Lesson Plans, They're Important!

A lesson plan in science is very important due to the nature of experimentation that will ussually be incorporated into the class. Experiments often have multiple outcomes or unforseen events. Jumping into this type of a lesson without a guide can lead to disaster.Using a lesson plan, a teacher is able to develop a sort of step by step guide that attempts to prevent the failure of a lesson. When applied to experiments in the class room, a lesson plan can be both a reminder on where you want your experiment to lead the students, and an outline for you to make sure that you are addressing all the problems that you wish to confront the students with. It is both a goal setter and a self check tool all rolled up into one. For instance, you would probably never willingly jump into an experiment unprepared. But how can prove that you are ready to administer the experiment? There are so many variables to take into account. Do you have all the materials you need, how about knowledge of the experiment's inner workings or various outcomes? What happens if your lesson ends up suffering from time constraints, unforseen events, or mischievous students? Completing a lesson plan before hand will allow you a better look at time management and even the more important details of the day if you end up having to cut some activities short. On the other hand, some other questions may pertain to you and how effectively you ahve done your job. Was the lesson understood successfully by the students? Did you end up accomplishing the goals of the lesson or experiment? Was the lesson appropriate and useful or was it just meaningless garbage? Or more importantly, do you understand what you just had your class do? Lesson plans provide a clear outline to make sure that your lesson conforms to the frameworks, and therefore is judged to be full of sufficent and effective material. They also make sure to outline the goals you have set for your students and the lesson, as well as provide an a tool to assess your lesson with.

The most important things to consider when writing a lesson plan for an elementary science lesson are the questions, "Is the lesson appropriate for the age group", "Is the lesson going to teach needed material", "What are the goals of the lesson", "Can the lesson and its concepts be easily understood by the class", "What resources will be needed to carry out the lesson", "What interuptions might come up that will negatively impact the lesson and how do I get around them", "Are any of the aspects of the lesson or experiment dangerous to the class and its members", "How will I carry out the lesson (from beginning to end)", "How do I know if the lesson was successful", "How do I know if I was successful"? This may seem to be a lot of questions to ask yourself. However, a lesson plan's format will ask most of these questions in one form or another. The point of the plan is to help make sure that you have addressed any possible problem that can be forseen in your lesson, and if a problem that is unforseen arises you will have sufficient material and planning to confront it.