My lesson plans – and the concrete results of my lesson planning
– have changed greatly over the many years I have been teaching
and they continue to change every semester. They change because
me, my students, my students’ needs, my needs, and the tools I
work with have changed. It would be foolish if my planning
didn’t change as well. It’s an evolutionary process that I
explore in some depth HERE. When we are new to teaching, a
detailed lesson plan is essential because it gives us
confidence. By thinking of all the steps, all the procedures,
all the materials needed, all the types of interactions that
might take place along with predicting the time each activity
will last, we get the feeling of being ready for the lesson. By
thoroughly planning a lesson, we reduce the chances of being
caught off-guard — something that can be very frustrating to any
teacher, but that can be especially difficult to those new to
the job. No matter how long we’ve been teaching, though, it’s
always important to ask ourselves ques