This lesson plan template is annotated with instructions for its copy-and-edit completion. These instructions are each in an html table (like this one) and may be removed before submission for approval. For further instructions for the development of effective lesson plans see the instructor training material in the bibliography.
Every field marked with <replace>...</replace> must be replaced with the required info.
The Table of Contents title should normally match the title in the html header.

<replace>Lesson Plan Template (and Instructions)</replace>

These sections are the components of a lesson plan in traditional order.
To make lesson plan development easier for less experienced teachers, the components have been reordered to a more effective sequence for drafting an original lesson plan. The components should be reordered into traditional order before submission.
The definition should summarize the relevant knowledge, procedure, concept, or research in a single clear sentence. If the definition is not a single clear sentence, then the lesson plan author has not sufficiently identified the subject matter to begin writing a coherent lesson plan.
It is usually efficient to spend a day writing (and rewriting) a good definition before writing any other portion of the lesson plan. It is usually efficient to review (and possibly revise) the definition every day during lesson plan development.
The definition should be clear enough that after reading only the definition, and before taking the lesson, a teacher or student should be able to accurately judge whether or not the lesson is useful to their particular needs. The definition should be suitable for publication in a course catalog.

Definition

<replace>A lesson plan collects in written form, the resources needed by a teacher, to effectively help a student, learn the subject identified by the lesson plan definition.</replace>

Learning is a change in behavior as a result of experience. The objective identifies the change in behavior that should result. The objective should be suitable for publication in a course catalog. The stated objective traditionally completes the following: "At the end of this lesson, the student will be able ...".
After centuries of teaching experience and decades of cognitive science discoveries, there are four successive levels of behavior change. From lowest to highest they are
Rote
ability to recall some data when prompted
e.g. (Touch Typing) to name the home keys, "asdf hjkl"
e.g. (Web Browsing) to repeat given url, browser name, and login password
e.g. (Telephoning) to repeat a phone number
e.g. to repeat step-by-step, some action already walked through
Understanding
ability to explain intent and fill in details
e.g. (Touch Typing) to identify correct finger for each letter
e.g. (Web Browsing) to remember to login, identify browser, find url text area, and find submit key
e.g. (Telephoning) to recognize receiver, describe dial tone/busy tone, identify pad/dial numbers
Application
ability to perform with necessary adjustment to actual conditions
e.g. (Touch Typing) to smoothly use correct key for each letter
e.g. (Web Browsing) to login, open brownser, enter url, and download
e.g. (Telephoning) to pickup receiver, recognize dial tone, dial
Correlation
ability to select and use in new situations
e.g. (Touch Typing) to type casually as means of input
e.g. (Web Browsing) to browse in search of specific information
e.g. (Telephoning) to call someone by phone
The following examples use parenthetical remarks to place these exampes in context and are not part of the examples, nor should a lesson plan objective have such parentheses.
  • (rote) To learn my theatrical lines (by rote)
  • (understanding) To understand hard disk parameters (before buying one)
  • (application) To use kmail (to exchange mail with friends)
  • (correlation) To develop filesystem drivers (for new hardware I build

Objective

<replace>To assemble a lesson plan, that a teacher can apply to teaching students, to the level identified in the lesson plan objective.</replace>

Though traditionally placed at the end of a lesson plan, it is usually efficient to draft the completion standards, immediately after the definition and objective, and review and/or revise the completion standards occasionally during lesson plan development.
The completion standards must also fit into the syllabus that contains this lesson plan. Fitting this lesson plan into a syllabus may require revising the completion standards, objective, and definition, to meet the prerequisites of lesson plans that follow.
The completion standards identify measurable criteria by which to accurately judge successful learning and identify the nature of and need for further learning. The completion standards should distinguish between students who have learned to the level identified in the objective and those who have learned to a lesser level. The completion standards should identify students who have made common errors so they can learn correctly. The completion standards should adequately sample the material to be accurate.

Completion Standards

<replace> </replace>
The bibliography points the instructor (who is probably not the lesson plan author) and the student to all the resources they need for successful completion.
Because resources are updated, the bibliography should point to original sources rather than simply cache a copy. Because resources sometimes move without forwarding, the bibliography should include a cache, where legal and appropriate, in addition to the pointers.
The completion standards ultimately determine what is needed (directly or by dependence) in the lesson and what is not removed as an extraneous waste of student time.
Once the completion standards are drafted, it is usually efficient to assemble a draft bibliography. During lesson plan development, the bibliography will usually grow as elements are added. Though non-useful citations should be removed from the bibliography, it is common that as elements are removed, their citations remain useful as support for correcting common errors.

Bibliography

<replace> </replace>
The elements describe what the student should experience, the order, and an estimate of the time required for each experience.
Learning is always the result of the student's personal experience, and the student's perception of what they see, hear, ... during that experience. The teacher can reduce the time and resources required for learning by arranging what the student experiences, and pointing out meaningful relations between the sensations. The arrangement must be such that later elements don't require anything that doesn't come before. To the extent practical, the arrangement should be such that each element depends only on its immediate predecessors.
Every lesson should begin with an introduction that draws attention, motivates the student, and provides an overview. Every lesson should end with a summary that reinforces the learning. Between the introduction and summary, the bulk of the lesson organizes the student's experiences so the student can apply the target meaning to their sensations.
Centuries of teaching experience and decades of cognitive science have found that there are only a handful of lesson organizations that are effective.
Past to Present
Chronological order is effective when the information depends on its history.
e.g. 1990s El Torito CD booting standard reflects 1980s floppy boot layout which in turn reflects 1970s CP/M booting.
Simple to Complex
Increasing complexity order is effective teaching new information that applies to something already familiar.
e.g. Introducing a new mail user agent might start with reading and sending clear text mail with one recipient, and proceed through adding attachments, encryption, forwarding and lists.
Known to Unknown
Relating what the student already knows to something new is effective when a sufficient set of relations internal to what is known mirror the relations in what is new.
e.g. For basic opeation, mplayer is like a video cassette player with (>) play button, (||) pause button, and (<) rewind button.
Most Frequently Used to Least Frequently Used
e.g. How to view pictures might begin with display for gif and jpeg, proceed through xpdf and ghostview for pdf and postscript, and continue through dia and ksimus.
The choice of organization should ideally be the choice that produces the simplest and most linear set of elements.
Each element should include an estimate of its presentation time. In general, practice is the best way to estimate presentation time. Presentation times will become more accurate with repeated usage.
The time estimates in the development section below are typical lesson plan development times rather than delivery times.

Elements (<replace>known-to-unknown</replace>)

The student often has prior experience, called negative interference, that prevents proper perception. For example, an exterminator who understands the fragility of webs, may assume a corresponding fragility of 'the web' and tread too lightly.
With repeated usage, new errors will be added, and better corrections will be found.

Errors

<replace>I can teach a lesson without a written lesson plan.

"I don't need no stinkin' lesson plan."

Some programmers can write small programs, like perl one-liners, that are successfully executed immediately. We've all met many self-proclaimed programmers who are confident of their ability to write programs that are bugless from the start. Despite this, few if any of us, know programmers who can reliably write practical programs without saving them to a file and editting. A program that executes for an hour without repetition is too large to be understood all at once by any programmer. Consequently, such a program must be designed as a structure of smaller components.

Likewise teaching something small, like a single phone-number, requires no formal lesson plan. We've all been frustrated by trying to use what we learned from self-proclaimed teachers who were confident but ill-prepared. A 20min lesson is too long for any teacher to consider all student requirements and possible misinterpretations at once. Such a lesson must be organized and broken into elements that support each other.

A program that is not saved in a file is used by only one user and is limited to the skills of that one user. The utility of programming as an enterprise is its ability to encapsulate the skills of experts to be used by many. Likewise, a lesson plan that is unwritten is used by only one student and limited to the skills of that one teacher. A written lesson plan can be used by many teachers and can be updated with the experience of many teachers and students.

The presentation is enough.

The presentation is itself the lesson plan. Why should someone waste time on a lesson plan?

A computer uses binary code compiled from source code. The source code commentary is necessary to preparation, and update, but is stripped as extraneous from the executed binary. Likewise a lesson plan is necessary to preparation, and update, but is stripped from the presentation as unnecessary for the student.

Source code languages provide easy means to intermingle comments with the code to be compiled. Though there are presentation formats (like teachers edition annotation) that intermingle the lesson plan with a presentation, there is no defacto standard for such annotations. Consequently, at the current time, MDLUG uses the simpler separation of lesson plan and presentation.

I don't need all the lesson plan parts.

My lesson plan format is sufficient. I don't need to waste time assembling section ...

The lesson plan format in this document is minimally sufficient to meet the demonstrated requirements of effective teaching. Any other sufficient format should be trivial to restructure to this format.

Demonstrated lesson plan development of this format proves that one is capable of understanding the other lesson plans written and updated by others.

As MDLUG gains experience, MDLUG will update this template by changing the format details and perhaps adding more required sections, but effective teaching requirements will prevent removing any sections.

Why can't I include ... in my lesson plan?

You can. So long as the required sections are present and adequate, anything else likely to be useful is welcome. This template identifies only the minimum lesson plan requirements. </replace>

Equipment is the resources needed to teach the lesson.
This checklist is used by the instructor to prepare for the lesson. This checklist is also used to setup the classroom.
Some equipment, like diagrams, is often included in the lesson plan.
The sample presentation below is a convenient starting point for copy-and-edit.

Equipment

The instructor section describes the preparation necessary and presentation actions. The purpose of this section is to prevent unwelcome surprises during the lesson.
This section should be reviewed by the instructor before the lesson and before practicing the lesson.

Instructor

Before

During

Post

Successful learning requires student ability to experience the lesson, and understand the meanings to apply.
The student prerequisites must be measureable conditions that can be applied to determine if the student is ready for the lesson. If the student is not ready, the student prerequisites should indicate what is needed to ready the student for this lesson.
The student actions describe what the student must bring to the lesson, in order to prevent unwelcome surprises.

Student

Prerequisite

<replace>Read the teaching material in the bibliography.</replace>

During

<replace>Follow the directions in the annotations.</replace>

Post

<replace>Practice writing lesson plans.</replace>