Why is it Important to Create a Lesson Plan?

Today, let’s discuss why is it important to create a lesson plan. I studied education about a million years ago when I was in college. My teacher was terrific!  I thought I was prepared. I could write a lesson plan.

Consequently, her instruction provided invaluable.  It’s not always that I think I’m prepared to do something.  For instance, I didn’t think I was trained enough to become a professional actress when I graduated from college.  But teaching?  I was ready.

I remember my student teaching experience as if it was yesterday.  Considering it was over 43 years ago, that’s saying something.  Don’t you think?Also, yikes!  That was a long time ago.

When it became time for student teaching, I student taught at a junior high school called West Junior.  It was a typical junior high school, grades seven to nine. Ironically, many years later my husband taught there and both of our daughters attended West.  When I was student teaching, I never would have imagined such a scenario.

Expect Not to Have a Lesson Plan When You Substitute

My cooperating teaching was awesome and we became quick friends.  Because she knew what to say to me to get through to me, I turned to her for advice when I began teaching and directing.  She passed away many years ago, but I still think about her advice to me, “Deb, you can not to make everything a priority at once'” (What? You should do that?)

However, the only thing I still haven’t forgiven her for was when she was absent for two days in my second week of student teaching.  A substitute was brought in, but Jackie asked that I teach the class instead.

Now, I’m quick on my feet and can jump into a situation and improvise.  Except a couple of the classes I was to substitute teach, I’d never even been introduced to yet.  She taught those in the afternoon while I observed.  She left very little in the way of lesson plans for them. Other than a couple of boys tried to act out a dirty joke to try to embarass me, I did fine.

What did I learn?  Always leave a lesson plan for a substitute.  It’s difficult enough to be thrown into a class with students whose names you don’t know, but not to have a lesson plan is nothing short of torture.

Five Reasons to Use a Lesson Plan

I was looking around for some information about the importance of a lesson plan and ran on to preservearticles.com.

I thought their reasons for having a lesson plan were good ones:

“The lesson plan is a guideline through the help of which a teacher can teach well and reach his desired goal. Making use of these guidelines the teacher can deliver the good materials to students in a logical se­quence.

In the absence of a lesson plan the progress of the class is hampered.  For good teaching we have to use a good method of teach­ing. Thus, the only best way of good teaching is possible is by making use of integrated teaching of content and methods. The teaching through better methods is definitely superior to teaching con­tents. Because of these advantages planning of lessons is considered essential for  becoming a good teacher.”

In another article about lesson planning, I found this from preservearticles.com:

• Lesson- Planning gives the teacher greater assurance and greater freedom in teaching. The teacher who has planned his lesson wisely, enters the class-room without anxiety, ready to embark with confidence upon a job he understands and prepared to carry it to a work­man like conclusion.
• It provides for adequate lesson summaries, ensures a definite assignment for class, and availability of materials for lesson when needed.
•  It stimulates the teacher to introduce pivotal questions and illustrations.
• Since lesson planning establishes proper connections between different lessons or units of study, it provides and encourages continuity in the teaching provides and encourages continuity in the teaching process.
• It ensures association between various lessons in the same main, unit, the selection and organisation of subject-matter, materials and activities.

Simply put, a lesson plan is basically an outline for the class.  It includes the objective, procedure (including time allotments), space requirements, materials list, assessment.  Within the procedure, it includes a hook, study and application of the learning. Also, it contains enrichment activities. Want to know more advice of mine?  Check out: Never Underestimate the Influence of Teaching with Videos

A Lesson Plan Template for Drama Class

To begin with, I am a member of several drama Facebook groups and nearly every day someone posts a plea for help creating a lesson plan.  There are many openings throughout teaching because older teachers or have left teaching all together.  Enter the less experienced but enthusiastic newbees!

If you’d like a free guide And lesson plan from me, click here LESSON PLAN

If you are one of those just starting out on your journey, I am so glad you are teaching students about theater this year.  First person of I advice– I promise you, you all ready know more about the subject than the students do because of your life experiences and age. That’s important to remember.

As you would expect, a lesson plan for a drama class is pretty much the same as anyone else’s.  (Except we’re more fun. Tee hee!)

This is how I put a lesson together. Everyone is different, but this was how I was taught to do it, so I keep to the old school version.

Date:

Class:

Hour:

Duration:

Lesson:  (Title)

Objective:  (What do you want the students to learn. Be fairly specific.) The students will learn about:   In this example…The students will learn about the origin of theater, a time line of the origin of civilization and examine three ways it may have begun.  They will take notes by drawing a picture of the various ways it began.

Standards:  This will depend upon what state standards you are expected to cover and the grade level.  Each state is different.  Currently, I am using the Dramatic Arts/ Theatre-Fine Arts Georgia Standards of Excellence to create lessons for a teacher.  They look like this: https://www.georgiastandards.org/Georgia-Standards/Pages/Fine-Arts-Dramatic-Arts-Theatre.aspx

Materials:  (video project,  overhead, white board, laptop, ipads, etc.)

Procedure:

1.  Warm Up Title (for instance–Freeze Frame)

Duration:  (in minutes)

2.  Lesson–The Origin of Theater

•      Hook–what question, video clip, object will you use to engage the students? “How did theater begin?” (10 minutes)
•      Show time line and discuss (5 minutes)
•      Terms–vocabulary you want to cover
•      Hand out Origin of Theater papers and read aloud (10 minutes)
•      Assignment–Using the information the students just learned, they draw a picture of the various ways theater may have begun (10 minutes)
•     Turn in assignment

3.  Cool Down–(another exercise which either secures this learning e.g. Drawing slips out of a hat, students are grouped and pantomime one of the ways theater began except there are several ways acted out which are not true. (15 minutes)

4.  Assessment:  Will this be a participation grade?  Will you grade the assignment? Will you have a rubric which the students understand and follow?

That’s pretty much it.  Does a teacher create one of these for every class?

Probably teachers do. However, I can’t answer that question for others. Usually  I have a lesson plan for every lesson until I become familiar with all of the  the information, memorize important facets of it or I can just look at my notes and know what to say and cover. If you are interested in some other experiences of mine, check out: The Lessons I Learned from Working as a Drama Teacher

Energize Your Classroom with Laughter

Looking for some tried and true lessons you can depend upon?  Pick up this Lin Manuel Miranda biography and one pager assignment.

Who taught you how to make a lesson plan?  I’ve love to hear about it.  Contact me at DhcBaldwin@gmail.com