Things to consider as you prepare engaging lessons for your students
I write a lot of lesson plans and I never know how well something will turn out until I see it in action.
Using Observation and Documentation
One of the best ways to evaluate lesson plans is to observe children in action. When evaluating lesson plans, some questions to ask yourself might include…
- Were the children interested in the activity?
- Did the stay engaged in the activity for an age appropriate length of time?
- Did the activity give children opportunity to be creative, explore, discover, or work independently?
- What learning objectives or experiences did you hope to offer through this activity?
- What learning objectives or experiences do you feel were actually met through this activity?
- If you provide this activity again with the children, what will you do differently? Why?
Remaining Flexible to Needs and Interests of the Children
Sometimes the children will surprise you with their own ideas or twist to the activity. Sometimes what you think will be fun and engaging will end up being a flop. And sometimes what you planned to do will change at the last minute. On paper, an activity may look good but once you start working with the children the idea may need some quick adapting or adjustments in order for it to work well.
Writing lesson plans always requires constant evaluation and a readiness to adapt to the needs of the children. If what you propose to do isn’t working then change it, adapt it, or scrap it and move on!
Reflecting on the Experience
Use each experience as an opportunity to reflect on what your students love, what your students can do, what your students are ready to do, and then build on this knowledge for future planning.
And keep in mind – process, process, process – ultimately, you want to consider how much of the process was child centered.
Great information… this is exactly what we are working on right now is effective lesson planning.
Thank you for this post. I’m not a teacher by profession, but enjoy planning lessons for my kids. It’s a great help to find sites like yours for direction.
I am always reminding myself process, process, process and in doing so learn so much from my children.
This is a great post!! I plan lessons for my daughter, and I sometimes have an activity planned that I think she’ll love, and it’s just the opposite. We did a coin sorting yesterday, which I thought would last all about 2 minutes, and she was really enjoying it. So sometimes, you just never know what’s going to peak their interest, but it’s really great finding out.