More than just an administrative task, a lesson plan stands behind good teaching
My teacher used to say, “if you fail to plan, then you are planning to fail”. This word once became a nightmare for me. During my micro-teaching class, I would not ever be allowed to do teaching practice when my teacher found my lesson plan was unclear or not structured. Lately, I have found that the words are so powerful as I realize that a good planning skill stands behind good teaching. As a blueprint of what the teacher will teach, the lesson plan includes a detailed implementation scenario that specifies what teachers do and what students are expected to do (Sapier, Haley-Speca, & Goower, 2008).
To me, a good lesson plan is not merely about teachers’ extraordinary planning skills. It, however, depends on the curriculum used in school. As teaching units are most often planned by teams of teachers who share the same grade level or subject area (Marshall, 2009), the curriculum is supposed to be a helpful resource to assist the teacher in designing lesson plans. A good curriculum specifies the “what” of teaching, including the understandings that students are expected to bear from instruction. Then, teachers are the ones who plan the “how” of lessons that need to be designed.
One thing that should be considered is that although some planning decisions are not applicable in specific courses and certain situations, the steps are always essential for planning regardless of the subjects. It allows the teachers to structurize the teaching and learning process and also leads to the teaching goals. Therefore, good planning should allow a bit of flexibility about the order in which a teacher addresses the issues and not all of them need to be addressed for a particular lesson (Sapier, Haley-Speca, & Goower, 2008). Meanwhile, as the inspector, principals should be hand in hand working with the teacher to improve students’ learning by nurturing and empowering the teachers. As (Marshall, 2009) says, if the principal collaborates with teacher teams on polishing each of those unit plans, there will be handsome dividends in the quality of teaching and learning.
Reference
Marshall, K. (2009). Rethinking Teacher Supervision and Evaluation. San Fransisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
Sapier, J., Haley-Speca, M. A., & Goower, R. (2008). The Skillful Teacher. MA: Research for Better Teaching.
