Lesson Planning Methods

Methods for great sparks and closings:

A 'Do Now' is a quick, independent or collaborative activity that typically involves no (or minimal) guidance from the
teacher. A 'Do Now' can be used to activate students learning for the lesson, surface prior knowledge, and familiarize
Start with a Do students with lesson vocabulary.
Now

K-W-L charts are graphic organizers that help students organize information before, during, and after a unit or a
lesson. They can be used to engage students in a new topic, activate prior knowledge, share unit objectives, and
monitor students' learning. K stands for what the student knows. W stands for what the student wants to learn and L is
to be filled out at the end of the lesson as it stands for what students have learned in the classroom.
Use a KWL Chart

A Spectrum activity is extremely useful when students may have strong opinions/ beliefs about the content being
learned. In a spectrum activity, statements are read out and students are asked to move across the classroom to
express what they feel/ what they think about the statement/s.
Use a Spectrum This can also be used in the closing of the lesson to close the loop and see whether thinking has shifted.
Activity

Compelling/Big questions are a great way to generate excitement and build relevance in a topic.
Compelling big questions help students engage with their existing knowledge base and draw new patterns between
the ideas – there is no singular right answer. Some ideas of strong opening questions are as follows: How can
learning about other cultures teach us about our own? Is fair always equal? Is equal always fair?
Ask a compelling Big questions are also a great method to adopt for the closing of lessons.
question

Many strong lessons begin with quick activities.

While planning an activity, keep in mind that it should ideally be a quick spark in order to allow for sufficient time
for the INM, the GP, and the IP.
Also, keep in mind that a strong activity will serve as a spark for the content that is about to be learnt. It needs to
Start/ Close with an be aligned to the objective, the knowledge and skills of the lesson.
Activity/ A Game

Quizzes are a great way to begin a lesson. It helps students to start the lesson high on energy.
It also helps them connect learning to their previous lesson on the same topic.
Quizzes are best leveraged when the new knowledge that students are learning requires them to build upon
Start with a quiz to previously taught content and helps the teacher get a gauge of the same before the lesson begins.
recap

Engaging in reflection can be used effectively both at the start or at the end of a lesson.
Students can be asked to reflect at the beginning of a class to put down goals/ intentions and decide how they
would like to operate as learners. Reflection can also be used in the closing to get students to think about how
they operated during the class/ where they were on the SVS.
Reflection and consolidation can also be directly related to the lesson being learnt. Students can be asked to
Engage in
create mindmaps to synthesize information/ write down their key learnings from the space
Reflection

Launching an outside class challenge is a great way to close a lesson and can be used to build relevance in a
topic.
Using this method helps students take learning from the class and apply it outside the classroom as well.
While using this method, we must remember to be conscious of how many challenges we roll out per week and how
Launch an outside we close the loop on the same. They can be closed in the opening of the next lesson or in a morning meeting of
class challenge the day. Using the outside class challenge can help students grow on the India strand when the challenge helps
them contribute positively to people in the school/ community,
 Lesson Planning Methods
Methods for great Key Learning Activities:

A think-aloud is a common form of introducing new material. It is particularly effective when students are
learning a new skill and where it would be helpful for students to observe that skill being practiced before they
Teacher Model/ work on it on their own.
Think - Aloud

In classrooms where students are able to access reading material independently, having students read and
discuss in large groups is a helpful way to introduce new concepts to the class. As part of this method, students
engage in a large group reading as a class, which is heavily guided by the teacher. The teacher may ask
Read and discuss questions for students to share their opinion in the large group. This helps students engage with new material in
large group. a way that is gradual and has some level of teacher support.

Experiments can be used to introduce new ideas or to clarify puzzling aspects of topics with which students
typically struggle. Experiments work particularly well when a concept needs to be introduced to the class.
Depending on the culture of the classroom, the age of the students, and their level of independence, experiments
Experiment/ may be demonstrated by the teacher and observed by students or they may be carried out carefully by the
Demonstration teacher along with the students so that they are actively engaged in the process.

For many of the concepts that we teach, there are a wide variety of videos available online. In cases where the
topics we are teaching or visual in nature, it is helpful to introduce this through a video. While incorporating videos
Listen, Watch and and audios in our lessons, it is helpful to note that students may struggle with the speed or the level of the
make meaning language being used, and it is therefore helpful for the teacher to play an active role in ensuring that students are
together pausing at different points to make meaning of what they have heard/self monitor for their own understanding.

It is sometimes helpful to have students pair up/work in groups to perform the task that is being worked upon. This
ensures that while responsibility is gradually being released, students have a buddy/group to rely on as they are
practicing the new skill/learning the new concept. While getting students to work in groups it is important to
Partner/group
remember that students need to be taught explicitly how to work effectively in groups.
work

Worksheets and graphic organizers or great methods to strengthen the guided practice section of a lesson.
Graphic organizers ensure that students have a clear method to break down their thinking and express their
understanding.
Worksheets give students the opportunity to express their understanding in writing and practice the objective
Use a Worksheet multiple times.

Depending on the objective being taught, performing a task/creating a product may be more effective than
students filling out a worksheet. One example of this would be while teaching students how to use the
persuasive form of communication. In this case, one way to practice the skill of communicating persuasively
would be to get them to create an advertisement for a product in groups.
Create a Product

There are multiple ways to leverage technology and the use of tabs during the guided practice section of the
lesson. There are several learning apps that are freely available online for students to practice specific skills that
are being taught. For example, students may work on specific sums online as they are learning a mathematical
Have students skill. There are also websites that offer scientific simulation, for students to practice experimentation in a safe
work on Tabs and engaging way.

One really effective method of supporting students to work on their guided practice effectively is to provide
students with a checklist/criteria for them to monitor their own work. This method can be leveraged well in a
classroom where students are beginning to work well independently. One example of this would be providing a
Provide a Checklist/
checklist of things to look out for in a writing sample (capitalized alphabets, punctuation, tense, etc).
Criteria

Facilitating group work in stations is one of the more advanced methods that teachers use during guided
practice. This can be used specifically in cases where different students require different levels of practice to
match the rigor and mastery levels in the classroom. In a classroom, this would look like different students
Assign work in working on different tasks pitched at varying difficulty levels with the teacher supporting one group of learners.
Stations