The Secret to Successful Lesson Planning!
- Categories Lesson Planning, Teacher Tips & Tricks
- Date May 17, 2022
Abraham Lincoln once said: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” This quote highlights the importance and value of proper planning before executing a task.
However, as teachers know, the process of lesson planning has become increasingly administrative and demanding. The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) said a rising workload, described as unacceptable by 74% of those who responded to its survey, is contributing to increased stress and falling job satisfaction (Irish Examiner, March 28 2018).
Nevertheless, lesson planning is the bread and butter of teaching and learning – and never ends!
Why should you focus on improving your lesson planning?
Teacher’s perspective:
Better lesson planning → Better lessons → Increased job satisfaction → Happiness.
Student’s perspective:
Better lesson planning → Better lessons → Better classroom environment → Better outcomes = Increased confidence → Happiness.
This is a simplistic flow-chart which would make more sense as a web as both teacher and student perspectives feed into each other. Ultimately, planning is hugely important for you and your students and should not be ignored.
Let’s look at 5 tips to lesson plan like a BOSS!

1. Self-Assess your current practice
Before you try to change anything or adapt, it is crucial to reflect on what you are currently doing. A fantastic tool to help you do this (with lesson planning or any other aspect of your life!) is the STAR model. This is a coaching tool that can support your reflect and help you identify what the main issues are, what you would like to improve, how you will do it and by when.
S – Situation – What is the current situation? What does your lesson planning look like? How does this effect your lessons and life?
T – Task – What do you want to be different? What would you like to achieve?
A – Actions – What actions could you take? Brainstorm as many as you can!
R – Review – Pick 3 actions and a time-frame to review and evaluate.
2. Prioritise
The word priority came into the English language in the 1400’s and was singular – it meant the very first thing. Some of the comparable words for priority include urgency, significance, main concern, right of way. In the 1990’s it became plural. However, it is not practical to have multiple prioritise.
With effective lesson planning, it may not be possible to go in all guns blazing and revamp your lesson planning for all your classes (if secondary) or all your subjects (if primary) – you might need to sit down and make a decision on which ones will get your focus for this term or year. Rome was not built in a day – if you can focus on one area and gain confidence, then it will have a multiplier effect on other areas. This is better than trying to do everything, getting overwhelmed and ultimately doing nothing well.
So prioritise a group or subject and prioritise a time (2-3 hours per week or fortnight) and plan every 1-2 weeks’ worth of lessons.
3. Have a System or Structure
According to Albert Einstein, “Everything must be made as simple as possible. But not simpler.” In order to achieve balance in lesson planning and in lessons themselves, it is best to have a system. Of course, in teaching it is necessary to be flexible – as literally anything can happen to thwart your plans! Nevertheless, a system is solid and will help achieve consistency in the quality of lesson planning and lessons themselves.
Using a lesson plan and having a general structure to all of your lessons is a great habit to get into. It doesn’t mean that all your lessons have to be the same, but by creating some sort of consistent approach, it will make the planning process flow easier.
The KISS format for lesson planning was created by Rahoo and one that we advocate for its simplicity – we’re bias we know!

4. The Core Focus = Learning Objectives, Success Criteria & Questions
- You have self-assessed your current practice
- You have prioritised a group or subject
- You have chosen a structure
Next, each lesson or group of lessons needs an absolute focus or objective and success criteria must be created to support all learner abilities achieve success in the lesson. By differentiating the overall outcome, you can scaffold the learning and break the lesson into smaller, tangible steps. An easy way to do this is by separating outcomes into “All, Most, Some” or even just 1, 2 and 3. At the planning stage, you should create questions for each grouping that encourages higher order thinking and classroom discussion. You could use Bloom’s Taxonomy to help with this. Once you know what the goal is, you will know how to break it down and you will know what to ask to check learning.
5. Make it memorable
Why do we remember the words of lyrics we haven’t heard in years? Why do some experiences stick in our heads more than others? Something made them memorable!
Make your lessons stick by trying to make some aspect of it different. This could be as simple as playing music (we have played classical music when students were working independently in the past) or hooking them into the lesson with mystery tasks or controversial questions that spark debate.
When planning ask yourself: What can I do to make this lesson memorable?
We hope you found this article useful! If you would like any more information about how to improve your lesson planning, please check this out!
Learn more about Rahoo EPV Summer Courses HERE.

Virtual Conference for Teachers: NQT Picnic 27th July 2022
NQT Picnic is a specially designed online event for NQT’s in July 2022.
It is a daunting experience starting your very first teaching position – whether it is subbing or your own post! College seems like a long time ago now and you may be starting to feel a tad nervous.
Following the huge success of NQT Fest & Picnic in 2021, we are delighted to share this special event for NQT’s in July 2022 with you!

Free Resources for Teachers: End of School Year Activities
Free Resource for Teachers – End of School Year Activities!

11 Ideas for End of Year School Activities
What an exciting time of the year! Your main lessons and topics are complete and the pupils are getting excited for their summer holidays. It can be a challenging time to keep pupils engaged in classroom lessons due to exciting events on the horizon like school tours or sports days, so I like to keep things light and fun and still try to ensure the learning is taking place.

3 Things Teachers Should Know Before They Start Teaching
Ciara McGuane is the Summer Course Director for Rahoo.ie.
Her career highlights include being filmed by BBC London teaching in the classroom and guest-lecturing at the Institute of Education in London. She has worked as a teacher, school leader, teacher trainer and initial teacher training tutor prior to setting up Rahoo.

3 Classroom Management Mistakes to Avoid
This is always a hot topic for teachers and so important to get it right.
Here are some mistakes that teachers have shared with us when they did our EPV Summer Course on Classroom Management with Niamh Byrne, Irish Primary Teacher.
We have dipped in and out of the CPD course to learn what to do instead!

The Secret to Successful Lesson Planning!
Why do we remember the words of lyrics we haven’t heard in years? Why do some experiences stick in our heads more than others? Something made them memorable!
Make your lessons stick by trying to make some aspect of it different. This could be as simple as playing music (we have played classical music when students were working independently in the past) or hooking them into the lesson with mystery tasks or controversial questions that spark debate.
When planning ask yourself: What can I do to make this lesson memorable?
You may also like
