5 Practices Of A Good Math Lesson Plan

Today we are going to take time to look at the five parts that are considered to make up a good lesson plan in math.  Not all math groups need the same type of lesson plan or your administration might tell you what they want to see.  I pick and choose depending on where my students are and which grade I'm working with.

Overall, most people want to see a lesson plan that has students actively involved with learning. So the first step is determine what should be taught.  This can be done by asking yourself what the students should know and what they need to learn. You should also ask yourself how students are able to show they know something.  You might get a bunch of rich math tasks that allow students an easy entry but are quite interesting.

One thing to do is to think about how students will solve a problem.  For example, so many of my student automatically do the opposite to any numbers on the same side rather than combining them.  I have to watch out for that.  Basically you want to know how the students will do it, how will they do it, and what misconceptions will they have with the concept.

Next, think about monitoring students and the strategies they will choose to use to solve those particular problems.  In other words, spend time identifying the strategies they use and how they solve the problems by going around to various groups and checking in with them.  This opens up the opportunity for a small group lesson or allow the teacher to share a few words to help students get back on the right path to solve the problem.

When students are done, decide which students should be allowed to share their work with the others.  When they share, they are practicing their communicating skills while explaining the why and how.  One should choose the work that meets the goals of what students should know and how they got it done. 

Furthermore, the teacher should take time to determine the sequence things should be taught in.  Sequencing can also refer to going from informal to formal, simple to sophisticated, common to unusual, and decide whether to address misconceptions immediately or later. No matter which sequencing is used, students should be able to see the connections. 

The final step is to have the teacher make connections either directly, or indirectly. This is when the teacher uses student work to see if the students are connecting the ideas or even use it to show what needs to be connected.  So these items are said to make a good lesson plan.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great weekend.