Lesson Plan Template
A lesson plan exists to answer one question before you stand up: what will students be able to do at the end of this that they could not do at the start, and how will you know.
Most templates fail by asking for everything. A twelve-box form produces plans that take forty minutes to write and are never opened again, which is why experienced teachers quietly abandon them and plan on a sticky note instead.
The version below is deliberately short. It has the parts that change what happens in the room, and nothing that only exists to be filed.
The six parts that do work
Everything else that appears on standard templates — standards codes, materials lists, vocabulary, homework — is administration. Keep it if your school requires it, but keep it in a separate block so it does not dilute the part you will actually reread at 8:40 in the morning.
| Part | What it answers | Typical length |
|---|---|---|
| Objective | What students can do afterwards | One sentence |
| Evidence | How you will know they can | One sentence |
| Hook | Why they should care in the first two minutes | 2–3 lines |
| Sequence | What happens, in order, with timings | 5–8 lines |
| Checks | Where you stop and find out if it is landing | 2–3 points |
| Differentiation | What changes for the students it will not land for | 2–3 lines |
Write the objective as a verb students perform
The most common weakness in a plan is an objective describing what the lesson covers rather than what students do. "Students will understand the water cycle" cannot be observed, cannot be assessed, and gives the lesson no shape.
The test is whether you could stand at the back of the room and see it happening. Label, sort, explain, predict, compare, construct, justify — all visible. Understand, appreciate, learn about, be exposed to — none of them.
Doing this properly usually shrinks the lesson, because a verb-shaped objective makes it obvious that you had planned three things and have time for one. That is the plan working, not failing.
Worked example: a 50-minute lesson
Objective: students can predict whether a given fraction pair is equivalent, and justify the prediction with a diagram or a multiplication.
Evidence: exit ticket — three pairs, one equivalent, two not; students mark each and give a reason for one.
Hook (4 min): two pizzas on the board cut into 3 and 6 slices. Whose share is bigger, 1/3 or 2/6? Hands up, no discussion yet, tally the room. The split in the tally is the lesson.
Sequence: model two pairs with the diagram method (8 min) → paired practice on four pairs, circulating (12 min) → whole-class check on the pair most got wrong (5 min) → model the multiplication shortcut against the same pair (6 min) → independent practice (10 min) → exit ticket (5 min).
Checks: after paired practice, ask three students to justify aloud; if fewer than two use the diagram correctly, reteach before the shortcut rather than after.
Differentiation: pre-cut fraction strips for the four students who struggled with the last unit; the extension pair get a set with unlike numerators to sort.
The student names, scores and incidents in this example are invented composites. Nothing here describes a real child.
How much detail to write
The right amount depends entirely on who reads it, and treating all three audiences the same is why planning eats evenings.
A plan only you will use can be six lines, because you carry the rest in your head. A plan for a substitute must be nearly a script, since it will be delivered by someone with no relationship to the class and no idea which student needs watching. A plan for an observation or evaluation sits in between and should make your reasoning visible, because the assessor is grading the thinking as much as the lesson.
Write the short version by default and expand only for the other two. Teachers who write observation-quality plans every day burn out on paperwork long before they burn out on teaching.
Timing, and the part everyone gets wrong
Almost every new teacher plans too much and every experienced one plans a buffer. The gap between them is not optimism about pace; it is knowing that the interesting part of a lesson is unschedulable.
Plan for about 75% of the period and mark one segment as the flexible one. When a check reveals that half the room is lost, the flexible segment is what you spend. When it reveals they have it, you move on early and the extension is ready.
Also write down where you would stop if the lesson ran out of time. Deciding that in advance is what stops a lesson ending mid-explanation with a bell, which is the version students remember and the version that costs you the next lesson.
Reusing plans without teaching a stale lesson
A plan is worth far more in its second year than its first, provided you annotate it in the fortnight after teaching it rather than the following August.
Three notes are enough: what took longer than planned, which check revealed a misconception you had not anticipated, and one thing you would cut. Written on the plan itself, those three lines are worth more than a redesign.
What does not transfer is the class. A plan that worked brilliantly with one group can fail with the next because the prior knowledge is different, which is why the checks matter more than the sequence — they are the part that adapts the plan to whoever is actually in front of you.
Frequently asked questions
An observable objective, the evidence you will collect, a hook, a timed sequence, checks for understanding and a differentiation note. Standards codes and materials lists are administration — keep them separate from the part you reread before the lesson.
Six lines for your own use, close to a script for a substitute, and something in between for an observation. Writing observation-quality plans daily is the fastest route to burning out on paperwork.
Use a verb you could watch a student perform — sort, predict, justify, construct. If you could not see it happening from the back of the room, it cannot be assessed and it will not shape the lesson.
About three quarters of the period, with one segment marked flexible. The flexible segment is what you spend when a check reveals half the class is lost, which is the situation planning exists for.