How to Plan a Lesson: Step-by-Step Guide for Teachers

Lesson planning is the bedrock of effective teaching: great lesson plans can lead to great lessons. They can often act as a crutch too – reducing the likelihood of stress in a classroom setting.

This guide will walk you through a simple, seven-step framework for planning a lesson that is both impactful and time-efficient.

Key Takeaways

• Understand the Purpose: Lesson planning is a key teaching skill that improves student outcomes and helps manage behaviour by ensuring learners are engaged.

• Follow a Structured Process: A good lesson plan has seven steps: set a learning objective, use a starter, structure the main content for active practice, plan for differentiation, use formative assessments, end with a plenary and set meaningful homework.

• Focus on Student-Centred Learning: A lesson's core should be student practice, not just teacher talk. Use models like "I do, we do, you do" and make sure every activity contributes directly to the learning objective.

• Embrace Efficiency: Save time by planning lessons in batches, sharing resources with colleagues and using pre-made materials.

Why Lesson Planning Matters

The ultimate goal of all lessons is to improve student outcomes. By clearly defining learning objectives and aligning student activities to support these objectives, you can boost student learning. 

Good lesson plans can also pre-empt behavioural issues. Often, students misbehave if they are either bored or overwhelmed. Both can be mitigated by having differentiated resources.

Investing time in lesson planning also reduces workload in the future. After each lesson, make a note of what worked well and what didn’t – you will then be able to adapt and improve your lesson plans year after year. The Japanese word Kiazen (continued improvement) has never been more apt.

Key Components of an Effective Lesson Plan

Below are some essential elements that every good lesson plan should include. However, always consult your school’s teaching and learning policy before you plan a batch of lessons. It could be that there’s a key focus in your school, for example, improving literacy. If that’s the case, ensure your lessons reflect that goal too.

Learning objectives

What you want students to know, understand, or be able to do by the end of the lesson. 

Starter activity

A short task to hook students' attention and activate their prior knowledge. This is also an opportunity for differentiation.

Main activity

This is the core of the lesson, where new content is taught and practised. The key word is practised: active learning trumps passive learning – it’s essential that every lesson allows for students to, for example, create, problem solve, think-pair-share, peer teach etc.

Differentiation

Strategies to support and challenge all students, based on prior knowledge of the students and up-to-date data.

Assessment

Methods for checking students’ understanding throughout the lesson, such as the use of mini whiteboards.

Plenary

A final activity to consolidate learning – always link back to the lesson objectives.

Homework and follow-up

Tasks to reinforce classroom based learning. Research from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) (opens in a new tab) and other educational think tanks consistently finds a positive link between homework and academic achievement. Homework is especially effective when the tasks are directly connected to classroom work.

How to Plan a Lesson in 7 Simple Steps

Step 1 – Identify the Learning Objective

In an ideal world, what would your students learn that they didn’t know at the start of the lesson? This is your jumping off point. The rest of your lesson should point towards this goal.

Ensure your objective links directly to the National Curriculum, your subject area’s Scheme of 

Work, or the specific exam board’s requirements.

It’s also important that your learning objective is student-friendly and relatable. For example, "Students will be able to explain...", "Students will evaluate...", "Students will create...".

Step 2 – Choose a Hook or Starter Activity

The first few minutes can make or break a lesson. When you meet and greet the students, ensure they have a task to complete. This should link to prior knowledge or point students in the right direction for the lesson ahead. Ideally, the starter will be differentiated - more able, keen students have a tendency to arrive first, and you don’t want your best students becoming bored and restless.

Starter activities could include a quick quiz, a thought-provoking question or image, connect four (find the connection between seemingly unrelated images or words), or three truths and a lie (write down four statements based on the previous lesson and get students to identify the lie). Remember — students may do many subjects in a day. The starter is your chance to capture the students’ attention for your lesson. 

Step 3 – Structure the Main Teaching Activity

If you need to teach a new concept, do so clearly and concisely. For example, use a model answer to show students what success looks like, or practise the precise wording of an explanation. But don’t talk for too long – active learning needs to take place. This gives the students an opportunity to apply the new knowledge that they have just acquired. The "I do, we do, you do" model is particularly effective:

I do: The teacher models the skill or concept.

We do: The teacher and students practise together.

You do: Students work independently to improve their understanding. Encourage them to experiment and make mistakes.

Step 4 – Plan for Differentiation

Even in large, streamed classes, there will be a wide range of abilities and needs. It’s easy to talk about differentiation, but it’s very hard to execute well. But, AI definitely offers a shortcut to producing varied resources, such as extension tasks or challenge questions for high attaining students and glossaries or simplified versions of texts for students who need additional support.

Step 5 – Design Formative Assessment

Use formative assessment to check for understanding throughout the lesson and adjust your lesson as appropriate. Some quick wins include: thumbs up/down/sideways or a traffic light system. But, students can be crafty – ensure you follow up with a couple of quick fire questions, just to check that thumps up was, indeed, a thumbs up.

It’s vital your lesson plan does not become a straightjacket. If you unearth a misunderstanding of a previous topic that’s an essential building block for the current topic – stop. Use mini whiteboards to gauge the level of confusion, and pivot if necessary.

Ensure all students are involved by making it compulsory for each student to either ask or answer a question. In fact, encouraging students to ask questions is key to their success – when formulating questions, students are able to identify gaps in their own knowledge.

Step 6 – End with a Plenary

The plenary is your final opportunity to consolidate. It’s always worth reviewing the lesson objectives if you have time. Did the students achieve what you planned?

Exit Tickets can couple up as formative assessment and a plenary. A short question or task on a slip of paper at the end of the lesson provides a quick check and motivates students – who wants to be sent to the back of the queue?

Step 7 – Add Homework or Follow-Up

Every subject will be setting homework, so ensure you’re setting the right amount of homework and that it’s meaningful. If you’re teaching an examined subject, the homework needs to focus on improving students' knowledge and skills. That means consolidating what they have learned in the previous lesson or lessons.

Use homework to review difficult concepts, revise for an upcoming test, or prepare for the next lesson. Save My Exams’ test builder and exam-style questions are excellent tools for creating targeted homework tasks.

Incorporate homework setting into your lesson plan: don’t leave it until the last five minutes to give students the information they need.

Tips for Saving Time While Planning A Lesson

Batch planning

Planning in bulk will allow you to stay focused on one section of the curriculum at a time, which is likely to result in complementary lesson plans.

Share with your colleagues (and ask for their resources too)

Teachers shouldn’t be in competition with each other. Use high-quality, pre-made resources – don't reinvent the wheel.

Use Save My Exams resources like test builder, mock exams, flashcards and exam-style questions, which you can incorporate directly into your lesson plans.

Set realistic expectations

Spending hours looking for that perfect image is unlikely to improve student learning. Remember: there is no such thing as the perfect lesson plan.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Planning A Lesson

Overloading content: Don’t try to cover too much in one lesson. Of course, this is a goal and sometimes an unrealistic expectation. If you find yourself having to cram too much into one lesson, perhaps the Scheme of Work is at fault?

Not focusing on pace: a busy class is a happy class. 

Plan for transitions between activities: don’t leave dead space.

Not aligning activities with lesson objectives: Every activity in your lesson should feed into the learning objective.

Thinking too much about teacher activity rather than student activity: the lesson should be focused around student learning.

Forgetting behaviour routines: A clear plan should, for example, include routines for entering the room, settling down, and positive behaviour management. Ideally, you should make six positive comments for every one negative comment.

Final Thoughts

In summary, lesson planning can seem like an endless chore. But you reap what you sow. Create great lesson plans and, who knows, you could change a life forever.

References

• Education Endowment Foundation: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/homework (opens in a new tab) 

• NEU - Lesson planning: Tips for trainees: https://neu.org.uk/advice/member-groups/students-and-trainees/lesson-planning-tips-trainees (opens in a new tab)

• TELF Institute - https://teflinstitute.com/gb/blog/10-tips-for-effective-lesson-planning/ (opens in a new tab)