Why do Teachers Need a Lesson Plan?

Lesson plans are a great guide for teachers to plan and organize their instruction. Without a lesson plan, instruction can be chaotic and classroom management would be in disarray. A well organized, well thought out lesson plan leads to ease and success for both teacher and students. If a student should see that the teacher is unorganized and confused as to how to carry out instruction, then the students’ feelings of uneasiness will be reciprocated, which may result in lack of response from the student(s) and faith in the teacher.

I was tasked to write my second lesson plan incorporating multi-media and I chose to write a lesson plan on “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” based on the book from Eric Carle. This book is full of pictures with bright colored drawings and is an attention getter for primary to intermediate students. Lesson plans should also be written in alignment to the Teacher’s standards. My lesson plan aligns to the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers also known as NETS*S. “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” aligns with standards #2 (b, c, e), #3 (c) and #4 (c) (ISTE, retrieved 5/16/09).

Planning lesson activities also have to be well-thought-out in order for the activity to be successful in order to achieve the objective of the lesson. Activities should be planned-out to the capabilities of “all” students in the classroom. It should be fun as well as rewarding for every student. I found out through the experiences of writing lesson plans that it takes a great deal of thought and creativity, however, through reflection you get to perfect activities and it will become easier.

In this activity I am utilizing the computer with a drawing program or you could also use the drawing tool. Teacher can upload the images created by the students in a slide such as: Power Point, slideshare.com, or other tools. I find that the students love to share or have others see their work, and what better way to display their accomplishments than to integrate technology. Besides, students get really excited when technology is utilized.

I enjoyed this assignment because it enhanced my skills in writing a well-thought-out lesson plan. My first struggle was “jump starting” or thinking of a lesson and matching the activity to meet my objective, but after that it was a breeze.

References

Assure Model - Kindergarten Language Arts. http://cassbd.googlepages.com/assurestemplate.doc [Retrieved 15 May 2009].

ISTE. (2008). ISTE International Society for Technology in Education. Retrieved May 15, 2009, from ISTE.org: http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=NETS

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