Today we discussed how to write a state of the art lesson plan. In order to be an effective teacher, teachers should possess excellent planning skills. Planning is a big part of teaching. There are many parts to planning a lesson. I am going to explain the important parts for you. First is the state standards. Teachers can download the Tennessee state standards from this website http://www.tn.gov/education/curriculum.shtml. From the standards, teachers create the instructional objectives. The instructional objectives describe what the learner should know and be able to do at the close of the lesson. These objectives, unlike the standard, are very specific and measurable. The website, http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/b/x/bxb11/Objectives/ has some very good examples of instructional objectives.

The Instructional Procedures part of the lesson plan format is where a teacher explains, in great detail, how the lesson will be taught. It has several parts such as set, key questions, classroom strategies, practice and review, learner involvement, learning environment, closure, and alternative and/or supplemental activities.

The Set is where a teacher describes how he or she will "hook" the learner and get them interested in what they are about to learn. Using the students schema is a good way to do this because then they can relate the information to something.

Key Questions are used to develop the lesson and engage the children in critical thinking. These questions can be used to motivate students or to monitor the learning process.

Classroom Strategies is where the teacher describes who will do what and what strategies will be used. This has to be done in a sequential order or it will not make any sense.

The Practice and Review section indicates the purpose of the activities and what the student will do with the new learning to show level of mastery.

The Learner Involvement piece describes how the learner will participate in learning and thinking.

Learning Environment is related to instructional activities or instructional strategies.

The Alternative and/or Supplemental piece describes additional activities for those students who have not mastered the lesson or need additional practice.

The Re-teaching section is done after the lesson has been taught. Teachers can use the data they collected from the lessons assessment ot determine if he or she needs to re-teach the concept to the whole class or a portion of the class. The teacher may add things that happened during the lesson that were not planned.

Lesson planning is a big part of a teacher's life. Planning is one of the most important skills a teacher can have.