and second-year teachers planning the same way I did: properly structured lessons. Engaging and sometimes even innovative lessons planned for the class. Nonetheless, more often than not, the objective, class instruction, and assignments are not aligned. 

Learning how to align assignments and assessments with goals and instruction took some time for me. I had yet to grasp the integral concept of backward design, otherwise known as starting at the end. On top of that, I needed a clear understanding of (1) the relationship between each of these components and (2) the benefits of congruent instruction. Well-aligned lesson objectives, instructional activity, and assessment yield a more concise, focused, and ultimately meaningful standards-based lesson. Simply put, congruent instruction proactively answers the question, “Why are we doing this?” If you are seeking to strengthen your planning process and looking to align your lesson design, here is a great way to get started.

3 STEPS TO better-aligned LESSON PLANS

1. Determine the end goal of the lesson. Drafting a well-aligned plan means resisting the urge to start the planning process by pinpointing a great lesson activity or teaching strategy. As a novice teacher, this was one of my biggest challenges. 

Congruence begins with the objective, or starting with the end in mind. Still, while it may seem simple, identifying the objective of a lesson should begin with two key questions about content and skill: “What do the students need to know,” and “What do the students need to know how to do?” The answers generated in this exercise create the goal for the class in the allotted time of the class period. 

Personally, I like to reframe these questions from the students’ perspective:

“What do I need to know today?”

“What do I need to know how to do today?”

This may seem unnecessary. However, I find that engagement begins by planning with a view of the class from the chair of the children. Moreover, when the kids come into class and inevitably ask, “What are we doing today?” the teacher can quickly respond, “Ahem, what are we learning today? I’m glad you asked!” 

2. Identify or create the assessment.  Once there is a learning objective, the next question is, “How will I know when the students have met the goal?” In my first years as a teacher, even after I began to understand the importance of learning objectives, I consistently overcomplicated this question. However, the answer is not only straightforward, but also critical for the accurate assessment of student mastery.

For instance, if the social studies objective for students is to use primary sources to explain why the Declaration of Independence was written, you will know that students have met this goal when they can use primary sources to explain why the Declaration of Independence was written. It’s really that simple.

The key here is that the assignment(s), classwork, class activity you plan for this lesson must provide the student with practice and an opportunity to show you and themselves that they have met the goal of the lesson. If this is not so, the lesson is unaligned, and any assessment of what students are able to demonstrate actually has nothing to do with the standards-based objective. 

Using the previously mentioned goal as an example, the social studies class must get a chance to use primary sources to explain why the Declaration of Independence was written. Documentary clips about the writing of this document may provide great insight, but how will you use the video in congruence with the goal? A Socratic seminar on a polarizing and relevant topic may generate immense engagement, but how does this activity align with the learning objective? 

A better assessment might task the class with a writing prompt asking each student to make a choice supported by evidence from the primary source. The prompt should require students to (1) present the argument as a topic sentence, (2) include two to three textual references (direct quotations or paraphrases, both with citations) as evidence, and (3) provide an explanation of why each reference supports the argument. This alignment allows you as the teacher to make a focused, efficient, and accurate assessment of each student’s progress.

3. Plan the instruction. Now that there is a clear goal and understanding of how to assess the students, the next big question is, how will I teach this skill or content? 

For a new teacher, one way to begin planning instruction is to ask one last question from the students’ perspective: “What are the steps necessary for me to meet the goal?” A great way to frame these steps is by completing the assignment you have identified or created in the previous step of planning. There are three great benefits to this. As you complete the assignment, take note of the strategies you employ to do so. This becomes the crux of your instruction. Additionally, as you have already done what the students will do after you’ve taught the lesson, your feedback will be more concise and empathetic. Finally, by completing the assignment you chose or designed, you have an exemplar.

High expectations, engaging activities, and a sense of community are vital components of a classroom culture built to ensure student success. Yet, without congruent instruction, students may benefit from inclusivity, social and emotional support, and being challenged, while still never achieving mastery of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. If you begin designing lessons with a focus on the alignment of the learning objective, assessment, and instruction, you will improve your planning and ultimately become more effective in the classroom.

• Guide to Field Education for MSW Students
• Section 7: Evaluation and Grading in Field Practicum

7.1 Competency-Based Learning Agreements and Task Assignments

The learning agreement.

The competency-based Learning Agreement is a written understanding between the student, the field placement agency-based Field Instructor and the Field Consultant about the nature and content of the student's field experience. This written understanding provides a focus for mutual planning in the development of the placement, and serves as a reference point for ongoing evaluation of the student’s progress toward achieving expected competencies. The agreement is also a basis for the resolution of any disagreement that might later arise among the various stakeholders and partners in student field education.

The Field Instructor has lead responsibility for overseeing the development of the Learning Agreement. This means providing guidance throughout the process including initiating discussion about the agreement, selecting appropriate assignments with the student's input, and making sure that the document is completed in a timely manner.

The student is responsible for producing the Learning Agreement document, including preparation of drafts for discussion and submitting a final draft of the document to the Social Welfare MSW field education program on time.

The Field Consultant is responsible for meeting with the student and Field Instructor to review the Learning Agreement and approve it when it is finalized.

Discussions about field task assignments to include in the Learning Agreement should begin as soon as the student starts placement. The normal timeline for completing the required Learning Agreement is one month (please refer to the current Field Education Calendar for exact due dates each semester).

All Learning Agreement forms are available electronically through our online database, Sonia.

Field Task Assignments

Typically, several general types of assignments are developed each year. These assignments are selected by the Field Instructor, in discussion with the student, and should take into account the student's interests and readiness, the skills the student needs to acquire, and the range of available learning opportunities and activities in the agency.

Field placement tasks and duties should be identified that will advance student progress toward achieving each of the nine practice competencies established for the Social Welfare MSW field education program. All of the competencies should be addressed each year, although specific learning activities will differ for first and second year students.

• Learning opportunities and activities for first-year students should reflect learning and performance at a beginning and foundational level of generalist social work practice.
• Learning opportunities and activities for second-year students should approach performance levels appropriate for an entry-level practitioner in a specific area or method of specialized social work practice.

The agency may also require the student to perform additional tasks which are viewed as necessary for competent, ethical service and social work practice in the agency context. These additional tasks should be discussed with the student and Field Consultant, and explicitly noted in the Learning Agreement to clarify expectations and prevent potential misunderstandings.

The intention is for students to be assigned work in field placement that explicitly prepares them for master’s-level social work. Thoughtfully assigning duties located in the student’s proximal growth zone is essential. Students should not be regularly assigned clerical tasks beyond those normally required for successful work with their active clients or for completing assigned projects. We also request field placement settings refrain from assigning duties to students that are well beyond their expected skill or competency level, duties at which they already excel, or duties that are more commensurate with paraprofessional responsibilities.

Each student and Field Instructor are also asked to identify at least two to three assignments per academic year upon which feedback will be given based upon direct observation, audiovisual observation, or transcription/process recording review of the student’s work. For direct practice students, this may involve the Field Instructor observing the student conducting an intake, a counseling or case management session, or group; for a macro practice student, this may involve the Field Instructor observing the student leading a meeting, giving a public presentation, or interviewing or conferring with a stakeholder. Similarly, we ask each student and field instructor to identify at least two to three tangible deliverables or work products per academic year upon which competency-based feedback will be provided. This can include psychosocial assessments, court reports, case presentations, group curricula, written protocols, grant proposals, needs assessments, program evaluations, presentation slides and materials, and other work products related to their task assignments.

Learning Agreement Modifications in Extenuating Circumstances

If extenuating circumstances arise in or around field learning that are likely to impact a student’s or agency’s ability to fulfill commitments made in the Learning Agreement, the Social Welfare MSW field program may request or recommend that agreements be modified. In these instances, MSW students and their agency-based Field Instructor will interact to develop and propose modifications to the Learning Agreement that may allow the student to continue progress toward achieving all of the required competencies while balancing the protection of learning with any identified or emergent health or safety risks. 

When modifications to Learning Agreements are mandated due to extenuating circumstances, students and agencies should be candid, honest, and transparent with supervising field faculty about any concerns related to risk, health and safety, or the student’s ability to successfully continue with the field placement under current operating conditions. Students and agencies are further guided by field program policies on Suspension of In-Person Field Education and Safety and Security of Remote and Tele-Health Services.

All modifications to a student’s field placement work requirements must be clearly documented in the Learning Agreement. Supervising Field Consultant faculty will approve all Learning Agreements and modifications, and facilitate addressing and responding to any concerns in a timely manner.

Creating Lesson Plans

There are many approaches to writing lesson plans. Some instructors develop their plans independently from scratch, while others borrow plans from a shared curriculum. Some carefully write out all the details for their lesson, while others use a brief outline. Your approach to writing lesson plans will depend on various factors: how well you know the material you're teaching, how long you've been teaching, the kinds of teaching you've done, and the students you expect to have in your class. There is no single formula for writing lesson plans, but this guide will help you think through some of the processes that other instructors have found valuable to their own lesson planning.

Guidelines for writing lesson plans:

Consider Your Destination

Sequence your objectives, know your time frame.

• Create Activities to Meet Your Objectives

Check for Understanding

Sample lesson plan format.

• Citation Information

When creating lesson plans, always keep your destination in mind. Where do you want students to end up? If you're planning daily activities, think about how these activities connect to the larger goals for the course. Ask yourself, how will each activity prepare students for the upcoming portfolio assignment? Assuming that your assignment sheets accurately reflect the course goals, use them at the beginning of each unit to determine:

• What is the overall goal for this assignment? What is the assignment asking students to do?
• What knowledge do students already have that will help them meet the goals for writing this assignment?
• What skills and concepts will students need to meet the goals for this assignment?

From these questions, create a list of smaller objectives to use as stepping stones for your destination. If you are planning writing assignments for student portfolios, your list of objectives may include:

Portfolio 1 - Objectives for Teaching Summary/Response

• Students will think about their purpose, audience and context for writing.
• Students will use critical thinking skills and critical reading strategies to become better writers.
• Students will practice writing academic summaries.
• Students will practice writing different types of response.
• Students will learn to develop a claim and support that claim with reasons and evidence.
• Students will learn to value revision through workshops and other peer review activities.

While sequencing your objectives, consider how each one builds off another. How might one objective prepare students for learning another? If reading critically helps students summarize an argument, you might address your critical reading objective before teaching summary.

Also, think about what your students know. Given the information they already have, which objectives would be best met at certain points in the unit? Will simpler objectives work better at the start of a unit? Will more complicated objectives make clearer sense to students after some basic objectives have already been met?

Finally, determine how your sequencing of objectives will best meet these goals and requirements for the upcoming assignment.

While sequencing your objectives, be aware of the amount of time allotted for each portfolio. Based on the overall goals for the portfolio, determine how much time you will need to spend addressing each objective. Keep in mind that a single lesson will address only one or two objectives. Some of these goals will be easily met, while others will present a challenge for students. You may decide to build in extra time to review concepts that are more challenging.

Try to be flexible, but remain within a reasonable time frame. Spending three days on one essay may be too much (even if students are thrilled by the subject matter). One strategy to help you keep up your pace, is to utilize outside resources such as the CSU Writing Center or online tutorials. The Writing at CSU home page contains plenty of online resources as well. Use these resources to compliment discussions and save you some time in class.

Below is an example for how you might organize your sequence and time frame for the first student portfolio:

Portfolio I - Sequence and Time Frame for Objectives:

• Students will begin to think about their purpose, audience and context for writing. (day 1)
• Students will use critical thinking skills and critical reading strategies to become better writers. (day 2)
• Students will practice writing academic summaries. (days 3 - 4)
• Students will practice writing different types of response. (days 5 - 6)
• Students will learn to develop a claim and support that claim with reasons and evidence. (day 7)
• Students will learn to value revision through workshops and other peer- review activities. (day 8)

Develop Activities to Meet Objectives

Once you've sequenced your objectives within a given time frame, the next step is to create activities that will help students meet each objective. Decide which activities are most relevant to your desired objectives. Take the time to revise existing activities and to create new ones that meet the needs of your class. You may also combine activities or eliminate some that seem less related to your objectives.

Two questions that you should always keep in mind when constructing activities are: "What do my students already know that will help them meet a desired objective?" And, "What activities will best help students meet a desired objective?"

Below is an example illustrating how you might design activities to meet a particular objective:

Objective: Students will use critical thinking skills and critical reading strategies to become better writers.

Activities:

• Define critical reading and provide a list of strategies on an overhead (this is useful because many students do not know what critical reading is).
• Model critical reading strategies (show students how to implement critical reading strategies).
• Have students practice critical reading strategies with their homework.
• Ask students to respond to an in class writing, describing their experience with the critical reading assignment. Have them speculate as to how this process of critical reading will influence their own writing. As a group, discuss the connection between reading and writing.

Just as you did with objectives, you'll need to create a sequence and time frame for your activities. Which activities should come first? How much class time will each activity take? Planning this out ahead of time will help you create smoother transitions between activities and it will help you connect your activities to larger, writing-related objectives.

The final step in planning lessons is to make time for assessing students' learning. How will you check to see that students understand the new concepts you're teaching? When will you revisit the material that they didn't quite grasp?

Intervention along the way can help you learn what students are struggling with. Many instructors collect homework once a week, or assign quizzes and short writing exercises to assess their students' progress. Conferences and e-mail exchanges are other effective means for gauging students' understanding.

Depending on what you learn from using evaluative measures, you may need to revise your lesson plans. If students' homework indicates that they're having trouble summarizing main points, you may spend the first fifteen minutes of the next class reviewing this concept. Addressing such struggles early on will help students face the more challenging objectives that follow.

Just as you did with objectives, you'll need to create a sequence and time frame for your activities. Which activities should come first? How much class time will each activity take? Planning this out ahead of time will help you create smoother transitions between activities, and help you connect your activities to larger, writing-related objectives.

Course: Date: Materials needed: Class Announcements:

• Class Objectives: Write out the goals or objectives for class. Try to limit these to one or two things.
• Connection to Course Goals: Describe how your daily objectives connect to the overall course goals.
• Anticipatory Set: Sometimes referred to as a "hook." Use an informal Writing to Learn (WTL) exercise, a question, a quote, or an object to focus students' attention at the start of class. This activity should be brief and directly related to the lesson.
• Introduction: Write down what you'll need to inform students of the daily goals and class procedures. Be sure to explain how these procedures relate to students' own writing.
• Procedures: List your activities, including any discussion questions and transitions along the way.
• Conclusion: Describe the objective for the lesson and point students forward by connecting your objective to their own writing.
• What to do Next Time: Leave space in your plan to reflect on the lesson and suggest future changes.

Also see the guide on Planning a Class for help with writing introductions, transitions, and conclusions.

Eglin, Kerry. (2008). Creating Lesson Plans. Writing@CSU . Colorado State University. https://writing.colostate.edu/teaching/guide.cfm?guideid=96

Create Your Course

How to build a lesson plan (+ templates), share this article.

So you’ve got a great course topic , you’ve built a course outline to help you deliver, and now you’re all set to start your first lesson plan.

When it comes to building an online course that delivers, you need to be strategic about your lessons. Each lesson plan is a building block that ladders up to your overarching course goals.

Let’s talk about how to build a lesson plan that hits home.

Or grab them here for google docs or word!  

Skip ahead:

What does a good lesson plan look like? 

5 steps for building a lesson plan from scratch .

A well-designed lesson plan has seven key elements: 

Class objectives 

Objectives, at a basic level, are what the lesson sets out to achieve — think of them as your North Star. Objectives communicate three key things:

• Why students need the lesson
• What they’ll be able to do at the end of the lesson
• How they’ll demonstrate knowledge. 

Say one of the lessons in your social media course is “choosing the right channels.” In that case, your objective could be: At the end of this lesson, students will be able to compare different social media channels and choose the one that best aligns with their content goals. 

Teaching and learning are more effective when all the stakeholders understand the purpose of the lesson. When anyone veers off the track, they can easily realign themselves with the North Star.

Hook is what grabs the attention of your students. It is usually a statement surfacing the problem they are having — which is why they signed up for your course in the first place. This is your chance to prove that you understand their problem and can solve it. 

Back to our previous example, the hook could be a story about a creator who switched channels and finally got traction on social media after trying for many years. Or you could share data around how social channels affect how much money creators make.  

Learning activities 

Here, you spell out everything the lesson entails — from class activities and instruction time to independent work time and even assessments. Everyone involved needs to know what the lesson covers so they can prepare ahead of time. 

Again, referring to our earlier example, the learning activities might look like this: 

• Worksheets 
• Instructor-led sessions
• One Q and A session at the end of the class 
• Independent work time (which doubles as assessment) 
• Class discussions 

Learn more: Blended learning and scheduled class activities  

Timeline shows the duration of each activity in the lesson. More than showing how long the class will take, assign time limits to the different sessions within each lesson, including assessment, main instruction, breaks, and student participation. 

Build in a buffer between each session to take care of any unforeseen issues. Say you want to spend 15 minutes on a class presentation; assign 20 minutes to it instead. 

Having a realistic lesson timeline helps you stay on track, making sure you have enough time to cover all the key areas of your lesson. 

This is where you highlight what students need to make the most of your class — to set them up for success. The last thing you need is for your course to lose credibility because a particular student wasn’t sufficiently equipped for it. 

Maybe they need to complete a foundational course first to bring them up to the level of knowledge required for the lesson. Or they need access to certain tools and equipment. Tell them all about it here. 

For a social media class, for instance, students must have active accounts and maybe a certain number of followers. 

Closure is how you wrap up the class. It typically involves a recap of the key points covered in the lesson and a quick review of the class objectives. 

The instructor might ask reflective questions such as “What was the most challenging part of the lesson for you?” or “What would you like to learn more about in this topic?” Or ask students to create a mind map of the key points covered in the lesson.

At this point, students and instructors can reflect on the lesson activities at the end to see if they met their goals. Students can also ask last-minute questions before the final assessment. 

Assessment 

This is the parameter for measuring how well a student understands what they’ve learned in a particular lesson. It helps the course instructor assess students fairly. 

The assessment can take several forms. One might administer a summative test — like an end-of-class quiz. Or conduct a survey with open-ended questions at intervals to gauge students’ knowledge. 

Whichever method you choose, make sure you inform students ahead of time so they prepare adequately for it. 

Before you begin

Before you dive into lesson planning, start with a few key questions to determine the goal of your lesson. As the topic expert, the breadth of this course content is clear in your head, but your students are still figuring it out as they go along. 

Keep a narrow focus for each lesson while keeping the bigger picture in mind – this will help your students build knowledge in context so they can use it independently and remember it forever!

• What do your students already know? This is back to what you’ve covered in previous lessons or what foundational knowledge you expect students to have. Do they have all the definitions they need to understand today’s topic? Are there any gaps you need to close before you dive in? That will be your starting point for this lesson.
• What do they need to learn today? Eyes on the prize here – keep your goal clear, or you’ll get lost along the way! Set yourself a single goal for this lesson: should students understand the formula for a unique value proposition, or should they be able to write a great cover letter? What single concept or skill do you want this lesson to impart to your students? Remember to keep it simple; if it’s too complex, you might want to consider splitting it into smaller lessons to avoid confusing your students with information overload.
• What’s the best way to lock it into place? Now that you’ve locked down the goal for today’s lesson, you can decide on the best way to deliver the information. Is this something best delivered through video, or is it better explained with text and diagrams? Could you represent this as an infographic? What practice activities would help your students lock in their newly acquired skills?

Related: How to do a training needs assessment

It’s not always about downloading your brain onto the page. You need to consider how you explain things so your students fully understand not only the new facts, but the context surrounding them – that’s the key to them being able to apply these new skills independently when the course is over. 

With the Thinkific course builder, you have so many teaching tools and resources at your disposal – use them in harmony with one another to give your students a dynamic learning experience .

Now that you’ve got those three guiding principles in mind, let’s put them to work in your lesson plan.

Set the stage

Begin each new lesson by setting the stage for your students. You can do this in three key steps:

• Take a brief moment to look back at what you covered in the last lesson,
• Give a high-level overview of what today’s lesson will entail, and
• Tell students the key skills or takeaways they will have conquered by the end of the lesson.

In particular, consider if any content from previous lessons is applicable to the new lesson. Never miss an opportunity to name-drop or draw examples from old content while introducing new material! It’s a great opportunity to help your students build context between what might feel like a confusing array of new facts. When you build bridges between old and new knowledge, it creates that lightbulb moment for students to see how all the pieces fit together.

This is more than just summarizing or expectation-setting – it’s a strategic educational principle. By reminding students of previous lessons, you help them draw connections between old and new content so they can understand how everything fits together. 

When you share the key touchpoints for today’s lesson, you set up a framework for them to contextualize everything that follows. If they know what the final goal is, they will naturally be more attuned to anything you say about those skills from that point onwards. This brief process at the beginning of each lesson provides anchors for students to shape their understanding throughout the rest of the lesson.

Explain new information

This is the main component of any lesson plan. When it’s time to introduce new content, make sure to do so clearly and simply. Explain new concepts in the most straightforward way possible. Consider your weakest student, and explain things with them in mind – even your strongest students will still benefit from that simplicity!

Be sure to use lots of examples to help students develop context with new information. One tip here is to use a mix of examples that draw from general knowledge and subject-specific knowledge. For example, you can and should give concrete examples grounded in the course subject matter; for more abstract concepts, however, it can be helpful to explain things using everyday examples that everyone can relate to. 

Related: The Ultimate List of Free Online Course Lesson Plan Templates

Consider using apples and oranges to explain abstract economic concepts, or using nursery rhymes to explain music theory. This doesn’t mean you have to come up with mysterious hypothetical examples like the ones you might have found on a high school math quiz – just look for everyday situations you can use to explain more difficult concepts, so your students can ground their new understanding in something familiar.

Students learn in a myriad of different ways – some through text, others through video, and still others through graphic design or activities like writing by hand. While explaining things clearly in a well-produced video or article is always a great place to start, consider using a variety of methods to make your lesson plan stick.

• Create an infographic to illustrate key points from the lesson
• Provide fill-in-the-blank notes so students can follow along with you and pay attention for key information queues
• Link key words and concepts to external articles or videos to provide students with additional learning resources
• Create a slide deck of key points that students can use as a review tool
• The sky’s the limit – if you can think of an alternative way to present your information, your students will benefit! The Thinkific course builder has a number of different content types to suit your needs, wherever the inspiration leads you.

Learn more about different learning styles and how to teach to them . 

Practice makes perfect

After introducing new material to students, it’s vital to give them an opportunity to put their new skills into practice . This is what helps them lock new information into their brains and build contextual links with other skills. It’s also an important tool to help students master the content from this lesson before they move on to the next – as they work through practice activities and find themselves stuck on particular concepts or tasks, it will become clear which aspects of the material they didn’t quite understand. That gives students a targeted opportunity to ask good questions or go back through the course material until they master that skill.

Even in an online course , there are a number of practice activities you can prompt students to use:

• Ask students to define key concepts and use them in a paragraph, so they have an opportunity to put things into their own words
• Suggest students rephrase concepts by converting your notes into questions, like those they might expect to see on a quiz
• If you have a community or online group, ask students to share their summaries or reflections with each other in a dedicated lesson thread

Related: 8 ways to make online classes more interactive  

Assessments

Sometimes, you also need to assess student knowledge. While you won’t do this for each and every lesson, it’s a helpful tool to check student understanding at important course milestones.

Thinkific’s course platform makes it easy to deliver student assessments with quizzes, exams, and assignments to put your students to the test, but you should keep future assessments in mind while you plan lessons. As you build a series of lessons, keep these questions in mind for future assessments:

• What facts and skills from this lesson are necessary for a student to succeed in this course?
• Are there any facts in this lesson that students need to be reminded of to make sure they stick?

Keep a running list of these answers as you build your lessons. By the time you reach a course milestone and you’re ready to build an assessment, you’ll already have a list of key questions to use in your quiz or assignment. By drawing questions from across a series of lessons, you help students build contextual links between different batches of information and end up with a more cohesive learning experience.

Get ahead with our free lesson plan template

Building a lesson plan from scratch is challenging and quickly gets complicated if it’s your first time. To help you, we’ve created a customizable template you can tweak to suit your needs fast. 

You’re well on your way to building a great course , with solid principles that help you deliver dynamic lessons to your students!

Put your learning into action with Thinkific:

This blog was originally created in August 2020, it has since been updated in August 2023 to become even more useful!

Jenny is a Content Marketer at Thinkific. A lifelong learner, she loves writing about anything from Byron to blockchain. Formerly from Cape Town, she now spends her spare time wandering Vancouver in search of the perfect coffee.

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A Communication Agreements Lesson Plan

Communication agreements are one of the essential foundations to a dialogic classroom. Agreements should be set at the beginning of a semester and then revisited later on to make sure they still meet the needs of the class.

This sample lesson plan helps faculty design an method for constructing agreements in a first-year seminar or with first-year students.

• PDF: Setting up Agreements in a First Year Seminar

Betsy Hayes, Bridgewater College (VA)

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Lesson Plan Step #8 - Assessment and Follow-Up

Measuring Whether Students Have Met the Learning Objectives

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• B.A., Sociology, University of California Los Angeles

In this series about lesson plans, we're breaking down the 8 steps you need to take to create an effective lesson plan for the elementary classroom. The final step in a successful lesson plan for teachers is Learning Goals, which coming after defining the following steps:

•   Objective
• Anticipatory Set
• Direct Instruction
• Guided Practice
•   Closure
• Independent Practice
• Required Materials and Equipment

An  8-step lesson plan is not complete without the final step of Assessment. This is where you assess the final outcome of the lesson and to what extent the learning objectives were achieved. This is also your chance to adjust the overall lesson plan to overcome any unexpected challenges that may have arisen, preparing you for the next time you teach this lesson. It's also important to make note of the most successful aspects of your lesson plan, to ensure that you continue to capitalize on strengths and continue to push forward in those areas. 

How to Assess Learning Goals

Learning goals can be assessed in a variety of ways, including through quizzes, tests, independently performed worksheets, cooperative learning activities , hands-on experiments, oral discussion, question-and-answer sessions, writing assignments, presentations, or other concrete means. However, it's important to remember that you may have students who better display their mastery of a topic or skill through non-traditional assessment methods, so try to think about creative ways you can assist those students in demonstrating mastery.

Most importantly, teachers need to ensure that the Assessment activity is directly and explicitly tied to the stated learning objectives  you developed in step one of the lesson plan. In the learning objective section, you specified what students would accomplish and how well they would have to be able to perform a task in order to consider the lesson satisfactorily accomplished. The goals also had to fit within your district or state educational standards for the grade level.

Follow-Up: Using the Results of the Assessment

Once the students have completed the given assessment activity, you must take some time to reflect on the results. If the learning objectives were not adequately achieved, you will need to revisit the lesson in a different manner, revising the approach to learning. Either you will need to teach the lesson again or you'll need to clear up areas that confused several of the students.

Whether or not most students showed understanding of the material, based on the assessment, you should note how well students learned different parts of the lesson. This will allow you to modify the lesson plan in the future, clarifying or spending more time on areas where the assessments showed the students were weakest.

Student performance on one lesson tends to inform performance on future lessons, giving you insight into where you should take your students next. If the assessment showed the students fully grasped the topic, you may want to proceed immediately to more advanced lessons. If understanding was moderate, you may want to take it slower and reinforce the takeaways. This may require teaching the entire lesson again, or, just portions of the lesson. Assessing different aspects of the lesson in greater detail can guide this decision. 

Examples of Types of Assessments

• Quiz: a short series of questions with right and wrong answers that may not count towards a grade.
• Test: a longer or more in-depth series of questions that probes for more understanding of the topic and may count towards a grade.
• Class discussion: rather than a quiz or test that is scored, a discussion helps identify understanding. It's important to make sure all students are able to demonstrate mastery here, so that no one is lost in the shuffle. 
• Hands-on experiment: Where the subject matter is appropriate, the students apply the lesson to an experiment and record the outcomes.
• Worksheet: Students fill out a worksheet, especially for math or vocabulary lessons, but it also could be developed for many topics.
• Cooperative Learning activities: Students work in a group to solve a problem or have a structured discussion.
• Illustrations or Graphic Organizers : These can include Venn diagrams, K-W-L (Know, Want to Know, Learned) charts, flow charts, pie charts, concept maps, character traits, cause/effect diagrams, spider web, cloud chart,T-chart, Y-chart, semantic feature analysis,fact/opinion chart, star chart, cycle chart, and other appropriate graphic organizers. Often the subject will determine which works best as an assessment tool.

Edited by Stacy Jagodowski

• Components of a Well-Written Lesson Plan
• Writing a Lesson Plan: Independent Practice
• Writing a Lesson Plan: Guided Practice
• How to Write a Lesson Plan
• Creating Effective Lesson Objectives
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• Write Lesson Plans
• Writing a Lesson Plan: Closure and Context
• Here's What You Need to Know About Lesson Plans
• Topics for a Lesson Plan Template
• Accommodations for Students With Special Needs
• Writing a Lesson Plan: Direct Instruction
• How Scaffolding Instruction Can Improve Comprehension
• How to Avoid Common Mistakes When Writing Learning Objectives
• Important Daily Teaching Tasks

Mastering Subject-Verb Agreement: An Engaging Journey - Lesson Plan

Our lesson plan titled 'mastering subject-verb agreement: an engaging journey' is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of subject-verb agreement. the session begins with an introduction to the topic followed by engaging activities such as word grid games and sentence matching. students will then delve deeper into the concept by identifying and correcting sentences with phrases and indefinite pronouns. the session concludes with a summary and an exit slip for self-assessment. additional practice activities are suggested if time allows..

Know more about Mastering Subject-Verb Agreement: An Engaging Journey - Lesson Plan

The main focus of 'Mastering Subject-Verb Agreement: An Engaging Journey' is to help students understand and apply the rules of subject-verb agreement through interactive activities and discussions.

In 'Mastering Subject-Verb Agreement: An Engaging Journey', we use methods like engaging activities, role-playing, use of annotation tools, group participation, discussion, and takeaway handouts for home practice.

The lesson plan 'Mastering Subject-Verb Agreement: An Engaging Journey' ensures student participation through interactive activities like word grid games, sentence corrections, group discussions and role-playing exercises.

Objective: Introduce students to conjunctions and enable them to identify and use them effectively in sentences.

Lesson Flow:

Warm-up Exercise:

• Magical Potion Narrative: Engage students with a captivating story that subtly introduces conjunctions.

Introduction to FANBOYS:

• Learn about the acronym "FANBOYS" which stands for common conjunctions: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So.

Practice Exercises:

• Students work on exercises designed to help them identify and correctly use conjunctions in sentences.

Application Activity:

• Describing Sunday Routine: Students describe their typical Sunday, integrating conjunctions to enhance their narratives.

Additional Practice:

• Supplementary exercises provided for students to reinforce their understanding of conjunctions.

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Education students create culturally diverse lesson plans

Article by Julie Waechter, special assignment for Adams State

As part of Adams State University’s 2023 celebration of 25 years as a federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), teacher education students developed lesson plans to “decolonize the curriculum.” The project was a collaboration between Adams State’s School of Education and Title V, which administers the HSI grants.

“The intent is to address and challenge colonial perspectives, biases, and power structures in education,” according to Andréa Benton-Maestas, Title V PPHOA Activities Director.

Anna Torello, Project Director of Title V’s Cornerstone to Capstone program, detailed the approach, “Decolonization calls for the respect of others’ histories, lived experiences, voices, cultures, and perspectives. It also requires students to critically think about the issues of power, including the ways that hierarchical assumptions and inequalities rooted in gender, class, race, ethnicity, and other variables influence classroom dynamics.”

Project participants included nine undergraduates in Reading & Writing Connection, taught by Dr. Justine Schwarz, assistant professor of teacher education, as well as eight graduate students in Multicultural Perspectives, taught by Dr. Kimba Real. Rael, an Adams State alumna and the 2016 San Luis Valley Educator of the Year, is the Pre-K–12 Principal in Centennial School District R1 in San Luis.

Students chose works by Latinx authors, then built lesson plans for grades K-12 for their student teaching and reflected on how the process impacted their learning. Books used in the project included Dreamers by Yuvi Morales, Areli is a Dreamer by Areli Morales, A Gift from Abuela by Ceclia Ruiz, Across the Bay by Carlos Aponte, River of Mariposas by Mirelle Ortega, The Princess and the Warrior by Duncan Tonatiuh, and The Devil’s Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea.

“Embracing diversity is more than just creating a classroom library of culturally diverse books. This project turned literature into a window to explore another culture,” Schwarz noted.

Describing the lesson plan she created, undergraduate Asia Caldon said, “This lesson plan supports an inclusive environment for discussion, cross-cultural understanding, and empathy among students. The extension assignment allows students to incorporate their own cultural backgrounds and experiences into their creative work.”

Schwarz added, “Culturally responsive classrooms not only improve academic outcomes, but also foster greater interest in learning, higher motivation, and increased confidence. Learning about one’s cultural background is linked to positive racial and ethnic identities, enriching the educational experience for all.”

The School of Education plans to display the lesson plans for other students who may potentially incorporate them into their curriculum/lesson planning. Plans also include a group podcast/reflection on the project by participating students. The work will be showcased for HSI Week in September, Benton-Maestas added.