free small group lesson plan template

Small Group Lesson Plan Template

Lesson plan templates are great tools for planning small group instruction. This ready-to-use small group lesson plan allows you to identify key skills and areas of focus, plan what lesson materials you’ll need and how you want to structure the lesson. Best of all, you can download and print this lesson plan template for free!

This free sample is from our Teacher Planner 2022-2023 - a customizable, editable planner for teachers, to help with all your planning and organization needs for the 2022-2023 school year. It includes must-have customizable tools for planning managing the school year, handy templates for lesson and unit planning, customizable calendar templates, and over 40 forms and templates.

Like what you see? The Teacher Planner 2022-2023 is available to purchase for $17.95 or join us as a Premium subscriber to access the planner and much more!

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Small group lesson plan template.

This lesson plan template guides the teacher to document how a small group lesson plan may be executed. Lesson planning for group work is often very challenging. It is important for students to experience working in groups with peers that are within different learning ranges. This small group lesson plan template has the teacher lesson plan for group work that may take place in his or her class. This is a thorough small group lesson plan template. This small group lesson plan template may be used for a variety of grade levels.

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The 90 Min Literacy Block: Small Group Instruction

This is the second post in a blog series on the SoR 90-Minute Literacy Block and it focuses on small group instruction. In it, I discuss why small group instruction is important and explain how t o group your students for small group instruction. I identify literacy skills to teach in small group and offer a list of science of reading-aligned resources designed for small group instruction.  Finally, I leave you with a FREE, downloadable small group lesson planning template for kindergarten, first or second grade.

In my last post, I outlined a suggested schedule for your 90-minute science of reading-aligned literacy block.   Today I am excited to focus on just one part of the block, your small group instruction . 

Small group instruction is one of the key ways we can support our students and help increase achievement, but it isn’t always easy to pull off. It requires careful lesson planning, regular shuffling of student grouping, and strong management.  

Today I’m excited to provide you with information and resources that will help you successfully implement small groups in your classroom.  I’ll first share why small group instruction is important and explain how to group your students.  I’ll then identify specific skills that you should teach in small groups and offer a list of science of reading-aligned resources designed for small group instruction.  Finally, I’ll leave you with a FREE, downloadable small group lesson plan template to help you get your groups up and running! 

Why is Small Group Instruction Important? 

Research has found that small group instruction has a significant impact on student learning.  Small groups allow you to provide explicit, targeted instruction to students based on their identified needs. It is an opportunity for students to receive the additional teaching and practice that is often needed for them to master the skills we teach.  

Additionally, small group instruction allows a teacher to monitor student actions more closely and to provide frequent and individualized feedback.  Correct responses receive immediate and specific reinforcement, while incorrect responses should be met with immediate corrective feedback.

Teaching in small groups allows you to perform informal assessments and collect data that helps drive your instruction. Watch closely as your students attempt a task to get a clear sense of their understandings and misconceptions.  

Finally, students love their time in small groups.  Of course, they love having your full attention. The immediate feedback you provide helps to build a connection and can boost students’ confidence.  

How to Group Students for Small Group Instruction

Many teachers are unsure of how to group their students since we have begun to move away from leveled readers.  The science of reading tells us that small groups should be grouped and regrouped by a shared skill deficit . 

To properly group your students, you need a strong assessment system.  You need data from a universal screener to identify students who might be at risk of difficulties in learning. This will give you a general sense of how to group students.  Diagnostic assessments are then used to confirm the initial screening results.  They help you to refine your groupings by determining a student’s specific difficulties.  Finally, weekly progress monitoring and observation will help you adjust your groups.  They are flexible.  As needs change, groups change.    

Phonics Screeners for Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd Grade

I recommend these Phonics Screeners bundle for Kindergarten 1st and 2nd grade to assess your students’ phonics skills. This resource includes a variety of screeners and has everything you need to group students working at a Kindergarten, first, or second-grade level.

This bundle of K-2 assessments includes phonics screeners for:

• Phonemic Awareness Screener (for K and 1st grade)
• Letter & Grapheme Identification
• Reading Survey
• Spelling Survey
• Autofill Student Data Trackers and MORE!!

In addition to helping you group students, these screeners can be used as a diagnostic tool at reading benchmark periods (BOY, MOY, EOY), for report cards, or as a pre-assessment and post-assessment to measure student growth.

Click here to take a closer look at everything included in the K-2 Phonics Screeners Bundle !

Skills to Teach in Small Groups

In a small group, you provide students with targeted remediation and review that they need to master the skill you have identified as their need. Skills you will work on in small groups include: 

• Phonemic awareness
• Decoding and Fluency
• Comprehension
• Word study/spelling

Science of Reading-Aligned Activities for Small Group Instruction

The following resources are designed to be used in small groups.  They are engaging, LOW-PREP activities that target the skills you will teach in small groups AND they are aligned to the science of reading. 

Phonemic Awareness Lesson Plans for Kindergarten and 1st Grade

My Science of Reading-aligned Phonemic Lesson Plans for Kindergarten and First Grade students have EVERYTHING you need to bring effective phonemic awareness instruction to your small groups!  

The resource includes:

💕 Phonemic Awareness Lesson Plans Aligned to a Scope and Sequence

With this resource, you’ll get lesson plans laid out in a weekly format.

Each daily lesson plan includes a warm-up for the target skill and three activities. 

• Phoneme Segmenting : students practice breaking apart each word and identifying each phoneme
• Phoneme Blending : students hear a sequence of phonemes and put them together to identify the word
• Connecting Graphemes to Phonemes : students practice connecting the phonemes in a spoken word to the letters (graphemes) that represent those sounds.

💕 Picture Word Mats

The picture word mats provide a visual representation of the words in the Connecting Phonemes to Graphemes section.  This support helps students to build meaning of the words .

💕 Screener Assessments

You’ll get a two-part screener for each unit that will identify whether each student can segment and blend phonemes, as well as a spelling inventory assessment that would be given whole-group.

💕 Class Data Tracker and MORE!!

You can read more about the importance of phonemic awareness and download a free sample of this resource here .

Word Mapping – Connecting Phonemes to Graphemes

Word mapping is a physical way to represent the relationship between the phonemes and graphemes.  It allows students to physically connect or match the letters with the sounds they represent. Ultimately, it helps build word recognition and decoding skills that improve fluency in both reading and writing . Students find word-mapping activities ​​highly engaging because they have both visual and kinesthetic aspects.

My printable and digital Word Mapping Resource  has EVERYTHING you need to get students mapping words in your classroom. This resource also includes mapping boards and word image cards for your small-group instruction.

Phonics Word Sort s

Word sorts require students to think about how words work by drawing their attention to common spelling patterns.  Students receive a set of words that all have something in common. They must identify the feature and sort them accordingly.

Research on information-processing tells us that students need to spend time elaborating and summarizing their new learning in order to store it in their long-term memory. For this reason, the “what did you notice” section of this activity is key, as is the discussion that may take place after the word sort. Both help students to verbalize the new learning that applies to spelling.

My digital and printable phonics word sorts include  two levels  of sorts: whole words and words with the missing target spelling pattern to assign to your students. Students will look for common spelling patterns, sort, then communicate what they notice and have learned about the words they’ve sorted. You can take a closer look at them here .

Decodable Passages or Decodable Books with Comprehension Questions

The science of reading shows us that the connection between what our students learn in phonics and what they read is imperative for building a strong foundation in early reading.  The text in these decodable books and decodable passages resources are a phonics-based controlled text that contain target phonics skill words, previously taught phonics skill words and irregular high-frequency words.  The comprehension questions help to bring discussion about text and writing into your small group instruction.  The resources also include activities for before, after and during reading.

While these two separate resources do follow the same research-based scope and sequence, they do not include the same texts. The passages and stories are different, giving you more options for your instruction.

Dictation Practice

Dictation is a whole or small group activity that offers students guided spelling practice. It is a systematic way for you to connect the skills you teach in reading to student writing.  Just as decodable texts allow students to apply the phonics skills you have taught to their reading, dictation practice allows them to apply the skills to their writing.

Dictation is not an assessment. It allows you to check students’ understanding of sound-spelling correspondences. Your dictation exercise will contain the sounds they are just learning, as well as review words from previous weeks.  Dictation gives them the extra practice they need to reach mastery.  When there are errors, provide immediate corrective feedback.  

If you are looking for a simple way to bring dictation practice into your small groups my  Yearlong Dictation Resource  for Kindergarten, first and/or second grade is all you need!

This resource follows a research-based scope and sequence and includes dictation practice activities for each week of the school year.

Each week includes 2 teacher guides that highlight the week’s focus skill and previously learned phonics skills. In addition, students get practice with heart words (irregularly spelled high-frequency words) in the sentence portion.

A lesson outline for teacher guidance and sample lessons are also included. The resource includes a variety of student dictation recording sheets so you can choose the one that works best for your students.

Take a closer look at this Yearlong Dictation Resource  here .

“What are the other kids doing while I work with my small group?” 

This is is a question that gets asked frequently!  The answer is they are engaging in intentional literacy center activities that reinforce skills you have already taught .  These activities are not new learning, they are not skills the students are still acquiring.  They are skills that you have seen them perform successfully and accurately when they are with you.  This ensures they can work independently and you can focus your attention on your small group. 

Now you may be wondering…if they can already perform the skills successfully, then why do they need more practice?  The truth is, we often underestimate the amount of practice and repetition it takes for students to master the skills we teach .  According to Wiley Blevins, in order for a skill to stick, it must be purposefully and systematically reviewed for 4-6 weeks.  Literacy centers offer students the practice and review they need for mastery.   

Keep in mind, that literacy centers and rotations are not something you just hop right into.  They involve routines and expectations that must be explicitly taught and practiced.  Take a look at this blog post for tips on how to introduce your literacy centers and build independence. 

I know I have shared a lot of information today!  To help you make sense of it all, I am happy to share a FREE downloadable planning template for small group instruction. 

Drop your email below to instantly download these editable small-group planning templates

I hope the information and resources I’ve shared here today will help you plan and implement effective small group instruction in your classroom. Be on the lookout for the next posts in this series on the SoR 90 Minute Literacy Block where I’ll focus on whole group word recognition instruction and whole group language comprehension instruction.

Wouldn’t it be incredible if planning, prepping, and teaching your small groups….was as easy as click, print, and teach?

When you’re a Leader of Literacy, it is that easy!

LEADERS HAVE IMMEDIATE, UNLIMITED ACCESS TO:

✔️ K-2 systematic scope & sequences

✔️ K-2 explicit structured literacy lesson plans

✔️K-2 high-impact student activities

✔️ Aligned with the Science of Reading

….and so much more!

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Small Group Lesson Plan Template

Use this template to plan out your group lesson plan.  This editable template includes sections to record essential pre, during, and post-lesson planning.

Read our Blog Post: Building a Small Group Planning Notebook for more information on how to use this resource in your classroom.

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This training introduces Learning Objectives and gives step-by-step instructions on how to write highly effective Learning Objectives for your students.

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7 Free Lesson Plan Templates

7 minutes read

Creating a lesson plan is an essential part of the teaching process. It helps educators to organize their thoughts, outline the learning objectives, and prepare for the class ahead. However, designing a lesson plan from scratch can be time-consuming and challenging. To make this task easier, we're offering a free lesson plan template that you can edit online. These lesson plan templates will guide you through the process of creating a comprehensive and effective lesson plan.

What is a Lesson Plan ?

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A lesson plan is a detailed guide designed by educators as a roadmap for teaching. It outlines the objectives, materials, instructional steps, and assessment methods for a particular lesson. Creating an effective lesson plan allows teachers to structure their class time efficiently, ensuring they cover necessary topics and meet learning goals.

7 Practical Lesson Plan Templates for Free

In this section, we will introduce seven different lesson plan templates that cater to various teaching needs and preferences. Each template is designed to help you create a structured and detailed plan for your lessons.

Daily Lesson Plan Template

This daily lesson plan template is perfect for teachers who prefer to plan their lessons daily. It includes sections for objectives, materials, introduction, activities, closure, and assessment. This lesson plan template ensures that every day's lesson is well-planned and tailored to the needs of the students.

Objectives: Clearly defined goals for what students will learn in the lesson. These should be specific, measurable, and achievable within the timeframe of a single day.

Materials: A comprehensive list of all the resources needed for the lesson, such as textbooks, worksheets, multimedia content, and any specialized equipment.

Introduction: A brief section to outline how the lesson will begin, aiming to capture students' interest and set the stage for the learning activities to follow.

Activities: Detailed descriptions of the learning activities, including instructions, expected student behaviors, and the time allocated for each activity.

Closure: Strategies for wrapping up the lesson, including summarizing key points, reviewing objectives, and providing a transition to the next class or activity.

Assessment: Methods for evaluating student understanding and progress, which could include informal assessments like observations or more formal ones like quizzes and written reflections.

Weekly Lesson Plan Template

If you prefer to plan your lessons every week, this weekly lesson plan template is for you. It allows you to outline the main objectives for the week, as well as the specific activities and assessments for each day. This template helps you to maintain a clear overview of the week's educational goals and progress.

Weekly Objectives : A summary of the key concepts or skills that students are expected to master over the course of the week.

Daily Breakdown: A section for each day of the week, where teachers can outline the specific objectives, activities, and assessments for that day.

Materials: A list of all the resources needed for the entire week, organized by subject or activity.

Assessment: A weekly assessment plan that may include quizzes, projects, or presentations to evaluate student learning at the end of the week.

Reflection: Space for teachers to reflect on the effectiveness of the weekly plan and make notes for adjustments in the future.

Monthly Lesson Plan Template

This lesson plan template is designed for teachers who want to plan their lessons every month. It includes sections for monthly objectives, weekly summaries, and specific daily plans. This template helps you to set long-term goals and track your progress throughout the month.

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Monthly Objectives: A clear statement of the overarching goals for the month, tying into broader curriculum goals and learning standards.

Weekly Summaries: A brief overview of the key points and objectives for each week, allowing teachers to see how each week contributes to the monthly goals.

Major Assessments: A schedule of significant assessments or projects that will occur during the month, providing students with a clear understanding of expectations.

Resources: A compilation of all the materials needed for the month, potentially including field trips, guest speakers, or special equipment.

Professional Development: Opportunities for teachers to reflect on their teaching practices and identify areas for growth or improvement.

Semester Lesson Plan Template

The semester lesson plan template is ideal for teachers who want to plan their lessons for an entire semester. It includes sections for course objectives, weekly summaries, and detailed daily plans. This template ensures that you have a clear roadmap for the entire semester and can easily track your progress.

Course Objectives: A detailed list of the knowledge and skills students are expected to acquire by the end of the semester.

Weekly Plans: A breakdown of weekly objectives and lesson plans that build towards the overall course objectives.

Major Projects and Assessments: A timeline of significant projects, exams, or other assessments that will gauge student progress and learning.

Resources and Materials: A comprehensive list of all necessary resources, including textbooks, technology, and supplementary materials.

Alignment with Standards: An overview of how the semester plan aligns with educational standards and benchmarks, ensuring that learning outcomes are met.

5 E Lesson Plan Template

The 5 E lesson plan template is based on the 5 E instructional model, which includes Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. This template is perfect for teachers who want to implement this model in their lessons and provides a structured format for each stage of the process.

Engage: Strategies for capturing students' interest and activating their prior knowledge at the beginning of the lesson.

Explore: Activities that allow students to explore new concepts through hands-on experiences, discussions, and investigations.

Explain: The teacher's role in helping students make sense of their explorations by providing explanations, examples, and demonstrations.

Elaborate: Opportunities for students to apply their new understanding to new situations, problems, or contexts.

Evaluate: Methods for assessing student learning and evaluating the effectiveness of the lesson.

Teacher Lesson Plan Template

This template is a general lesson plan template designed for teachers of all subjects and grade levels. It includes sections for objectives, materials, procedures, assessment, and reflection. This template is versatile and can be adapted to suit your specific teaching style and needs.

Objectives: A clear statement of what students will learn, tailored to the specific subject or topic being taught.

Materials: A detailed list of all necessary resources, including textbooks, technology, and supplementary materials.

Procedures: A step-by-step guide for the lesson's activities, including instructions for students and expectations for teacher interaction.

Assessment: A plan for evaluating student understanding, which could include a variety of methods such as quizzes, presentations, or group work.

Reflection: Space for the teacher to reflect on the lesson's effectiveness and make notes for future improvements.

Small Group Lesson Plan Template

The small group lesson plan template is specifically designed for teachers who work with small groups of students. It includes sections for group objectives, materials, activities, and assessment. This template helps you to create targeted and effective plans for small group instruction.

Group Objectives: Specific learning goals for the small group, taking into account the unique needs and abilities of the students involved.

Materials: A list of all necessary resources, including manipulatives, worksheets, and any specialized equipment needed for small group activities.

Activities: Detailed descriptions of the learning activities, designed to encourage collaboration, communication, and critical thinking among group members.

Assessment: Methods for evaluating the progress and understanding of each student within the group, which may include individual check-ins or group assessments.

Reflection: An opportunity for the teacher to reflect on the dynamics of the small group and the effectiveness of the activities and strategies used.

Each of these templates offers a unique framework for teachers to create well-structured and effective lesson plans. By utilizing these templates, educators can save time, ensure clarity in their teaching approach, and ultimately enhance the learning experience for their students.

Free Online Lesson Plans Maker: Boardmix Online Whiteboard

Boardmix online whiteboard has revolutionized lesson planning with its robust features designed specifically for educators. This dynamic tool can aid in creating, organizing, and delivering effective lessons, making it an indispensable asset for today's tech-savvy teachers.

Main Features of Boardmix

1. Interactive Whiteboard Interface

At the core of the Boardmix platform is its interactive whiteboard. This feature allows teachers to illustrate concepts visually, draw or annotate on the board, add text, and incorporate multimedia elements such as images, videos, and links.

2. Easy Lesson Plan Creation

Boardmix's lesson plan creation feature provides a structured format for designing detailed lesson plans. It guides you to include components such as learning objectives, introduction, instructional content, activities, assessments, and closure.

3. Drag-and-Drop Functionality

One of the standout features of Boardmix online whiteboard is its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface. This makes arranging lesson flow a breeze – just drag and drop components in the desired order.

4. Multimedia Integration 

Boardmix allows the integration of multimedia resources directly into your lesson plan. Whether it’s instructional videos from YouTube, informative images, or links to further reading resources, incorporating them is straightforward and enhances the learning experience.

5. Collaborative Tools

With Boardmix, collaboration is easy. The platform allows you to share your whiteboards and lesson plans with other teachers or students. You can even collaborate in real time, making group lesson planning or student participation more efficient.

6. Auto Save and Cloud Storage 

Never worry about losing your work! Boardmix auto-saves your progress and stores all your lesson plans safely in the cloud. You can access your work from anywhere at any time.

7. Resource Library

Boardmix boasts a vast resource library filled with premade templates and resources that can be incorporated into your lesson plans. This can be a massive timesaver and source of inspiration.

8. AI feature for lesson plan generation

Boardmix AI can generate many types for contents like mind maps, flowcharts, and also lesson plans. It offers useful AI-generated suggestions to enhance your lesson delivery and provides suggestions for educational content, activities, and assessments based on your inputs. Take advantage of these recommendations to enrich your lesson plan.

In conclusion, writing a lesson plan is a vital part of educational instruction. By utilizing lesson plan maker like Boardmix, educators can maximize their instructional effectiveness and engage students in a meaningful learning experience. A well-structured and ready-make lesson plan template ensures effective teaching and successful student learning. It takes practice to create comprehensive and engaging lesson plans, but with these guidelines at hand, you're off to a good start!

Join Boardmix to collaborate with your team.

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WTO / Education / Free Lesson Plan Templates for Teachers (Editable)

Free Lesson Plan Templates for Teachers (Editable)

As a teacher, a lesson plan is an invaluable tool for teaching. A lesson plan is a document that assists the teachers in organizing their lesson material, as well as helps them assess the overall learning experience of the students. Teachers plan their lessons ahead of time using a lesson plan template. A well-organized lesson plan will ensure clarity regarding the material being taught, and the students and the teacher can keep track of the different modules throughout the lesson plan. 

It outlines the tasks and activities involved in the lesson, the objective of the material being taught, a clear timeline of how the teacher and students will progress through the lesson, and a detailed list of the materials and resources to be used for the lesson. It also lets the students know how they will be assessed for each module and the lesson. You can use variations depending on whether the lesson will be done over a day, a week, or a couple of months. 

Why is Lesson Planning Important?

The purpose of creating a lesson plan is for the teacher to make the most out of their time with their students, ensuring they are as prepared as they can be. It also helps to adapt to unexpected issues as you progress through the lesson plan. It is a beneficial tool if you have students who learn at different speeds, allowing you to create a balanced plan that all students will understand. Each lesson plan that you create should build upon the previous lesson in a seamless manner.

Advantages of using a lesson plan

There are benefits for both teachers and students when using a well-planned lesson plan. Lesson plans will ensure the students’ success and contribute to the teacher’s success. Creating a successful lesson plan means that you, as an educator, have achieved your goal of supporting your students.

There are four ways in which a lesson plan can be beneficial:

Boosts your confidence

When you have a lesson plan, it lets you stay in control of how the lesson flows. This gives you more confidence in your ability to relay what is needed for each lesson. When you look confident, it inspires students, who can remain focused on what they are learning and stay on top of things.

Evaluate your lessons

Using a lesson plan allows you to review how well the plan worked. By evaluating the lesson plan, you can make changes that will improve your performance as a teacher. In addition, you can review the teaching methods you have used and see if a different method may work better for future planning.

Organization

The main goal of a lesson plan is to keep things organized so that the lesson doesn’t get off track. In addition, it gives you and your students a visual of the steps that will need to be followed as you move through the lesson. When a lesson is not organized correctly, it opens the door for students to fall behind, not understand the lesson, or misbehave due to a lack of focus.

A guide for substitute teachers

If you have ever had a substitute teacher fill in for a class, you may have seen that they were not adequately prepared, letting students have a free period rather than carry on with the lesson they were learning. A lesson plan is an excellent tool for substitute teachers because it lets them pick up where the original teacher left off.

Types: 5 Types of Lesson Plans

A lesson plan can vary from one class to the next and will depend upon some key factors, such as how complex the lesson is, whether you want to plan things far ahead, and the grade level of the students you teach.

There are five main types of the lesson plan that you can use:

A daily lesson plan covers what will be learned on each day of the week. This means that you will create five separate plans per school week. This type of lesson plan is best when you will be covering a different topic each day. It will outline the lesson’s objective and typically has an assessment after the lesson for that day to help see if the students understood the objective and the material taught.

A weekly lesson plan will cover one whole week and allow five consecutive periods to be covered and completed by the end of the week. This is a good lesson plan for topics that will take more than a day to cover. Materials and content are taught at the start of the week. Then, in the middle of the week, students will have the opportunity to implement what they have learned with a test or assessment at the end of the week to see how well the students have understood the material.

A unit lesson plan covers the duration from two weeks to two months, depending on the complexity of the class. In addition, a unit lesson plan covers a broader range of content and lets the teacher set the pace of learning by assessing how much time will be needed for each topic in the unit. This is a perfect lesson plan when you have to teach the same material to different class levels, allowing you to adjust time frames according to the student’s ability in different classes.

Content area

A content area lesson plan is best for teachers teaching several daily subjects. It allows you to create multiple plans, such as a plan for History, English, Math, Science, and so on. Elementary school teachers use this type of template because one teacher teaches all subjects in the same classroom. It allows them to outline each subject that they will teach their class. 

Grade level

A grade-level lesson plan is typically used for grades 6 to 12, where teachers teach the same subject for different grades. The lesson plan is set out differently for each grade level. For example, one teacher may teach 7 th -grade Math during the first part of the day and then teach 8 th -grade Math during the second part of the day. Each lesson plan is created specifically for those grade levels and contains different content.

Essentials of a Lesson Plan

As mentioned earlier, each lesson plan layout will differ from one teacher to the next, depending on what they are teaching. However, there are a few key components that every lesson plan should have:

Learning outcomes 

The learning outcome describes what you want the students to have learned as a result of what you will teach them.

Learning plan

The learning plan is the structure you will use, such as activity time frames, what role the students will play, what role the teacher will play, and the method you will use to teach the students, etc.

This will outline two things: before the class begins, you must determine what you will use as a baseline to assess the student’s understanding and knowledge of the covered topic. Then, after the lesson has concluded, you will need to determine how to assess the students to determine if the learning objectives are achieved.

Required materials

This section outlines what will be needed through each area and activity of the planned lesson, such as specific textbooks, internet access and computers to do research, a projector to teach part of the class, charts, newspaper articles, and worksheets for the students.

This is where you will evaluate how well the lesson plan worked for the students. You should determine whether the content or learning session was too easy or hard, whether the students were motivated, and whether they reached the goals set out for the lesson. A lesson plan helps you, as a teacher, to evaluate how well the lesson plan worked. It can show you the weak and strong areas of your lesson plan so that you can make adjustments for future lesson plans.

9 Steps to Create a Lesson Plan

Each school will have different requirements regarding what they want their teachers to cover in their lessons. You can also have different requirements for charter and private schools with different curricula; for example, a catholic school will include religious studies. Therefore, before you create your lesson plan, it is a good practice to have a word with your school administrators to know what needs to be covered.

Then, you can follow the following steps to create an effective lesson plan:

Step 1: Mention the grade level and subject

Your first step is to include the subject you will teach and the grade level the material is for. It gives clarity to anyone who wants to review your lesson plan, such as an administrator, to see what you will teach and to whom.

Step 2: Specify the type of lesson

The next step is to explain what lesson you will teach. This means specifying whether you are teaching an entire unit or teaching the parts of the lesson plan during one class period each week. 

Step 3: Write the duration of the lesson plan

In this step, you will be laying out how much time it will take to cover the entire lesson. Lessons can be taught during an entire class period or over a longer time frame, such as one class per week. It would be best to mention how long each teaching session would be.

Step 4: Mention the unit/topic

This element will explain the focus or subject of the lesson plan. This can be for the entire unit or can break down the unit into sub-sections; for example, if you are teaching a unit of Chemistry but will be teaching different aspects of Chemistry each week, your lesson plan would include the topic “Chemistry” and then weekly subtopics, such as “Chemistry – the periodic table”, “Chemistry – breakthroughs in history”, and so on.

Step 5: Compile the learning objectives and outcomes

This element is an essential part of a lesson plan. It outlines the goal/objective/outcome you expect your students to accomplish after the lesson. Your description should be written in a way that is easy for your students to understand and should be reviewed at the start of each class. One way to develop learning outcomes is using “Bloom’s Taxonomy”, which is based on three overlapping categories.

They are ordered by difficulty in 3 domains:

• Cognitive/Knowledge
• Affective/attitude
• Psychomotor/skills

The most accessible form of learning is the student’s recall, and the more complex form is the student’s ability to evaluate. Ask yourself these questions:

• What should your students expect to learn from the lesson you are teaching?
• What do you want your students to do after class?
• In what way will your students be able to apply what they have learned in the outside world?

Tip: The objective should be based on SMART criteria: S pecific, M easurable, A ttainable, R elevant, and T ime-based.

Step 6: Know your learners and select a teaching method

Always consider your students when creating a lesson plan. You need to know their grade level, learning ability, and what teaching method works best for them. For example, how you teach a class of 6th-grade students will differ from how you teach a class of 12th-grade students. In addition, you may have some classes for children with learning disabilities that need to be taught differently than a class of top-level students.

Here are some things to consider:

• In most classes, you will have a mix of students, some of whom work better independently and some who work better in a group. This can help you to plan out activities that will benefit both.
• Some students may have higher skills and knowledge about the topic you are teaching, whereas others won’t be familiar with the topic at all. Knowing this will help you when pairing students in groups to work together.
• The needs of each student are unique, and this is something that you need to consider when determining how much material you will include and how long each part will take.

Step 7: Plan your resources and materials

In this step, you will outline any materials needed or provided for the class and any resources students can use to help them through the lesson plan. An example would be a list of resources students can use to gather information or textbooks that will be supplied for that specific lesson. The purpose of this step is to make sure that your students are well-prepared for the lesson.

Step 8: Write the directions of what and how you will present

This step will take the most time of all the sections in a lesson plan. It should clearly explain what tasks you will be doing and what information you will teach. Your directions can be a minute-by-minute explanation or can be more generalized. An example would be explaining that you will spend the start of the lesson reading from a textbook, 20 minutes explaining the lesson, and then have a short quiz at the end of the class.

Step 9: Evaluate the lesson

An assessment is done after the class, and its primary goal is to determine how well your students have understood the material and topic of the lesson. This can be done as a question-and-answer session, a test, or a demonstration.

Tip: You must make sure that you leave enough time before the questions and answer session. You should plan at least 10 minutes at the end of each lesson to discuss what was learned. You can then ask questions to see how well the material was understood. It also gives the students a chance to ask their questions. Another option is to create small groups and assign each group to discuss one aspect of the lesson. 

Lesson Plan Free Templates

Having a lesson plan can make the lesson-planning process much more manageable. For this purpose, this website has provided free, downloadable, and customizable lesson plan templates. You can download these templates for your ease. These templates will ensure you do not spend too much time planning the lesson and do not forget to miss any essential information.

Attention-Required Points

You must be prepared for every eventuality when teaching a lesson and following your lesson plan. Here are some key points to help you:

Script out a lesson 

Scripting out a lesson can be helpful if you are feeling nervous about teaching a lesson, especially for the first time. Making a list of questions will help you to stay in control of the direction that your discussions will go in. In addition, as a teacher gains confidence in their teaching methods, they will be able to spend less time scripting their lesson. This allows them to spend more time teaching the lessons.

Allow for wiggle room

While a lesson plan can help you keep on track with your teaching, you should also leave some wiggle room as you plan. First, determine if there are tasks that can be skipped if the lesson lacks time. Next, determine what parts of the plan cannot be skipped, such as tasks that give your students the most information about the topic. Finally, you should also plan extra activities if the lesson ends earlier. 

Over-plan, the class

When it comes to teaching, having more tasks to do is better than sitting idle. A lot will depend on how well your students understand the lesson. If you have planned 25 minutes for one part of the lesson, try cutting this down to 20 minutes. If your students complete the lesson early, it will give you time to discuss what has been learned. 

Make it for a substitute teacher

A lesson plan should be created so that a substitute teacher understands. This will help them pick up where you have left, and it should be easy to understand the lesson’s objectives. If you are a teacher who likes to plan your lessons far in advance, having a simple lesson plan is a great way to refresh your memory when it comes time to teach this lesson. 

Form a backup plan

There will always be days when your class gets through a lesson quickly and days when it takes longer due to a lack of motivation. Test dates may need to be rescheduled, and planned activities can sometimes fall through. So, it would be best to have a backup plan for these situations. You should also plan some side lessons as an alternative if things do not go according to the plan. For example, if you planned a short film to watch as part of the lesson, and the projector is not working that day, you should have an alternative that will keep the flow of the lesson plan going.

Wrapping Up

As a teacher, you want your students to get the most out of the lessons that you are teaching. Creating effective lesson plans, having backup plans, and being flexible can help things run smoothly. In addition, as you advance in your teaching career, you will find new and inventive ways to motivate your students. This will help you best deliver the information you are teaching your students. 

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Small group lesson template: quick guide.

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How to Write an Effective Bible Study

Have you ever wanted to study a passage from the Bible that is particularly relevant or meaningful with your small group but didn’t know how to prepare a small group lesson on your own?

The goal of this guide is to give you a simple way to prepare a lesson that can lead to true life change in your group.

When preparing a small group lesson , it’s important to remember that your goal isn’t to come up with something that sounds impressive or shows off your knowledge about the Bible. Your goal is to help the group grow in their relationship with God through studying the Bible together.

The questions you ask about what you’re reading should point your group members to Jesus and help them look for answers in the Scripture. God’s Word is powerful and can transform lives.

Step 1: Determine Your Goals

What do you want your small group members to take away from the lesson? 

Answer the following questions: 

What do I want my group members to understand and believe? 

What do I want them to experience? 

How do I want them to respond to Jesus? (First in their hearts and minds, which leads to the change of attitudes and behavior.)

Step 2: Launch Question

Connect the study to real life.

To start, ask a question that will cultivate an interest in your study by raising a problem or issue that your passage from the Bible addresses. 

Your launch question should help your group members see their need for God to work in that area of their lives. Sometimes they may not see the connection to the passage right away, but it should become clearer as the lesson goes on. 

Step 3: Exploration Questions

Investigate the bible.

Survey the Big Picture: Give them a brief overview of the context of the Scripture they need in order to understand your passage. 

When and why was it written?

What happens in the passage before and after this one?

In what part of God’s story does it take place?  

Explore the Passage: God determines the meaning of a passage, and good questions help you discover what God said. You can group your questions according to the way the passage is divided in your Bible (e.g., Ephesians 4:1-6, 7-16). 

Here are three simple questions to keep in mind: 

What does it say (observation questions)? 

What does it mean (interpretation questions)? 

Why does it matter (significance questions)?  

Discover the Big Idea: Ask a question to help them catch the main point of the passage.

If you don’t know the answer to some or any of these questions, consult a good study Bible. 

And, remember, you aren’t determining what a passage means, you are responding to the discovery of that meaning.

Step 4: Application Questions

Lead them to a heart-level response to christ.

Remember that your teaching will be most effective when it is focused on the good news of God’s ultimate plan to rescue humanity through Jesus .

Through Scripture, God intends “to restore aspects of our brokenness (the messiness of us and the world) to spiritual wholeness (what He intended for us),” and this is the way God makes us to be more like Him and helps us enjoy our relationship with Him. 

We are dependent on God’s redemptive work — offering forgiveness through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for all we’ve done wrong — to not only become followers of Jesus but also for the process of becoming more like Him. 

Ask a couple of questions based on what you read that do the following:

Help the group picture what it would look like practically to live out the Bible passage you’re reading

Reveal your need for God to help them see how they experience the “spiritual brokenness” this passage reveals (i.e., some aspect of their sin or brokenness that requires the grace of God ). 

Point them to Jesus. What aspect of (the good news of) God’s grace do they need to believe and embrace in order to reflect and enjoy God’s glory?  

See an example of a Bible study written using this template →

Passage: ephesians 1:1-14 (new living translation), learning objectives.

What do I want my group members to understand and believe?

I want my group members to understand they are adopted by God into His family forever and are given incredible blessings from God, starting with the Holy Spirit. I want them to believe that God loves them and cares for them with the pure love of a perfect Father. 

What do I want them to experience?

I want my group members to experience joy in knowing they are the loved, chosen, adopted children of God. I want them to feel secure in their identity, knowing that what matters is being God’s child, not what other people think of them.

How do I want them to respond to Christ?

I want my group to delight in being in God’s family. I want them to understand the spiritual blessings we have in Christ, all of the good things God has given us in addition to forgiveness of sins, instead of seeing God as a means to an end (getting what they want in life). I want my group members to be moved to praise God as a result of the blessings He has for us in Christ. 

What motivates people to adopt a child? 

Observation (What does it say?)

What do you observe about the passage? 

What are some themes? 

What are some repeated phrases? 

How are themes of identity and power present in this passage? 

What does this passage say about the Trinity, God as three persons — God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit? 

What does Paul say about Jesus Christ, especially in relation to us? 

Interpretation (What does it mean?)

What does it mean to be adopted into God’s family (Verse 5)?

What is our “inheritance” from God (Verse 11)?

What does it mean that the Holy Spirit is a “guarantee” (some other versions translate it deposit or down payment) (Verse 14)?

How do the “spiritual blessings” God gives us and the inheritance we have in Christ lead us to praise God (Verses 5 and 14)

What important things did Paul want to communicate about what it means to be a child of God through this passage? 

If you had to summarize the main point of the passage in a sentence, what would you say? 

Apply (Why does it matter?)

Which of the spiritual blessings discussed in the passage do you identify with the most?

Which of the spiritual blessings discussed in the passage is the hardest to believe is true?

How does this passage inspire you to worship God?

How does being the loved, chosen, adopted child of God change the way you see yourself? 

How would your life look different if you lived like you were the treasured child of God? 

How can you remind yourself about your identity as a deeply loved child of God?

What’s Next?

Hopefully, this small group template is helpful to you. The main idea when leading your group in a Bible study is to point them to how the passage shows you your need for God and how perfectly and beautifully Jesus meets that need. 

Now it’s time to get started! 

First, choose a passage of the Bible that is meaningful to you and write a small group lesson using this template. 

Sign up to receive weekly tips about leading a small group or check out “(Almost) Everything You Need to Know About Leading a Small Group” . 

Printable Template

If you want, you can download or print this template .

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Small Group Reading Activities Poetry Small Group Lesson Plan Template

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Description

Are you looking for poetry small group reading activities? They also include poetry reading passages with comprehension questions and small group lesson plan template. These are great for your guided reading groups. These poetry small group lessons are for fluent readers (levels O-Z).

These lessons will tell what to do with your reading group before reading, during reading, and after reading. There are 3 readers' responses to go with each poem. There is also a genre and author's purpose sentence starter that you can use.

These lesson plans were made for Guided Reading groups but they can be done in whole group or independently.

There are 3 public domain poems with comprehension questions.

*Young Night Thought by Robert Louis Stevenson

*A Bird Came Down by Emily Dickinson

*Day and Night by James Stephens

Each poem has 5 comprehension questions, 1 open-ended and 4 multiple choice, written in the same format as the STAAR test. The TEKS for each question is listed on the answer key.

Standards covered include:

• Characteristics of poetry
• Inferences about text
• Summarize information
• Beginning reading strategies
• Sensory language

***************************************************************************

My Other Related Product:

Poetry Comprehension Test Prep

Poetry Comprehension Test Prep 2

You can get all three lessons as a bundle here:

Poetry Comprehension Bundle

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I hope you enjoy this lesson!

Jennifer Dowell

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Small Group Counseling Lesson Plan Template

Download this Small Group Counseling Lesson Plan Template Design in Word, Google Docs, PDF, Apple Pages Format. Easily Editable, Printable, Downloadable.

Count on this template to draft a Planning Tool that will govern how you establish a supportive network for your students' endeavors. This template outlines a detailed set of strategies that allow for an insightful group-based learning activity. Filling in the discretionary details is easy. If you wish to explore other perks, download a copy. 

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