Steps to Writing Good US History Lesson Plans

You shouldn't have to wrack your brain all summer coming up with new and innovative ways to structure your World War II lesson plans or Cold War lesson plans. Granted, you'll need to put some time and thought into it, but it shouldn't consume you when you should be enjoying your time off. After all, you'll need a good respite to help you prepare for the year ahead! Here are some steps to writing lesson plans that will help you formulate your plan of action.

- First and foremost, what are you required to teach? What are the school/state requirements for testing? How long do you have to teach certain sections, based on progress reports, exams, term schedules, etc.? What grade level are you teaching? What do you want to teach? (yes, this matters too). All of these are important questions you need to ask yourself before delving into writing your U.S. history lesson plans.

-Secondly, develop specific objectives so your lesson plans will teach exactly what you need them to. To be clear, these "objectives" aren't the activities themselves, but rather what you wish to gain by having your students do those activities. Include broad and narrow objectives to make sure all of your goals and requirements are met. Make the objectives measurable so you can assess whether they were met later.

-Make a list of the materials you'll need for each activity, whether you're doing Civil War or Cold War lesson plans. While you may not know exactly what you'll need until later, try to be as specific as possible now in case a substitute teacher needs to use your notes for preparation.

-You may choose to write an introduction to each lesson, outlining ways to draw students into the lesson before diving straight into the material. Make the introduction a brief, fun activity that leaves the students in anticipation of the lesson to come.

-After you've introduced the lesson and presented the material in a way that the students understand and appreciate, depending on the topic, you may need to demonstrate the material. After these procedures, allow time for independent or group work to test the students' knowledge of what was discussed that day.

-Finally, when you feel like you need a little help with your World War II lesson plans, for example, it's not a crime to buy pre-packed PowerPoint presentations and other helpful tools to help you present the information. In fact, it can be a very engaging way to present information to your students and offer you a variety of new resources to work with.

Article Source: http://www.marketingarticlebank.com

Written by Mel Bryson. MultiMedia Learning LLC provides us history lesson plans, cold war lesson plans and world war ii lesson plans through their unique PowerPoint® Presentation software. Students learn history through classroom social studies games and engaging technology. Learn more at www.multimedialearning.org .

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