purpose of assignment in lesson plan

A survey conducted by the Associated Press has revealed that around 58% of parents feel that their child has been given the right amount of assignments. Educators are thrilled that the majority has supported the thought of allocating assignments, and they think that it is just right.

However, the question arises when students question the importance of giving assignments for better growth. Studies have shown that students often get unsuccessful in understanding the importance of assignments.

What key purpose does an assignment have? They often question how an assignment could be beneficial. Let us explain why a teacher thinks it is best to allot assignments. The essential functions of assigning tasks or giving assignments come from many intentions. 

What is the Importance of Assignment- For Students 

The importance of the assignment is not a new concept. The principle of allocating assignments stems from students’ learning process. It helps teachers to evaluate the student’s understanding of the subject. Assignments develop different practical skills and increase their knowledge base significantly. As per educational experts, mastering a topic is not an impossible task to achieve if they learn and develop these skills.  

Cognitive enhancement 

While doing assignments, students learn how to conduct research on subjects and comprise the data for using the information in the given tasks. Working on your assignment helps you learn diverse subjects, compare facts, and understand related concepts. It assists your brain in processing information and memorizing the required one. This exercise enhances your brain activity and directly impacts cognitive growth. 

Ensured knowledge gain   

When your teacher gives you an assignment, they intend to let you know the importance of the assignment. Working on it helps students to develop their thoughts on particular subjects. The idea supports students to get deep insights and also enriches their learning. Continuous learning opens up the window for knowledge on diverse topics. The learning horizon expanded, and students gained expertise in subjects over time.      

Improve students’ writing pattern 

Experts have revealed in a study that most students find it challenging to complete assignments as they are not good at writing. With proper assistance or teacher guidance, students can practice writing repetitively.

It encourages them to try their hands at different writing styles, and gradually they will improve their own writing pattern and increase their writing speed. It contributes to their writing improvement and makes it certain that students get a confidence boost. 

Increased focus on studies 

When your teachers allocate a task to complete assignments, it is somehow linked to your academic growth, especially for the university and grad school students. Therefore, it demands ultimate concentration to establish your insights regarding the topics of your assignments.

This process assists you in achieving good growth in your academic career and aids students in learning concepts quickly with better focus. It ensures that you stay focused while doing work and deliver better results.         

Build planning & organization tactics

Planning and task organization are as necessary as writing the assignment. As per educational experts, when you work on assignments, you start planning to structurize the content and what type of information you will use and then organize your workflow accordingly. This process supports you in building your skill to plan things beforehand and organize them to get them done without hassles.   

Adopt advanced research technique

Assignments expand the horizon of research skills among students. Learners explore different topics, gather diverse knowledge on different aspects of a particular topic, and use useful information on their tasks. Students adopt advanced research techniques to search for relevant information from diversified sources and identify correct facts and stats through these steps.  

Augmenting reasoning & analytical skills 

Crafting an assignment has one more sign that we overlook. Experts have enough proof that doing an assignment augments students’ reasoning abilities. They started thinking logically and used their analytical skills while writing their assignments. It offers clarity of the assignment subject, and they gradually develop their own perspective about the subject and offer that through assignments.     

Boost your time management skills 

Time management is one of the key skills that develop through assignments. It makes them disciplined and conscious of the value of time during their study years. However, students often delay as they get enough time. Set deadlines help students manage their time. Therefore, students understand that they need to invest their time wisely and also it’s necessary to complete assignments on time or before the deadline.  

What is the Importance of Assignment- Other Functions From Teacher’s Perspective: 

Develop an understanding between teacher and students  .

Teachers ensure that students get clear instructions from their end through the assignment as it is necessary. They also get a glimpse of how much students have understood the subject. The clarity regarding the topic ensures that whether students have mastered the topic or need further clarification to eliminate doubts and confusion. It creates an understanding between the teaching faculty and learners. 

Clarity- what is the reason for choosing the assignment 

The Reason for the assignment allocated to students should be clear. The transparency of why teachers have assigned the task enables learners to understand why it is essential for their knowledge growth. With understanding, the students try to fulfill the objective. Overall, it fuels their thoughts that successfully evoke their insights. 

Building a strong relationship- Showing how to complete tasks 

When a teacher shows students how to complete tasks, it builds a strong student-teacher relationship. Firstly, students understand the teacher’s perspective and why they are entrusted with assignments. Secondly, it also encourages them to handle problems intelligently. This single activity also offers them the right direction in completing their tasks within the shortest period without sacrificing quality. 

Get a view of what students have understood and their perspective 

Assigning a task brings forth the students’ understanding of a particular subject. Moreover, when they attempt an assignment, it reflects their perspective on the specific subject. The process is related to the integration of appreciative learning principles. In this principle, teachers see how students interpret the subject. Students master the subject effectively, whereas teachers find the evaluation process relatively easy when done correctly. 

Chance to clear doubts or confusion regarding the assignment  

Mastering a subject needs practice and deep understanding from a teacher’s perspective. It could be possible only if students dedicate their time to assignments. While doing assignments, students could face conceptual difficulties, or some parts could confuse them. Through the task, teachers can clear their doubts and confusion and ensure that they fully understand what they are learning.   

Offering individualistic provisions to complete an assignment 

Students are divergent, and their thoughts are diverse in intelligence, temperaments, and aptitudes. Their differences reflect in their assignments and the insight they present. This process gives them a fair understanding of students’ future and their scope to grow. It also helps teachers to understand their differences and recognize their individualistic approaches.  

Conclusion:

You have already become acquainted with the factors that translate what is the importance of assignments in academics. It plays a vital role in increasing the students’ growth multifold. 

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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

The Four Main Parts of a Lesson Plan Made Simple

by Brad Melsby – updated January 23, 2024

What is a lesson plan and why do you need one?

The world of education is full of (too) many lesson plan templates and styles.  As you develop as a teacher, you’ll naturally grow into a more detailed lesson plan format.  Your school or district may require a different format or style of lesson plan.  Whatever your situation, it’s most useful for newer teachers to focus on the four main parts of a lesson plan.  These four elements are essential to your early success in the classroom. 

Your lesson plan is the roadmap for how the class period will be organized.  In the lesson plan, you identify what will be taught, how it will be taught, and by what method you plan to see if students learned it.  Without a structured lesson plan, a class period can quickly lose focus or direction.

In this article, we’ll focus on the four main parts of a lesson plan.

Lesson Planning Simplified: The Four Main Parts of a Lesson Plan

Lesson component #1: identify the learning objectives.

Ask yourself: What new concepts, knowledge, or skills do I want my students to learn today?  

When I chat with new teachers about how their class is going, I sometimes hear them say, “We’re doing the Roman Empire right now” or “We’re doing fractions today.”   I get that the word “doing” in this context is just an expression.  

But I also remember the realities of being a new teacher.  In my first year or two, my goal was to “fill the period” with academic activities.  Surely if we are doing something, the kids will learn.  Right?  

“Doing” does not necessarily equate to learning.

For many new teachers, a major evolution is to start thinking like an educator.  That means you can identify the learning objective(s) in your lesson.

Check out the sample learning objectives below. Notice how the addition of learning objectives shifts the focus away from the topic (“We’re doing the Roman Empire”) to the students and their skill acquisition.     

Here are a few sample learning objectives:

• At the end of the lesson, students will be able to identify and explain six causes of World War II.
• By the end of the lesson, students will be able to apply the rules of the Order of Operations to evaluate algebraic expressions.
• Students will be able to categorize types of animals into the correct classes with a graphic organizer.
• By the end of the reading lesson, students will be able to identify the rising action, climax, and falling action on a plot diagram.

Learning objectives force the teacher to think strategically.  How can you best support the students in achieving the objective? What instructional or learning activities will best fit the objective?  Clear learning objectives are arguably the most important part of a lesson.

Lesson Component # 2: The Lesson “Hook”

Ask yourself: How will I introduce the topic? How can I get students interested in the topic?

A lesson introduction should:

• Provide brief context and background information on the topic while engaging interest
• Create excitement or interest.  Compel the class to want to know more about the topic
• Explain the relevance of the topic to the larger unit or course 
• Provide a clear link between today’s objectives and the student’s prior knowledge

Your students likely possess a wide variety of personal experiences and knowledge.  As a result, it’s helpful to use the introduction to gauge prior knowledge or misconceptions about the topic. 

A few strategies for introducing the lesson:

Tell a personal story, analyze a relevant image or song, watch a video clip, provide a real-world connection or example, or present a probing challenge or question. 

Lesson Component #3 : The Learning Activities

Ask yourself: What will the students do to achieve the lesson objective?  

In a general sense, the learning activities can be divided into two parts: Guided Practice and Individual/Group Practice.  This is sometimes referred to as the gradual release of responsibility method: I Do, We Do, You Do.

Guided Practice (I Do, We Do): Here, the teacher explains and models the learning activity while answering clarifying questions.  Guided practice then allows students to participate in the learning activity under supervision and with direct feedback from the instructor.  

From a teacher’s perspective, guided practice is a key form of formative assessment.  Teachers use guided practice to determine whether students are ready to complete the activity without scaffolded support.  

Individual/Group Practice (You do):  Students complete the learning activity.  In guided practice, students learn with the steady support of the teacher.  Individual/group practice is the time for students to demonstrate proficiency on their own.  Independent practice can include homework assignments.   

Lesson Component #4 : Assessment and Closure

Ask yourself : How can I know if the students have met the learning objective of the lesson?

Lesson closure gives teachers the chance to briefly conduct one final review of the lesson and check to ensure that the intended student learning has occurred.

Go back to your original lesson objectives.  Create questions to ask students that address your learning goals.  You can place those questions on a homework assignment, an exit ticket, a quiz, or simply ask the questions in the form of a discussion.

Teachers use the assessment from today’s lesson to inform tomorrow’s lesson plan . 

What questions or confusion came up that need clarification? What if anything do I need to reteach?  What key concepts from today’s lesson will be useful to build on during tomorrow’s lesson?

Related resource:

Set of 70 Metacognitive Question Prompts

Want a creative and thoughtful way to close out your lesson? Besides being a useful formative assessment to find out what your students know, metacognition is an opportunity for students to self-manage their learning and deepen their thinking.

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Brad has taught history at the middle and high school levels for 19 years, almost exclusively in American public schools.  He holds a master’s in educational technology and is passionate about elevating the status of professional educators.

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Lesson Plan Step #8 - Assessment and Follow-Up

Measuring Whether Students Have Met the Learning Objectives

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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
• Creating Effective Lesson Objectives
• Create Rubrics for Student Assessment - Step by Step
• How to Write a Lesson Plan
• Write Lesson Plans
• Topics for a Lesson Plan Template
• Writing a Lesson Plan: Closure and Context
• Accommodations for Students With Special Needs
• Here's What You Need to Know About Lesson Plans
• Movie Lesson Plan Ideas
• How Scaffolding Instruction Can Improve Comprehension
• Writing a Lesson Plan: Direct Instruction
• How to Avoid Common Mistakes When Writing Learning Objectives

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The importance of lesson planning for student success.

Navigate the educational landscape and unlock the secrets to successful teaching with our blog on lesson planning for student success. Explore its significance to teachers and understand why a lesson plan is important in teaching. This comprehensive guide outlines the importance of lesson planning for teachers and provides valuable insights into creating well-structured plans that resonate with curriculum goals. Immerse yourself in strategic lesson planning for a transformative teaching experience that fosters student success and educator growth.

Lesson Planning Is Essential to Teaching

Any experienced teacher will tell you that lesson planning is a big part of the job. Teachers around the world routinely spend as much as half of their working time on non-teaching activities, and lesson planning accounts for much of that time. 1, 2

Lesson planning is how teachers synthesize the curriculum goals with pedagogy and knowledge of their specific teaching context. 3 Ask ten teachers about the benefits of lesson planning, and you might very well get ten unique answers. There are also different opinions about how far ahead a teacher should plan lessons. Some recommend working a week out, while others advocate planning a month ahead. 4, 5

In the end, though, creating successful learning outcomes for students is the goal. Although well-designed lesson plans take time and thought, it's an investment that can provide returns in many ways. Explore the elements to consider when creating lesson plans and what factors teachers can include in planning to assure success for themselves, their classrooms and, most importantly, their students.

The Many Reasons Why Lesson Planning Is Important

Effective lesson planning contributes to successful learning outcomes for students in several ways. A well-designed lesson plan:

• Helps students and teachers understand the goals of an instructional module
• Allows the teacher to translate the curriculum into learning activities
• Aligns the instructional materials with the assessment
• Aligns the assessment with the learning goal
• Helps assure that the needed instructional materials are available
• Enables the teacher to thoughtfully address individual learning needs among students

Effective lesson planning can also contribute to the teacher’s own success and well-being. Teachers teach because they want to support students, and effective lesson planning can contribute to job satisfaction when a lesson is successful or a student does well on an assessment. Having a skillfully-planned lesson can also make the act of teaching more pleasurable by increasing the teacher’s confidence in themselves and letting them focus more on interaction with the students than on what is supposed to happen next. Importantly, good planning can save time by avoiding last-minute efforts to buy supplies or create materials needed for a day in the classroom. Teachers can use that reclaimed time for themselves or other parts of their lives, increasing work-life balance.

The Importance of Lesson Planning to Effective Curriculum Delivery

“Curriculum” is a word with many meanings, depending on the context. At the most abstract level, curriculum theory addresses such different aspects of teaching as what elements are included in the course of study, along with considerations of how it is taught and tested. See “What Are the 8 Types of Curriculum?” for more on curriculum theory.

Some curricula are more detailed and structured than others. 6 Regardless of the level of detail, the importance of lesson planning is that it bridges the curriculum’s intent with the daily teaching and learning in a classroom. At a minimum, lesson planning adds the element of time, breaking the curriculum into units delivered each session. Usually, though, teachers incorporate their training and knowledge of their students into the task, translating a previously developed curriculum into an action plan for their classroom.

The Importance of Lesson Planning to Student Assessment

The lesson plan translates the curriculum into clear daily goals for student learning that include a description of the objective and a way to measure the student’s attainment of it. 7 A few standard measurement methods are tests, homework assignments and group work. One benefit of the lesson plan is fitting the assessment to the particular goal while accounting for your specific situation. Some educational writers argue that teachers should design the evaluation before designing the learning activities.4 Working outward from the central idea of the learning objective allows teachers flexibility in choosing the type of assessment that will best suit their students and the classroom environment.

Why Lesson Planning Is Important for Classroom Management

Building the lesson plan outward from your learning goals also offers much-needed flexibility in adapting instructional delivery and classroom management during uncertain times. Classes that move from onsite to online or hybrid require different delivery methods, requiring adjustments to existing plans. Such situations highlight the importance of lesson planning in keeping the class moving smoothly from task to task regardless of the learning environment. Advance lesson planning also minimizes the need for discipline and allows you to make the most of your time with students.

Better Lesson Planning Creates More Student Success

Student success and good behavior are more likely when your pupils are actively engaged in classwork. A thoroughly planned lesson facilitates that desirable state by considering unique student educational needs. “All successful teachers need to be pupil-focused; in other words, you have to think about how the learning activity you have set up will be experienced by each pupil, and how this experience will generate your intended learning outcomes.” 8

​​Better Lesson Planning Is Important for Teacher Success

Teacher success is predicated on student success. Beyond that, the documents you create as part of the planning process are usually part of your evaluation by school administrators. Therefore, having well-prepared and documented plans is an integral part of your success as a teacher. Your lesson plans also become a repository of your growing knowledge as you continue to teach. The importance of lesson planning in furthering your professional growth is undeniable. Cultivating good habits for preparing and reviewing your lesson plans prepares the ground for your success.

• Retrieved on January 20, 2022, from oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/5js64kndz1f3-en.pdf?expires=1642704108&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=793A8F13FA53BD6FF0680CA7F2DDD448
• Retrieved on January 20, 2022, from businessinsider.com/teachers-time-spent-after-school-work-2019-10#planning-lessons-can-take-several-hours-a-week-4
• Retrieved on January 20, 2022, from tesol.org/docs/default-source/books/14002_lesson-planning_ch-1
• Retrieved on January 20, 2022, from edutopia.org/blog/9-ways-plan-transformational-lessons-todd-finley
• Retrieved on January 20, 2022, blog.planbook.com/lesson-plan-classroom-management/
• Retrieved on January 20, 2022, from https://www.edglossary.org/curriculum/
• Retrieved on January 20, 2022, from edutopia.org/article/how-universal-design-learning-can-help-lesson-planning-year
• Retrieved on January 20, 2022, from educationblog.oup.com/secondary/english/why-is-planning-so-important-for-effective-teaching

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TEAL Center Fact Sheet No. 8: Effective Lesson Planning

Planning ahead to identify a course of action that can effectively help learners reach their goals and objectives is an important first step in effective instruction. Lesson planning communicates to learners what they will learn and how their goals will be assessed, and it helps instructors organize content, materials, time, instructional strategies, and assistance in the classroom.

About Effective Lesson Planning

Planning ahead to identify a course of action that can effectively reach goals and objectives is an important first step in any process, and education is no exception. In education, the planning tool is the lesson plan, which is a detailed description of an instructor’s course of instruction for an individual lesson intended to help learners achieve a particular learning objective. Lesson plans communicate to learners what they will learn and how they will be assessed, and they help instructors organize content, materials, time, instructional strategies, and assistance in the classroom. Lesson planning helps English as a second language (ESL), adult basic education (ABE), adult secondary education (ASE), and other instructors create a smooth instructional flow and scaffold instruction for learners.

The Lesson Planning Process

Before the actual delivery of a lesson, instructors engage in a planning process. During this process, they determine the lesson topic (if states have implemented content standards, the topic should derive from them). From the topic, derive the lesson objective or desired results —the concepts and ideas that learners are expected to develop and the specific knowledge and skills that learners are expected to acquire and use at the end of the lesson. Objectives are critical to effective instruction because they help instructors plan the instructional strategies and activities they will use, including the materials and resources to support learning. It is essential that the objective be clear and describe the intended learning outcome. Objectives can communicate to learners what is expected of them—but only if they are shared with learners in an accessible manner. Instructional objectives must be specific, outcome-based, and measurable, and they must describe learner behavior. Heinich, Molenda, Russell, and Smaldino (2001) refer to the ABCD ’s of writing objectives:

• A udience – learners for whom the objective is written (e.g., ESL, ABE, GED)
• B ehavior – the verb that describes what the audience will be able to do (e.g., describe, explain, locate, synthesize, argue, communicate)
• C ondition – the circumstances under which the audience will perform the behavior (e.g., when a learner obtains medicine from the pharmacy, he or she will be able to read the dosage)
• D egree – acceptable performance of the behavior (i.e., how well the learner performs the behavior)

Learner assessment follows from the objectives. Based on the principles of backward design developed by Wiggins and McTighe (1998), instructors identify the lesson objective or desired results and then decide what they will accept as evidence of learners’ knowledge and skills. The concept of backward design holds that the instructor must begin with the end in mind (i.e., what the student should be able to know, understand, or do) and then map backward from the desired result to the current time and the students’ current ability/skill levels to determine the best way to reach the performance goal.

The WIPPEA Model for Lesson Planning

The WIPPEA Model, an acronym that stands for W arm-up, I ntroduction, P resentation, P ractice, E valuation, A pplication, is a lesson plan model that represents a continuous teaching cycle in which each learning concept builds on the previous one, serving as an instructional roadmap for instructors. The WIPPEA lesson plan model is adapted from the work of Hunter (Hunter, 1982). This six-step cyclical lesson planning approach has learners demonstrate mastery of concepts and content at each step before the instructor proceeds to the next step. In the following list, TEAL Center suggestions for incorporating each of these elements are included in italics.

Warm-up – Assesses prior knowledge by reviewing previous materials relevant to the current lesson. Introduce an activity that reviews previously learned content (e.g., for a vocabulary lesson, the warm-up may be a quick matching exercise with words previously learned and their definitions), and also include an activity that focuses on the topic to be taught.

Introduction – Provides a broad overview of the content and concepts to be taught and focuses the learners’ attention on the new lesson. Introduce the purpose of the lesson by stating and writing the objectives for learners and discussing the lesson content and benefits by relating the objective to learners’ own lives. Assess learners’ prior knowledge of the new material by asking questions and writing learners’ responses on a chalkboard or flip chart.

Presentation – Teaches the lesson content and concepts. Create an activity to introduce the concept or skill (e.g., introduce new vocabulary by asking learners to work in groups to identify words related to taking medications) and then introduce information through a variety of modalities using visuals, realia, description, explanation, and written text. Check for learner understanding of the new material and make changes in lesson procedures if necessary.

Practice – Models the skills and provides opportunities for guided practice. Introduce a variety of activities that allow learners to work in groups, in pairs, or independently to practice the skills, concepts, and information presented. Integrate technology into activities as available.

Evaluation – Assesses each learner’s attainment of the objective. Include oral, aural, written, or applied performance assessments. For example, ask learners to fill in the blanks on a cloze activity using the four medicine warning labels that were discussed in class. For lower level learners, provide a word bank at the bottom of the worksheet. Omit the word bank for more advanced students.

Application – Provides activities that help learners apply their learning to new situations or contexts beyond the lesson and connect it to their own lives. Choose activities that learners can relate to or have expressed concern about. For example, have learners read the label of a medication they or a family member may use at home to make certain they understand the meaning of the words on the label. Gather feedback from learners in follow-up classes and help them assess what additional support, if any, they may require.

The following graphic integrates the WIPPEA process with backward design in a lesson planning wheel. In this cyclical approach, teachers assess prior knowledge, provide a broad overview of the content/concepts to be taught, introduce vocabulary, teach content/concepts, check comprehension, combine the content and vocabulary through guided practice, evaluate student performance, and provide an application activity. Instructional strategies vary depending on the lesson content and skill areas and the needs of the learners.

Planning for differentiated instruction requires various learner profiles to inform the process (See TEAL Center Fact Sheet No. 5. on Differentiated Instruction). Students demonstrate mastery of concepts/content in each step before the teacher proceeds to the next step.

The relationship of the objective to the evaluation keeps the lesson focused and drives instruction. By keeping the end in mind (backward design) and creating the evaluation activity at the beginning of the lesson, the teacher has a clear destination for the lesson and a roadmap to get there. Instructors can then select materials and activities that will best prepare students to successfully complete the evaluation activity in the lesson. The process is repeated for each learning objective. Lesson planning is an ongoing process in which instruction flows from one objective to the next. This cyclical process is repeated for each learning objective.

How Does Lesson Planning Benefit Learners and Instructors?

Instructors and learners benefit from thoughtful lesson planning. It provides a framework for instruction, and it guides implementation of standards-based education. Lesson planning establishes a road map for instructors of what has been taught and what needs to be taught. It allows them to focus on one objective at a time and communicate to learners what they will learn in each lesson. Because lessons incorporate ongoing assessments that determine how well learners understand concepts and skills, instructors are able to make mid-course changes in instructional procedures or provide additional support to learners. Additionally, the practice and application components of the lesson help learners use the new skills and knowledge in educational and other settings, thus promoting generalization and relevance.

Barroso, K., & Pon, S. (2005). Effective lesson planning, A facilitator’s guide . Sacramento, CA: California Adult Literacy Professional Development Project, American Institutes for Research.

Heinich, R., Molenda, M., Russell, J., & Smaldino, S. (2001). Instructional media and technologies for learning (7th ed). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Hunter, M. (1982). Mastery teaching . El Segundo, CA: TIP Publications.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by design . Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Authors: TEAL Center Staff

Adapted from CALPRO Professional Development Module, Effective Lesson Planning, by Barroso, K. & Pon, S. (2004). AIR: Sacramento, CA.

About the TEAL Center: The Teaching Excellence in Adult Literacy (TEAL) Center is a project of the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE), designed to improve the quality of teaching in adult education in the content areas.

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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Lesson Plans | Classroom Planning

What Is a Lesson Plan and How Do You Make One?

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March 28th, 2024 | 9 min. read

Brad Hummel

Coming from a family of educators, Brad knows both the joys and challenges of teaching well. Through his own teaching background, he’s experienced both firsthand. As a writer for iCEV, Brad’s goal is to help teachers empower their students by listening to educators’ concerns and creating content that answers their most pressing questions about career and technical education.

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A lesson plan is a teacher’s daily guide for what students need to learn, how it will be taught, and how learning will be measured.

Lesson plans help teachers be more effective in the classroom by providing a detailed outline to follow each class period.

This ensures every bit of class time is spent teaching new concepts and having meaningful discussions — not figuring it out on the fly!

The most effective lesson plans have six key parts:

• Lesson Objectives
• Related Requirements
• Lesson Materials
• Lesson Procedure
• Assessment Method
• Lesson Reflection

Because each part of a lesson plan plays a role in the learning experience of your students, it’s important to approach them with a clear plan in mind.

Let’s start with the first part of every lesson plan—the lesson objectives!

1. Lesson Objectives

Lesson objectives list what students will be able to do after completing the lesson.

These objectives let you easily tell if your lesson has effectively taught your students new concepts and skills.

It can feel overwhelming to pin down specific takeaways for a lesson. But when you break the process into steps, you can make lesson planning simple and effective.

First, it’s best to view your lesson objectives as goals for your class and students.

One of the most popular goal-setting strategies is the  “SMART” criteria ,  which ensures goals are focused.

In the context of lesson planning, you can use the SMART criteria to determine your lesson objectives:

• Is the objective  specific ?
• Is the objective  measurable ?
• Is the objective  attainable  by all students?
• Is the objective  relevant  to your class and students?
• Is the objective  time-based to align with your syllabus?

For each objective, it’s important to start with an action that relates to what students should be able to do after the lesson. Depending on what topic you’re teaching and the level of knowledge your students have, these actions will vary.

For example, when teaching brand new concepts, you may define actions like  define, identify, explain , and  determine . However, if your lesson involves more advanced tasks, the objectives may include actions like  create, use, perform , or  measure .

To see these phrases in context, let’s look at examples that a computer teacher might choose when teaching Microsoft Word .

For an introductory lesson about Microsoft Word, objectives could be:

• Identify parts of the ribbon menu
• Determine methods of selecting text in a document
• Define fonts and font styles

In a more advanced class, objectives might include:

• Insert a document header
• Use document themes
• Add a page border

When creating your lesson objectives, keep in mind that it’s easier to measure student success when you have specific goals.

Once you’ve put your lesson objectives together, it’s time to tie them in with the next part of your lesson plan—the related requirements!

2. Related Requirements

Related requirements are  national, state, or school standards  that dictate what you need to teach in a class.

If you teach a CTE course you likely need to tie your lessons to  certification requirements  as well.

Every lesson you teach should help you hit those requirements. Listing them in your lesson plans helps you satisfy those requirements while focusing on the end goal of your class!

On top of that, some administrators require teachers to distinctly show how they will teach course standards in each lesson. If you put them on your lesson plans, you’ve got a quick reference to prove you’re on the ball!

When listing course standards or certification items on your lesson plan, it’s smart to use the exact organizational system found on your standards to make sure your class aligns.

If you don’t have the specific outline for your course standards, ask another teacher or your administrator where you can find them.

To get detailed certification requirements, check the certification provider’s website for an exam outline or test plan.

Laying out each lesson plan according to your requirements can be tedious work, but it will ultimately help you stay organized and aligned with what you’re supposed to teach!

3. Lesson Materials

The third section on your lesson plan is the list of materials that you need to teach the lesson and measure student outcomes.

This section prepares you to deliver your lessons every day. Without this list, you may accidentally forget to print an important document or sign out the shared laptop cart!

Common types of lesson materials include:

• Student handouts
• Visual aids
• Grading rubrics
• Activity packets
• Computers / Tablets

The list of materials for each lesson depends on what you plan to teach, how you’ll teach it, and how you’ll measure lesson objectives.

Because of this, many teachers compile their list of lesson materials in tandem with their lesson procedure!

4. Lesson Procedure

Your lesson procedure is an in-depth explanation of how the lesson will progress in the classroom.

The lesson procedure is essentially step-by-step instructions that walk you through everything from the time students enter the classroom until the bell rings at the end of the period.

It’s smart to be very detailed in this portion of your lesson plan. After all, there will be cases when another teacher or substitute needs to fill in for you!

When writing your lesson procedure, you need to choose the type of activities that will help students meet the lesson objectives.

To do that, you can answer a list of questions, including:

• How will you introduce the topic?
• What’s the best way to teach this information to your students?
• How can you incorporate problem solving and critical thinking?
• What real-life scenarios relate to this topic?
• Does this topic lend itself to group work?

It’s also a great idea to find out how other teachers address the topics in the classroom . You can do this by talking to coworkers, joining an online community, or searching for lesson ideas on educational blogs.

After writing out a rough draft of your lesson procedure, many teachers outline it according to a specific teaching strategy.

As an example, you might consider planning what exercise students will complete when they enter the class, how they'll proceed in learning the main content of the class period, and how you'll encourage students to reflect on what they've learned. You'll also want to plan how you'll reinforce learning at the end of class and in future class periods.

To accomplish these lessons, teachers use a variety of methods , from lectures to multimedia presentations, as well as both individual and group activities. Which methods you'll want to use will often vary depending on the type of material your teaching, the amount of time you have to cover it, and the particular knowledge and skills you want to emphasize in accordance with your standards.

Finally, you'll want to gauge if your students have achieved the lesson objectives through formative and summative assessments.

5. Assessment Method

The assessment method measures whether your students learned a lesson’s information and met your lesson objectives.

The methods listed on your lesson plan will most often be  formative assessments and vary from lesson to lesson.  To start, there are dozens of ways to measure student learning through formative assessments.

Some of the most common assessment options include:

• Hands-on activities
• Writing assignments
• Group presentations
• Class journal entries

In addition, your assessment method may be an in-class assignment or homework for students to complete prior to the next class.

When choosing your assessment method, it’s important to incorporate your lesson objectives.

If an objective was related to understanding a concept, consider an assessment that requires students to explain that concept. If an objective was for students to demonstrate a skill, design an assessment to confirm they can do that skill.

Also, while many assessments receive grades in a class, formative assessments don’t always need to be graded!

Ultimately, the purpose of this assessment is to measure how well your students learned a lesson’s material based on the way you presented information. This measurement will help you wrap up each lesson plan with the lesson reflection.

6. Lesson Reflection

The lesson reflection portion of a lesson plan encourages teachers to take notes on how to improve a lesson after it has been completed.

By this point, your lesson has clear objectives, a plan for teaching, and a way to assess student learning. But if you don’t critically consider whether you succeeded, you’re doing a disservice to your future students!

When completing your lesson reflection, ask yourself questions like:

• Did a part of the lesson take longer than expected?
• Was there a portion that students asked for a lot of help with?
• Did students breeze through the information with no problem?
• Were students engaged and interested in the lesson?
• Were the objectives met by most (or all) of the students?

Essentially, you want to note any part of your lesson that didn’t go as expected.

In addition, it’s smart to record ideas for improvement or adjustments in this section as well. That way, when you go to teach your lessons in the future, you have all of the information for improvement in one place!

Lessons Are Just the Beginning

Lesson plans are the first steps in creating a full-fledged curriculum for a class.

They dig into the details that ensure you teach the right information to your students at the right time, and they simplify your career by giving you a roadmap to follow each and every day.

But what about the big picture? This is one of the hardest parts of teaching for educators throughout the world. It’s not just the individual lessons that need your attention — it’s the class as a whole!

To do that, you need to create a curriculum.

A curriculum covers everything you need to teach an entire class. More than just a bunch of lesson plans, a comprehensive curriculum serves as a roadmap for teaching your course and setting each student up for success.

So where do you start? When you read about how to make a curriculum, you'll discover the key elements that make all the difference when building a complete course that will confidently meet your instructional standards.

Read the article and start building your ideal curriculum now: 

• Lesson Title
• Grade Level
• Subject or Topic
• Preparation
• Instructional Plan or Teaching Sequence
• Differentiation
• Homework/Assignments
• Additional Notes

Tips for How to Write a Lesson Plan for English

Tips for how to write a lesson plan for maths, tips for how to write a lesson plan for science, tips for how to write a lesson plan for art, tips for how to write a lesson plan for physical education, how to create a lesson plan.

Introduction

Steps to Creating an Effective Lesson Plan

1. lesson title.

a. Reflect the Content

B. be engaging, c. be specific, 2. grade level.

a. Grade or Age Group

B. prior knowledge, c. appropriate content, d. cognitive development, recommended for you, 3. subject or topic.

a. Clear Identification

B. alignment with curriculum, c. relevance, d. conciseness, 4. duration.

a. Time Allocation

B. realistic estimate, c. flexibility, d. alignment with schedule, e. include breaks, 5. objective.

b. Measurability

C. alignment, d. realistic expectations, e. relevance, 6. materials.

a. Comprehensive List

B. specifics, c. preparation, d. availability, e. accessibility, 7. preparation.

a. Advance Planning

B. timeline, c. resources, d. checklist, e. contingency plans, 8. instructional plan or teaching sequence, 1. introduction of chapter and topic.

2. Content Presentation

3. Activities and Exercises

4. Assessment

9. Differentiation

a. Understanding Student Diversity

B. inclusive strategies, c. accommodations, d. extensions, e. grouping, f. assessment flexibility, 10. homework/assignments.

a. Assignment Description

C. due date, d. resources, e. grading criteria, 11. reflection.

a. Observations

B. challenges, c. student engagement, d. assessment of learning, f. adjustments, g. next steps, 12. additional notes.

a. Clarifications

B. special considerations, c. reminders, d. alternative approaches, e. references, f. next steps, bonus content.

Sample Lesson Plan

Bonus: tips for crafting subject-specific lesson plans, unlock exclusive content – sign up now.

Focus on Core Skills

• Identify the key language skills you want students to develop, such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
• Align lesson activities with specific language goals to ensure a comprehensive approach.

Incorporate Literature

• Integrate literary works that resonate with your students to make the learning experience more engaging.
• Encourage critical thinking and analysis through discussions about themes, characters, and plot structures.

Include Creative Writing

• Devote time to creative writing exercises that allow students to express themselves.
• Provide constructive feedback to nurture their writing skills and foster a love for language.

Clearly Define Objectives

• Specify the mathematical concepts and skills students should grasp by the end of the lesson.
• Break down complex topics into manageable learning objectives.

Utilize Visual Aids

• Integrate visual representations, charts, and diagrams to enhance understanding of mathematical concepts.
• Encourage students to create their visual aids to reinforce learning.

Incorporate Real-World Applications

• Relate mathematical concepts to real-life situations to demonstrate their practical relevance.
• Design activities that challenge students to apply mathematical principles in problem-solving scenarios.

Hands-On Experiments

• Prioritize hands-on experiments to make scientific concepts tangible.
• Ensure safety measures are communicated and followed during practical sessions.

Use Multimedia Resources

• Integrate videos, simulations, and interactive tools to supplement theoretical explanations.
• Appeal to various learning styles by incorporating a multimedia approach.

Encourage Inquiry-Based Learning

• Foster curiosity and critical thinking by structuring lessons around inquiry-based activities.
• Guide students to ask questions, formulate hypotheses, and conduct investigations.

Creative Expression

• Prioritize activities that allow students to express their creativity through various art forms.
• Provide opportunities for experimentation with different materials and techniques.

Art History Exploration

• Explore different art movements and styles to broaden students' understanding of artistic traditions.
• Discuss the cultural and historical context of famous artworks.

Skill Progression

• Design lessons that focus on the progressive development of motor skills and physical abilities.
• Incorporate activities that cater to various fitness levels and interests.

Team Building and Sportsmanship

• Integrate team sports and cooperative activities to promote teamwork and sportsmanship.
• Emphasize the importance of fair play and positive attitudes in physical activities.

Pre-Primary Teacher

Assistant teacher, primary teacher, post graduate teacher, head of department, format of a stellar lesson plan with samples, how to create a lesson plan, different types of lesson plans, common mistakes in lesson plans, wrapping up, good news, frequently asked questions.

Yes, lesson plans can be adapted by adjusting the complexity of tasks, modifying resources, and considering the developmental stages of students. Flexibility is key in catering to various grade levels.

Depending on the subject, you can integrate technology by using educational apps, interactive presentations, or online resources. Ensure that technology enhances the learning experience without being a distraction.

Let's consider a high school Biology lesson about cellular processes. Instead of a traditional lecture, you decide to leverage technology to make the topic more interactive. You introduce an educational app that allows students to explore virtual cells, witness cellular activities, and even simulate experiments. To learn more on how to integrate technology into your classroom, watch this masterclass for free !

Reflection is key. After the lesson, consider what worked well and what could be improved. Collect feedback from students and be open to adjusting your approach based on their responses. Read this blog on Reflection in Teaching to gain insights to practice reflection in your teaching process.

While it's important to have a plan, flexibility is crucial. Be prepared to adapt based on the needs of your students, unexpected class dynamics, or if an activity is taking more or less time than anticipated.

While formats may vary, a typical lesson plan includes above mentioned sections like objectives, materials, procedures, assessment, and closure. The key is clarity and organization to guide effective teaching.

Stay calm and be adaptable. Have a few backup activities or quick engagement strategies on hand. Establish clear classroom expectations to minimize disruptions. Let's say you're in the middle of explaining a complex math concept, and suddenly there's a loud noise from the hallway that grabs everyone's attention. Instead of getting flustered, take a moment to address the distraction calmly. You might say, "It seems like there's a bit of noise from the hallway. Let's all take a deep breath and refocus on our learning.”

It's possible to use existing lesson plans as a template, but tailor them to suit your teaching style, students, and classroom dynamics. Personalizing the content will make it more effective for your students.

Encourage open communication with students and colleagues. Seek feedback on the clarity of instructions, engagement level, and overall effectiveness. Continuous improvement is a key aspect of teaching.

Simran Agarwal

Simran is a writer here at Suraasa and has formerly worked as a Teacher. She is passionate about learning and making a difference through her words.

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.

Kerri Eglin. (2018). Creating Lesson Plans. The WAC Clearinghouse. Retrieved from https://wac.colostate.edu/repository/teaching/guides/lesson-plans/. Originally developed for Writing@CSU (https://writing.colostate.edu).

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AI Teaching Strategies: Transparent Assignment Design

The rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Jasper Chat raises many questions about the ways we teach and the ways students learn. While some of these questions concern how we can use AI to accomplish learning goals and whether or not that is advisable, others relate to how we can facilitate critical analysis of AI itself. 

The wide variety of questions about AI and the rapidly changing landscape of available tools can make it hard for educators to know where to start when designing an assignment. When confronted with new technologies—and the new teaching challenges they present—we can often turn to existing evidence-based practices for the guidance we seek.

This guide will apply the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework to "un-complicate" planning an assignment that uses AI, providing guiding questions for you to consider along the way. 

The result should be an assignment that supports you and your students to approach the use of AI in a more thoughtful, productive, and ethical manner.    

Plan your assignment.

The TILT framework offers a straightforward approach to assignment design that has been shown to improve academic confidence and success, sense of belonging, and metacognitive awareness by making the learning process clear to students (Winkelmes et al., 2016). The TILT process centers around deciding—and then communicating—three key components of your assignment: 1) purpose, 2) tasks, and 3) criteria for success. 

Step 1: Define your purpose.

To make effective use of any new technology, it is important to reflect on our reasons for incorporating it into our courses. In the first step of TILT, we think about what we want students to gain from an assignment and how we will communicate that purpose to students.

The  SAMR model , a useful tool for thinking about educational technology use in our courses, lays out four tiers of technology integration. The tiers, roughly in order of their sophistication and transformative power, are S ubstitution, A ugmentation, M odification, and R edefinition. Each tier may suggest different approaches to consider when integrating AI into teaching and learning activities. 

Questions to consider:

• Do you intend to use AI as a substitution, augmentation, modification, or redefinition of an existing teaching practice or educational technology?
• What are your learning goals and expected learning outcomes?
• Do you want students to understand the limitations of AI or to experience its applications in the field? 
• Do you want students to reflect on the ethical implications of AI use?  

Bloom’s Taxonomy is another useful tool for defining your assignment’s purpose and your learning goals and outcomes. 

This downloadable Bloom’s Taxonomy Revisited resource , created by Oregon State University, highlights the differences between AI capabilities and distinctive human skills at each Bloom's level, indicating the types of assignments you should review or change in light of AI. Bloom's Taxonomy Revisited is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).  

Access a transcript of the graphic .

Step 2: Define the tasks involved.

In the next step of TILT, you list the steps students will take when completing the assignment. In what order should they do specific tasks, what do they need to be aware of to perform each task well, and what mistakes should they avoid? Outlining each step is especially important if you’re asking students to use generative AI in a limited manner. For example, if you want them to begin with generative AI but then revise, refine, or expand upon its output, make clear which steps should involve their own thinking and work as opposed to AI’s thinking and work.

• Are you designing this assignment as a single, one-time task or as a longitudinal task that builds over time or across curricular and co-curricular contexts?  For longitudinal tasks consider the experiential learning cycle (Kolb, 1984) . In Kolb’s cycle, learners have a concrete experience followed by reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. For example, students could record their generative AI prompts, the results, a reflection on the results, and the next prompt they used to get improved output. In subsequent tasks students could expand upon or revise the AI output into a final product. Requiring students to provide a record of their reflections, prompts, and results can create an “AI audit trail,” making the task and learning more transparent.
• What resources and tools are permitted or required for students to complete the tasks involved with the assignment? Make clear which steps should involve their own thinking (versus AI-generated output, for example), required course materials, and if references are required. Include any ancillary resources students will need to accomplish tasks, such as guidelines on how to cite AI , in APA 7.0 for example.
• How will you offer students flexibility and choice? As of this time, most generative AI tools have not been approved for use by Ohio State, meaning they have not been  vetted for security, privacy, or accessibility issues . It is known that many platforms are not compatible with screen readers, and there are outstanding questions as to what these tools do with user data. Students may have understandable apprehensions about using these tools or encounter barriers to doing so successfully. So while there may be value in giving students first-hand experience with using AI, it’s important to give them the choice to opt out. As you outline your assignment tasks, plan how to provide alternative options to complete them. Could you provide AI output you’ve generated for students to work with, demonstrate use of the tool during class, or allow use of another tool that enables students to meet the same learning outcomes.

Microsoft Copilot is currently the only generative AI tool that has been vetted and approved for use at Ohio State. As of February 2024, the Office of Technology and Digital Innovation (OTDI) has enabled it for use by students, faculty, and staff. Copilot is an AI chatbot that draws from public online data, but with additional security measures in place. For example, conversations within the tool aren’t stored. Learn more and stay tuned for further information about Copilot in the classroom.

• What are your expectations for academic integrity? This is a helpful step for clarifying your academic integrity guidelines for this assignment, around AI use specifically as well as for other resources and tools. The standard Academic Integrity Icons in the table below can help you call out what is permissible and what is prohibited. If any steps for completing the assignment require (or expressly prohibit) AI tools, be as clear as possible in highlighting which ones, as well as why and how AI use is (or is not) permitted.

Promoting academic integrity

While inappropriate use of AI may constitute academic misconduct, it can be muddy for students to parse out what is permitted or prohibited across their courses and across various use cases. Fortunately, there are existing approaches to supporting academic integrity that apply to AI as well as to any other tool. Discuss academic integrity openly with students, early in the term and before each assignment. Purposefully design your assignments to promote integrity by using real-world formats and audiences, grading the process as well as the product, incorporating personal reflection tasks, and more. 

Learn about taking a proactive, rather than punitive, approach to academic integrity in A Positive Approach to Academic Integrity.

Step 3: Define criteria for success.

An important feature of transparent assignments is that they make clear to students how their work will be evaluated. During this TILT step, you will define criteria for a successful submission—consider creating a  rubric to clarify these expectations for students and simplify your grading process. If you intend to use AI as a substitute or augmentation for another technology, you might be able to use an existing rubric with little or no change. However, if AI use is modifying or redefining the assignment tasks, a new grading rubric will likely be needed. 

• How will you grade this assignment? What key criteria will you assess? 
• What indicators will show each criterion has been met? 
• What qualities distinguish a successful submission from one that needs improvement? 
• Will you grade students on the product only or on aspects of the process as well? For example, if you have included a reflection task as part of the assignment, you might include that as a component of the final grade.

Alongside your rubric, it is helpful to prepare examples of successful (and even unsuccessful) submissions to provide more tangible guidance to students. In addition to samples of the final product, you could share examples of effective AI prompts, reflections tasks, and AI citations. Examples may be drawn from previous student work or models that you have mocked up, and they can be annotated to highlight notable elements related to assignment criteria. 

Present and discuss your assignment.

As clear as we strive to be in our assignment planning and prompts, there may be gaps or confusing elements we have overlooked. Explicitly going over your assignment instructions—including the purpose, key tasks, and criteria—will ensure students are equipped with the background and knowledge they need to perform well. These discussions also offer space for students to ask questions and air unanticipated concerns, which is particularly important given the potential hesitance some may have around using AI tools. 

• How will this assignment help students learn key course content, contribute to the development of important skills such as critical thinking, or support them to meet your learning goals and outcomes? 
• How might students apply the knowledge and skills acquired in their future coursework or careers? 
• In what ways will the assignment further students’ understanding and experience around generative AI tools, and why does that matter?
• What questions or barriers do you anticipate students might encounter when using AI for this assignment?

As noted above, many students are unaware of the accessibility, security, privacy, and copyright concerns associated with AI, or of other pitfalls they might encounter working with AI tools. Openly discussing AI’s limitations and the inaccuracies and biases it can create and replicate will support students to anticipate barriers to success on the assignment, increase their digital literacy, and make them more informed and discerning users of technology. 

Explore available resources It can feel daunting to know where to look for AI-related assignment ideas, or who to consult if you have questions. Though generative AI is still on the rise, a growing number of useful resources are being developed across the teaching and learning community. Consult our other Teaching Topics, including AI Considerations for Teaching and Learning , and explore other recommended resources such as the Learning with AI Toolkit and Exploring AI Pedagogy: A Community Collection of Teaching Reflections.

If you need further support to review or develop assignment or course plans in light of AI, visit our Help forms to request a teaching consultation .

Using the Transparent Assignment Template

Sample assignment: ai-generated lesson plan.

In many respects, the rise of generative AI has reinforced existing best practices for assignment design—craft a clear and detailed assignment prompt, articulate academic integrity expectations, increase engagement and motivation through authentic and inclusive assessments. But AI has also encouraged us to think differently about how we approach the tasks we ask students to undertake, and how we can better support them through that process. While it can feel daunting to re-envision or reformat our assignments, AI presents us with opportunities to cultivate the types of learning and growth we value, to help students see that value, and to grow their critical thinking and digital literacy skills. 

Using the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework to plan assignments that involve generative AI can help you clarify expectations for students and take a more intentional, productive, and ethical approach to AI use in your course. 

• Step 1: Define your purpose. Think about what you want students to gain from this assignment. What are your learning goals and outcomes? Do you want students to understand the limitations of AI, see its applications in your field, or reflect on its ethical implications? The SAMR model and Bloom's Taxonomy are useful references when defining your purpose for using (or not using) AI on an assignment.
• Step 2: Define the tasks involved. L ist the steps students will take to complete the assignment. What resources and tools will they need? How will students reflect upon their learning as they proceed through each task?  What are your expectations for academic integrity?
• Step 3: Define criteria for success. Make clear to students your expectations for success on the assignment. Create a  rubric to call out key criteria and simplify your grading process. Will you grade the product only, or parts of the process as well? What qualities indicate an effective submission? Consider sharing tangible models or examples of assignment submissions.

Finally, it is time to make your assignment guidelines and expectations transparent to students. Walk through the instructions explicitly—including the purpose, key tasks, and criteria—to ensure they are prepared to perform well.

• Checklist for Designing Transparent Assignments
• TILT Higher Ed Information and Resources

Winkelmes, M. (2013). Transparency in Teaching: Faculty Share Data and Improve Students’ Learning. Liberal Education 99 (2).

Wilkelmes, M. (2013). Transparent Assignment Design Template for Teachers. TiLT Higher Ed: Transparency in Learning and Teaching. https://tilthighered.com/assets/pdffiles/Transparent%20Assignment%20Templates.pdf

Winkelmes, M., Bernacki, M., Butler, J., Zochowski, M., Golanics, J., Weavil, K. (2016). A Teaching Intervention that Increases Underserved College Students’ Success. Peer Review.

Related Teaching Topics

Ai considerations for teaching and learning, ai teaching strategies: having conversations with students, designing assessments of student learning, search for resources.