There is nothing most teachers despise more than spending their Sunday afternoon writing detailed lesson plans to turn in to their administrators on Monday morning. But lesson plans should be seen as more than a necessary evil.
Lesson plans are one of the most important steps a teacher can take in making sure students make academic gains. On the most basic level, lesson plans are guides for teachers that contain objectives and teaching and learning activities, along with strategies to check student understanding (Milkova, 2021). However, there is more to lesson planning than just creating a guide. To create a truly effective lesson plan, teachers need to include non-traditional components that incorporate ethnic and cultural diversity to ensure a rigorous education for all students. “For instructional planning to truly make a difference for all learners, educators must consider how students’ differences affect learning and align pedagogies that effectively address those differences” (Kieran & Anderson, 2018, p. 2). To plan for cultural, ethnic, socioeconomic, or academic differences, the following strategies can be included in lesson plans:
Differentiation
Universal Design for Learning
Social-Emotional Learning
21st Century Skills
Inquiry
The following is an example of a lesson plan incorporates Universal Design for Learning.
References
Kieran, L. & Anderson, C. (2018). Connecting universal design for learning with culturally
responsive teaching. Education and Urban Society, 1–15.
Milkova, S. (2021). Strategies for effective lesson planning. Center for Research on Teaching
and Learning. https://crlt.umich.edu/gsis/p2_5
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