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Goals determine purpose, aim, and rationale for what you and your students will engage in during class time. Use this section to express the intermediate lesson goals that draw upon previous plans and activities and set the stage by preparing students for future activities and further knowledge acquisition. The goals are typically written as broad educational or unit goals adhering to State or National curriculum standards.

What are the broader objectives, aims, or goals of the unit plan/curriculum?
What are your goals for this unit?
What do you expect students to be able to do by the end of this unit?

This section focuses on what your students will do to acquire further knowledge and skills. The objectives for the daily lesson plan are drawn from the broader aims of the unit plan but are achieved over a well defined time period.

What will students be able to do during this lesson?
Under what conditions will students' performance be accomplished?
What is the degree or criterion on the basis of which satisfactory attainment of the objectives will be judged?
How will students demonstrate that they have learned and understood the objectives of the lesson?

Prerequisites can be useful when considering the readiness state of your students. Prerequisites allow you, and other teachers replicating your lesson plan, to factor in necessary prep activities to make sure that students can meet the lesson objectives.

What must students already be able to do before this lesson?
What concepts have to be mastered in advance to accomplish the lesson objectives?

This section has two functions: it helps other teachers quickly determine a) how much preparation time, resources, and management will be involved in carrying out this plan and b) what materials, books, equipment, and resources they will need to have ready. A complete list of materials, including full citations of textbooks or story books used, worksheets, and any other special considerations are most useful.

What materials will be needed?
What textbooks or story books are needed?
What needs to be prepared in advance? (handouts, etc.)

This section provides an opportunity for the author of the lesson to share some thoughts, experience, and advice with other teachers. It also provides a general overview of the lesson in terms of topic focus, activities, and purpose.

What is unique about this lesson?
How did your students like it?
What level of learning is covered by this lesson plan? (Think of Bloom's Taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, or evaluation.)

This section provides a detailed, step-by-step description of how to replicate the lesson and achieve lesson plan objectives. This is usually intended for the teacher and provides suggestions on how to proceed with implementation of the lesson plan. It also focuses on what the teacher should have students do during the lesson. This section is basically divided into several components: an introduction, a main activity, and closure. There are several elaborations on this.

· Introduction (Warm-ups, introduction or discussion about skill being learned)

How will you introduce the ideas and objectives of this lesson?
How will you get students' attention and motivate them in order to hold their attention?
How can you tie lesson objectives with student interests and past classroom activities?
What will be expected of students?

What is the focus of the lesson?
How would you describe the flow of the lesson to another teacher who will replicate it?
What does the teacher do to facilitate learning and manage the various activities?
What are some good and bad examples to illustrate what you are presenting to students?
How can this material be presented to ensure each student will benefit from the learning experience?

Rule of Thumb # 1:

Take into consideration what students are learning (a new skill, a rule or formula, a concept/fact/idea, an attitude, or a value).

Choose one of the following techniques to plan the lesson content based on what your objectives are:

Demonstration ==> list in detail and sequence of the steps to be performed
Explanation ==> outline the information to be explained
Discussion ==> list of key questions to guide the discussion

What will you use to draw the ideas together for students at the end?
How will you provide feedback to students to correct their misunderstandings and reinforce their learning?

What activities might you suggest for enrichment and remediation?
What lessons might follow as a result of this lesson?

This section focuses on ensuring that your students have arrived at their intended destination. You will need to gather some evidence that they did. This usually is done by gathering students' work and assessing this work using some kind of grading rubric that is based on lesson objectives. You could also replicate some of the activities practiced as part of the lesson, without providing the same level of guidance as during the lesson. You could always quiz students on various concepts and problems as well.

How will you evaluate the objectives that were identified?
Have students practiced what you are asking them to do for evaluation?