Establishing Objectives for Your Lesson Plan

There are more than 3.1 million teachers working in the public school systems throughout the United States, and each one of those teachers is required to write dozens of lesson plans on a daily basis.

Though this has been a job requirement of teachers for years, but recently the process of creating an effective lesson plan has changed a bit. As a teacher today, you are required to do more than design a lesson plan that simply provides students with new information and helps get them excited about a specific topic. In a world of data-drive schools and mandatory state standards, you need to be able to create lesson plans with actionable objectives. It’s an overwhelming task, but these tips will make it easy for you to establish objectives for your lesson plans, regardless of the topic.

Begin By Looking at the Big Picture

Before you create a lesson plan for each individual day of the year, you need to establish goals for the entire year. This helps you to create a strong foundation with the individual lesson plans that will eventually be your building blocks for the year. According to the Teaching program at Colorado State University, you should set goals for the end of the year, and then identify which milestones or destinations you need to meet along the way. “The larger, overall course goals being fed by smaller Chapter, Section or Unit objectives, which in turn, are being fed by even smaller individual lesson plan objectives: the building blocks,” the Teaching at CSU website states.

Create an Outline for Possible Objectives

Brainstorming is the first step to establishing effective lesson objectives for your daily plans, according to Scholastic. Think out loud — you might feel a bit uncomfortable, but it can help you gather your thoughts as you begin to outline the objectives you want your students to meet. Some questions to consider during your own personal brainstorming session include:

• How can I best meet the needs of the individual students in this class through this lesson? Think about the different personalities, learning styles, strengths and weaknesses of the group you are working with.
• What strategy should I use with this particular lesson? There is no teaching strategy that can be broadly applied to every topic, so consider which will work best for the individual lesson you are working on at the time.
• How much time do I need to allocate? Timing is critical in accomplishing objectives.
• What resources will I need to use? Different types of lessons will require different resources. Technology, hands-on learning materials and other resources should be considered as you create objectives.

According to data collected by the Education at a Glance 2014: OECD indicators and published by the Huffington Post, American teachers spend more time in front of the classroom than teachers across the globe. If you are working in the United States, you are likely to spend an average of 1,131 hours teaching your students. This does not include your time spent planning, grading or working with after-school clubs and activities. This is why it is critical that you create lesson plans with solid objectives.

Know What an Objective Needs to Be

At its core, each objective must be actionable and measurable. Do not use subjective terms in your objectives, such as “understand” or “grasp the concept.” Each objective needs to consider the state standards that must be met, and must take into account the data that needs to be collected as a result of the lesson. The best objectives begin with the phrase: “By the end of this lesson, the student will…”

According to TeachOnline, these are the components your objective should have:

• A specific noun that the student will learn from the lesson.
• Establish the level of learning that is appropriate for the lesson.
• Select a verb for the objective that describes the objective.
• Add criteria that is necessary for the outcome of the objective.

Write Down the Objectives

Your objectives should be identified on your lesson plan as a goal and guideline for yourself. When using a template, know that you can customize the look and feel of your template, but make sure they are clearly located no matter how you design the page. This is particularly important in the event of an unexpected absence, as it allows a substitute teacher to evaluate your plans and immediately put them into action for you. With clear objectives written at the top of each lesson plan, each day is sure to be a success.

As teachers spend an average of 50 hours per week providing instruction and guidance to their students within the classroom, and another 12 hours each week preparing lessons and grading coursework, it comes as no surprise that many teachers wish that lesson planning could be simplified. “Unlike in other professions, the expectation for teachers is that much required work will take place at home, at night and on weekends,” the National Education Association website states. “For teachers, the day isn’t over when the dismissal bell rings.”

Luckily, teachers today can work with Planbook Plus. This is an innovative online lesson planning software that allows teachers to establish objectives, design lesson plans and effectively execute them. The software understands how lesson planning works and how it needs to be implemented, making it easy for teachers to plan for the entire year as well as for each hour of the school day. Find out more information by checking out Planbook Plus today.