A lesson plan is a description on how to teach a particular subject.  It is used to aide in organizing the goals and objectives that you would like to be attained from the lesson.  Writing a lesson plan takes a little skill and time, but it can be learned.  As you embark on the journey of homeschooling learning how to develop and write a lesson plan should be on the list of things to know.

Upon writing a lesson plan, gather as much information as possible on the subject that you would like to teach.  Make a list of all of the facts, skills, concepts and vocabulary that will be covered.  Each lesson plan should be age and grade appropriate.


Categories in a Lesson Plan

Goals and Objectives- List all of your expectations in this area.  This section will serve as the building block of developing your lesson plan.  As you focus on your objectives, keep in mind to have attainable goals.  Ask yourself; what key concepts, skills and strategies do you expect the student to learn? How will you assess them to test their understanding?

Example -the lesson is on single digit addition; ask yourself these questions which in turn are your goals and objectives.

   1. What do I want the children to learn about single digit addition?
   2. How am I going to make sure they understand that addition means counting up?
   3. What methods could I use to determine their grasp of the concept?


Prerequisites- In this section you will list any prior experience or exposure the child should have had before you begin this new lesson.

Example- Can the children count?  How much experience have they had counting objects?  What is the highest number that they can count up to?


Instructional Procedure- (how you will teach the lesson) - Here you will list the ways in which you will teach the lesson.  The instructions should be a detailed description of how you would attain your goals and objectives, basically a step by step outline.  This part of the lesson plan is primarily to help you; the teacher, formulate the most effective way to get the lesson across to your student/students.


Example- You would like to introduce single addition to your student


Maybe you would tell a story of how a woman had five children and each child wanted a cookie but she only had three cookies, so she had to make more cookies so that each child could have one.  After the story you could give out little cookie cut-outs and ask the children to show you five cookies.  Once they have five cookies tell them to put three to the side, after they take the three away ask them how many remain.  Then you would introduce addition, asking them if you have three cookies how many more cookies would you need to have five.

Make sure to include all the vocabulary that you would like the student to be familiar with.

Example- addend and sum


Materials and Equipment- Write down all of the materials that you would need to effectively teach your lesson.

Example- Cookie cut-outs, abacus, worksheets, over-head projector, textbook, workbook, etc…


Assessment- This part of the lesson plan is very important, because developing an efficient way to gain knowledge on the understanding of the student, is imperative to realizing if your goals and objectives were met.  This can be done through a number of means; quizzes, oral discussion, tests, etc…


Example- Develop a quiz in which the student will have to add single digit numbers to get the sum.

This article is only meant to help in writing a lesson plan.  There are many aspects to a lesson plan and many different kinds of lesson plans; whichever one you chose to develop keep in mind to make sure that it is sufficient and meets your needs. Lesson planning will help to keep you organized and may make your teaching experience enjoyable.