assignment workshop lesson plan

• A step-by-step guide to planning a workshop

Going from a mere idea to a workshop that delivers results for your clients can feel like a daunting task. In this piece, we will shine a light on all the work behind the scenes and help you learn how to plan a workshop from start to finish.

On a good day, facilitation can feel like effortless magic, but that is mostly the result of backstage work, foresight, and a lot of careful planning. Read on to learn a step-by-step approach to breaking the process of planning a workshop into small, manageable chunks. 

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The flow starts with the first meeting with a client to define the purposes of a workshop. In other words, we are working on the assumption that the facilitator has already been chosen and hired for a job. 

It’s also possible that you are designing a workshop agenda you have ideated yourself. You have a topic to share with your audience, and potential participants in mind… great! You can still use the same process, although not all steps may be relevant to your case.

How to plan a workshop in four phases

We have divided the process of designing a workshop step-by-step into four sections. This structure is inspired by the insightful design methodology known as Dragon Dreaming, as codified by John Croft. The framework is an invitation to move in a structured way from dreaming to designing, from designing to doing, and from doing to celebrating and learning. In this workflow, we will go through similar steps, albeit much simplified and adapted to this specific example. If you find this categorization intriguing and you’d like to learn more, here is a page about Dragon Dreaming project design . The methodology originated in Australia, and you can see a wink to its origin in how the design turns counterclockwise! 

Each phase (vision, design, action and learning) is divided into subsections defining specific actions you need to take in planning your workshop. Each also includes a checkpoint with the client . These four meetings, plus a facilitation team meeting to draft the agenda, are described in detail in the accompanying Workshop Planning Template . In the template, you will find ideas and inspiration for five one-hour meetings in which to:

• draw out the overall vision and desired outcomes;
• define a draft schedule;
• get buy-in for the workshop agenda;
• check-in for a briefing before the actual workshop;
• run a retrospective after the event is over.

I see this process as a dance between working alone and co-designing with a client. In this dance, two different ways of working interact, from being alone at the desk surrounded by sticky notes, to talking things over and getting feedback, into a new iteration of the design, and so on. Successful workshops all start, as most things do, with a vision, and a conversation. Let’s take the first step! 

Phase 1 – Vision

Every project begins as an idea in somebody’s mind, which really starts to take shape once it’s shared with someone else. In the first part of the process, we cover how to lead conversations that will move the idea from the abstract to a more concrete realm. This process starts with a kick-off meeting attended by the facilitator, the client and, if applicable, other members of the team. To help you set it up, we have prepared a dedicated template complete with a workshop structure you can use to collect all the information from this visioning stage!

What are the desired outcomes of the workshop? Who will be the participants or what is your target audience? Once you have some initial answers to these questions, you can use them to shape a concept note, sign agreements, contracts and/or an MoU (memorandum of understanding). 

Sharing intentions

According to the State of Facilitation in 2023 report, a majority of facilitators find negotiating with clients and stakeholders quite the challenge. In the survey on which the report is based, we asked over 1100 professionals what was hard for them in the previous year. While the top challenge reported was “keeping up with the trends”, a series of matters more related to difficulties negotiating, designing and getting buy-in from stakeholders emerged as well. We hope the following workshop planning tips can help you overcome such obstacles. Learn more about trends in facilitation in 2023 and the art of running workshops in the State of Facilitation report!

Designing based on the “why” is a necessary premise to design workshops that will prove meaningful to participants and clients. Often, though, this “why” is not entirely clear from the get-go. A skilled facilitator will use a range of communication skills such as probing questions, active listening, and appreciative inquiry to clarify intentions. In most cases, it’s a matter of slowing the client down, and gently inquiring into their motivations. Run a mini-workshop with your client and transparently share what you are looking for. Time spent on this now will save time and resources by minimizing the risk of misunderstandings and re-writes later! There are four key elements I check for when looking for desired outcomes with the client at this very early stage:

(1) Non-negotiables. These are the boundaries for your design, the things that are set and cannot be changed. This might be, for example, the duration of the workshop, the location, or the list of participants.

(2) Tangible outcomes (aka deliverables). What needs to be produced, concretely, by the end of the workshop? Is it an action plan? A set of decisions? A report? Try to get as many details as possible on this requirement. If this point is not initially clear, invite your client to explore the future with their foresight and imagination: at the end of the workshop, what do they want to have that was not there before the start?

(3) Intangible outcomes. What intentions are connected to the workshop in the immaterial world of communications, connections and emotions? Mark down the keywords you hear your client use. Is it a matter of increasing networking opportunities and connections? Deepening trust? These “soft” outcomes can inspire and direct your choices of activities, setting and style.

(4) Levels of participation. If you are planning a workshop rather than a training event, I have found it very useful to introduce the concept of the ladder of participation to clients, early on in the design stage ( here is a version relating to citizen engagement ). This involves probing how much power is allocated to participants into shaping future choices. Will proposals selected by participants in your workshop be adopted directly? Is this a consultation process someone else will turn into a decision later? Or, perhaps, the workshop is meant to inform and get buy-in on choices that have already been made? All these scenarios are possible and valid, but it’s important to know which one your workshop falls into, so as to minimize the risk of disappointment or confusion.

Once you have collected this information, you probably have an idea of where you want your workshop to focus. All you need now is to figure out who is it for before drafting a concept note and initial agenda.

Defining the target audience

Once you have clarity about the desired outcomes, it’s time to focus on your hypothetical participants and your target audience. You may already have a list provided by the client, or it may be a completely open invitation. In any case, it’s a good idea to spend some time focussing, after the “why”, on the important question: “who?” Things that can be useful to consider doing at this stage, depending on the specific situation, include:

• Creating a “persona” for the workshop. Who will benefit? What are their needs, pain points, interests? Why will they come? This work will initially be based on your assumptions only, but it could lead to an exchange of information with your client to learn more. Here is a canvas from MediaLAB Amsterdam that can help you create a persona for your event.

Design persona   #frame insights   #create   #design   #issue analysis   Following a similar structure of the Persona method, give your design personality by creating a design persona. This can be through visual design, copy, and interactions. To be used w hen it is time to focus on product experience.

• Having interviews with potential participants that match your target audience to collect more information on their wants, needs and expectations. If you are able to contact participants before the workshop, aim to talk to a few. If key decision-makers will be in the room, it’s definitely a good idea to ask for a half-hour chat with them! 

Start by clarifying that you are talking to a few people in order to better prepare your workshop. Next, kick-start your exploration by asking them what their motivation for attending the workshop is. Listen carefully and take notes! It’s good practice to have a list of questions that will be the same for all your interviewees, but also let the conversation flow naturally. 

End the conversation by asking your interviewee whether they know of someone who should definitely be at the workshop, and add them to the list of potential invites!If time does not allow for 1:1 interviews, you can also consider sending your questions out via email. Finally, check back in with the client to ensure they have considered who should be there and whether any important stakeholders or potential workshop participants are being overlooked. 

In my personal practice, I do hold a commitment to widening representation and will often reach out to my clients with questions, for example, on gender balance or including underrepresented groups. Can we get more women’s voices in a conversation about the future of logistics and mobility? (The answer turned out to be yes!). In this urban planning process, will someone be speaking with the interests of elderly citizens in mind? And what about the children’s? At this stage, it’s also important to start making notes of any special needs. Does your persona include, for example, families with small children? Or people with mobility concerns? These considerations have a bearing on such key planning elements as your choice of venue, location, and timing. Successful workshops are those in which the needs of target attendees are considered and steps are taken to ensure participants can take part.

Drafting the initial concept 

Once you know the “why” and something around the “who” of a workshop, it’s time to start designing the “what”. What is needed at first is some clarity as to the main points of the agenda, not a detailed run-through. The client will probably have more feedback once things start to look concrete, and it’s not particularly fun to have to revisit the entire thing and do work twice. That is why I have found it good practice to keep the agenda still quite open at this stage. An initial concept draft for a successful workshop should contain:

• A summary of the desired outcomes;
• A list of benefits for participants (what are their pain points that this workshop will solve?);
• A list of learning/key objectives;
• A description of the main activities or building blocks of the workshop.

At this point, you’ll need to circle back to your client, share the draft with them and ask for feedback. In my experience, it’s a good idea to approach this step lightly, with curiosity, knowing you have done your homework but ready if necessary to change your entire concept around and pivot to something different. And if you still feel yourself having rigidity towards feedback, check out some useful feedback tips by learning expert Skye Suttie . 

Signing agreements

By the end of the vision phase, facilitators and clients should share a feeling of commitment and alignment. This is made visible and concrete through signing agreements, contracts and/or a memorandum of understanding (MoU). What exactly these contain varies greatly depending on circumstances and location, but here is a useful summary, complete with template examples of what your MoU might look like, from Malia Josephine over at the startup Facilitation Jobs . 

Phase 2 – Design

So now you have a draft outline of the workshop and an idea of who will participate. The next section is all about the nitty-gritty details of planning. Think of any other event, such as a family gathering or a wedding: there are a lot of things to consider so that everything will be ready when attendees arrive in the space you have designed and set up for them. It can be a very creative phase, if a bit solitary at times for the workshop leader! 

In the design stage, we are aiming to answer the question: how will this happen? This includes choosing dates and venues, drafting an agenda, creating a communication plan so that your workshop attendees will get the invite and join, populating a participant list, and refining your draft agenda into a detailed script. 

Establishing time and place

A workshop begins to feel like it’s really going to happen once the date and location are decided upon.

Whether you are scouting for a location yourself or not, you still need to clarify and communicate a list of requirements clearly. Don’t give anything for granted! List any needs such as accessibility, type of space, and equipment such as tables or presentation equipment. No location is going to be perfect, but the clearer your request, the closer to ideal you might get. 

If you’re running a virtual workshop, you still need to put it in the calendar and arrange for a virtual space to hold it in, such as a Zoom account and a whiteboard space. And if it’s hybrid, you’ll need to do both: scout for a location (with great wifi and acoustics, here you can read more about why that’s important ) and set up online resources as well. If you don’t know yet what kind of room setup you will need, take a look at our detailed guide here.

Once the location has been chosen and booked, make sure you have an understanding with the location manager of how your session will work and what they can expect. Will you be using masking tape to hang posters on the wall? Is that ok? How early do you expect to be at the location, and who will be there to open the doors? Will you need breakout spaces for smaller groups to work in? Will participants be milling around using outside spaces, which, and when? What about wifi use, passwords, and other tech needs? 

Having a persona in mind might help establish a schedule. Is this a personal development workshop that people sign up for as individuals (that will probably mean running it in the evening or on weekends?) Or is it going on at the workplace? When are employees free to attend, and what will not clash with previous engagements? Will it be a one-off thing or a series? Successful workshops take all this into account to ensure workshop participants can actually be there! If you are working on a series of meetings for participatory planning and would like to encourage a diverse attendance , it could be a good idea to switch times and dates around quite often, so that people with different jobs and schedules can fit at least one meeting in. And get a babysitting service, or have someone who works with youth set up a related workshop with the young ones.

Drafting the workshop agenda 

So now the word is out, and there is probably some time to wait before the workshop kick-off. This is the moment to sit down with yourself and work on the facilitation design. For many trainers and facilitators, this is a favorite part of the process. Here is where we create a detailed schedule, choose activities and methods and assemble them into a coherent flow. You’ll seek to create a workflow flow that balances group discussions, experiential activities and different learning styles in order to meet your workshop’s purpose. Proper planning and a structured process is a proven way of turning a workshop idea into a reality.

Using a workshop planning tool like SessionLab can make the task much easier and save you time in your process. A successful workshop is one with a clear structure that supports the learning process. With the Session Planner , you can easily drag and drop your content blocks to quickly build an effective flow.

I like to start by creating a skeleton of each item in the workshop agenda and then adding additional content once I feel confident in the flow.

SessionLab also ensures you stay in control of time while creating your workshop agenda. Add timing to each block to confidently plan for the time you have available. And when you make changes, SessionLab will automatically calculate your timing. It’s easy to iterate and plan the most effective workshop flow for your participants.

Need inspiration? Research and exploration into the methods library can help you find suitable activities for your session, as well as other online repositories of ideas such as this one by Untools.  

The actual process of creating a draft agenda is quite personal. You may be working on it completely alone (hopefully, with a hot or cold beverage of your choice, and plenty of time!) or with a co-facilitator.

Results from the State of Facilitation report indicate that facilitators like to work directly with online tools, such as SessionLab, others, me included, prefer to start with pen and paper… or by taking voice notes while taking a walk!

However you approach the matter, you are likely to do all of these things (and more!), while not necessarily in this order:

• Create a timeline, showing when your workshop starts, ends, and how long each section will last;
• Check your notes from meeting with the client, refer back to desired outcomes both tangible and intangible;
• Refer back to your interviews with participants, or any other information you may have collected from them, to pinpoint main needs and expectations;
• Brainstorm activities you believe will meet the client’s and the participants’ needs;
• Pick among those activities: which are “must-haves” and which are optional?
• Assess how much time each activity will take, and add a bit of buffer to account for the unexpected;
• Check that your activities are diverse enough to include people with different styles and approaches (e.g. by having both individual and group activities);
• Add essential opening and closing activities such as icebreakers and introductions at the beginning and feedback and drawing conclusions at the end
• Arrange them in a timeline;

And whatever you do, don’t forget to schedule some breaks! A successful workshop ensures that the workshop facilitator and all participants are able to participate and maintain their energy levels will learning new skills.

Refining the agenda

Once you have a solid agenda, it’s time once more to check in with the client. Run through the agenda together, checking that you share an understanding of what is going to happen, and making any needed tweaks and changes as you go. I always aim to share my reasoning with clients and share tidbits of facilitation along the way. 

If you’re using SessionLab, you can invite clients and stakeholders directly to your agenda so you discuss and co-create in real-time or asynchronously. Collaborating in one-place can really help ensure your workshop preparation is smooth and that your session will meet your goals.

Refining the agenda is the subject of the third client/facilitator meeting detailed in the template that goes with this piece. The first thing to do is restate the high-level purpose and objectives of the workshop, before going into a review of details. This process encourages clarity and alignment, as well as enabling the facilitator to check whether the proposed agenda is fit for purpose. 

This is also the stage in which, if I am facilitating a group discussions on a topic I am not familiar with, I’ll be doing research into that topic. Opinions about how knowledgeable, if at all, a facilitator should be about the topic under discussion vary greatly. Personally, my attention is on the dynamics of their conversation rather than on the content. Because of this, I don’t mind working with groups or companies who are talking about something I am not informed about. 

At the same time, I find it useful to have at least a beginner’s understanding of the discussion. To enable this, I will ask clients to send me some papers or links to study. Mainly, I will be looking for jargon and terminology: I want to have at least a sense of what people are talking about and what terms to use myself. I also try and get a sense of what in the field is clear, and what is contested or up for debate. Research can lead to changes to the agenda: in a recent workshop I chaired, reading some documentation led me to assume that terminology being used in the field was still not well-defined. Different stakeholders were using different terms to indicate the same things, or the same term to indicate different things! I checked in with the client to verify if this was indeed the case and we decided to add a section discussing terminology at the beginning of the workshop. We did not aim to settle the argument once and for all, but rather to share with participants the current state of the art in this particular industry and agree on what terms we would use for the duration of the workshop.  This is also a great time to reconsider the implications of your setting. If you’re running a virtual workshop, how will you encourage participants to take part and explore ideas in such an environment?

Creating a communications plan 

Whether you are opening the workshop for participants to enroll or whether it’s the host preparing a list of attendees, it’s likely someone will be working to create a buzz around the event.

Often this is not handled by the facilitator directly but rather by a communication agency or office. That said, do your part by preparing material for dissemination and helping make sure the news reaches the right ears. If you are not doing communication and enrollment yourself, avoid missteps (such as the advertising sending a message that is not aligned with your intention and design) by preparing such a brief well in advance. A basic communication plan for your workshop should include:

• How will people find out about the workshop? Where will it be advertised? Are there networks, groups or individuals that should be reached out to? 
• What should people know about the workshop in advance? Create a one or two-sentence description of the workshop to go out in communication channels and invitations. What is the workshop’s unique value? How can you entice people to be excited to join?
• How will people enroll in the workshop? And how can they find out more? Who should they contact to register, is it you, or the client, or should you set up an automatic registration service (such as Eventbrite )? What information do you need to collect upon registration? Do participants need to sign authorizations (e.g. for audio-video use)? Will they get a confirmation email? Automatically or through you/the client?

Establishing who will be there 

Many hands make light work: now that you have your detail agenda or script set out, you should have a clear sense of whether other people are needed to make it work. Will you need a tech host? An assistant to help with the practicalities? A video-maker? Photographer? Visual practitioner?  If you need to assemble a team, it makes sense to onboard them once you know the agenda and tasks they will take on.

The other aspect of establishing who will be there is having a final (or “almost final”… there are usually last-minute surprises!) participant list. Registration can also be an interesting opportunity to collect information on your workshop attendees that might inspire some final details of the design. When registering participants for a short (3-hour) leadership workshop for the international organization C40, besides asking for basic information such as names and emails, I added three optional questions concerning people’s motivation for joining, interesting initiatives they might like to share, and a blank space for “any other communications”. This process was useful for me to start to get a sense of who was going to be in the room and adapt my choices and language to the audience. Furthermore, these questions can kick-start the workshop long before it begins by asking participants to start reflecting on a certain topic.

Phase 3 – Running the workshop!

As the moment of running a workshop draws closer, there are some tasks to do that are very practical, having to do with implementing what has, up to now, existed in words only. This is the phase for getting things done : assembling materials, briefing your team and any speakers, taking care of your inner work and preparation and then, in a leap of faith…Trusting that all you’ve done is enough, finally doing away with plans, and going with the flow! 

Running workshops can be tough work, so in this section we’ve collected some tips for managing workshop attendees (and yourself) that should help running the workshop easier!

Assembling materials

Shopping time! The stationery shop is like a second home to most facilitators: it’s time to get your gear together and fill up boxes of sticky notes, posters, and marker pens. Now things are getting real! (And if you used SessionLab to plan your session, you’ll find a handy list of materials consolidated on the information page !) As the date of the workshop approaches, make sure you have all the materials you need ready at hand. This might include your presentations, virtual whiteboards, or physical goodies. I have found myself roaming Rome at dawn to get photocopies of materials in a neighborhood with no such services. Not fun! 

I often wonder how important is it to give participants printed handouts. On the one hand, let’s admit it, such materials don’t often get read. Printing is a waste of energy and paper and my sustainable-minded self would rather avoid it. 

On the other hand, printed materials might be a useful reference a long time after the workshop is over, and many people like to have something physical to hold onto and take notes on. You can also consider the option of having digital-format handouts to send to everyone before or after the workshop. 

Briefing team and speakers 

A few days before the workshop, set a briefing call with the client, your team and, if applicable, speakers or other guests. I have sometimes avoided doing this for the sake of efficiency… and usually regretted it. Even though it seems like everything is clear and smooth, by talking a workshop through, even in a brief 30 min meeting, something might emerge that needs attention.

If you have external speakers joining, e.g. for a keynote or presentation, remember they have not dedicated the amount of time and attention to this event that you have! Brief them on the intention behind the workshop and on the participants in the room, and discuss what will happen before and after their speech. As your star guests, they should feel welcome and well prepared. This will improve alignment and the overall experience for participants. When running a workshop with a team, it’s very important to know who will take care of what. Take the time to clearly define roles and responsibilities and add to the script the name of the people who will be, for example, presenting or tech hosting at a given time.

You might also have pre-workshop communication you want to send out to participants, perhaps to remind them of logistics or do some prep work. Always include a way to contact you (or someone from your team) if something happens at the last minute! 

Personal energy management

Once all the design and preparation are done, so much rests on the facilitator’s personal stance and attention. Here are some examples of things facilitators I know, or myself, do in terms of personal energy management:

• No work the day before and/or after an important event;
• Meditation and focussing activities;
• Spending time in nature, taking walks;
• Coaching session with trusted colleagues or a professional coach;
• Taking time to reflect on possible biases and on personal intentions. 

What do you do to prepare yourself before a workshop? Do you take time and space before the start to tend to your own needs? We’ve also been sharing this conversation in SessionLab’s community space: join us here.  

Going with the flow

Step by step, you have now reached this exceptional threshold. People have assembled in a physical or online space, which is equipped with all they need to learn and grow together. The workshop is about to begin! 

This is what all the preparation work was for: take a deep breath and delve into the agenda. Skilled facilitators know how to read the room, trust their instincts, and stick by the plan, or change it, depending on what is needed in the moment, here and now. 

Phase 4 – Learn

The workshop may be over but the work is not! Learning, celebrating and reflecting should take just as much of your time, energy and commitment as any one of the other phases. This is the step where we truly grow and become, with time and experience, wise and excellent facilitators! In this learning phase, we aim to close a cycle mirroring how it was opened. This means continuing a dialogue with our client and making time to think back together. Such reflections are too often swept aside in the hustle of business cycles. Yet, the more space we can make for them, the better. As we learn together, we consolidate trust and strengthen partnerships. Furthermore, reflecting and celebrating builds momentum for the next workshop cycle, which is often just around the corner! 

Agreements taken with your client might include your contribution to drafting a final report. And even if they don’t, it’s still a great idea, for your own records, to take some time to look back and write up a summary of what happened. It will be invaluable in time, e.g. when two years down the line a client calls you back to know: “Could you do that workshop again?” “What made this a successful workshop and what would you change in any future workshops?” A workshop report generally includes two main parts: one is about information, the other is focussed on learnings.

Report Part 1  – information on the workshop

The first is a collection of data about the workshop: when and where was the workshop held? How many people attended? What was the schedule? 

• Workshop concept 
• Agenda (you can use SessionLab to include a handy printout of the session agenda!)
• Data on attendees (e.g. how many people attended, and whatever data about them is relevant and can be shared)
• Pictures from the event

Report Part 2 – learnings from the workshop

The second part of the workshop report is more subjective. This is the place in which to include reflections on how it went , a summary of key conversations and discussions, recommendations, notes on methodology

• Reflections on the methodologies chosen
• Facilitator’s notes and observations
• Feedback received
• Key recommendations or decisions taken. 

Following-up

Presenting a report, and opening it for final revisions, is a great excuse to set up that precious follow-up meeting with your client. 

Reserve a chunk of time to look back at your work together and reflect: what went well? What would you change next time? This is a time for constructive feedback, expressing appreciation, and really taking care of the relationship. You can find some inspiration on what to include in such a meeting in the last part of our Planning a Workshop template . 

Besides following up with your client, you also may have some follow-up actions to take towards participants. Here are some ideas of what that may include:

• Sending certificates of attendance with the number of hours spent at the workshop and the main topics covered;
• Sending lists of extra materials, bibliographies, and resources ;
• Collecting feedback through a questionnaire;
• Inviting people to subscribe to your mailing list, follow you on social media, or in any case providing ways for them to stay in touch. 

And of course, if you haven’t done it yet, it’s also time to do that bit of life admin and send an invoice! 

Collecting learnings

The follow-up and reporting steps are mostly outward-facing, that is, you are writing for others . While you do that, probably some ideas and learnings will emerge that are about your work and practice. A collection of personal learnings can be the outcome of your own reflection or, if you are part of a community of practice or professional development program, of time spent debriefing the workshop with your peers, coach, or mentor.

I don’t always have as much time as I would like to properly debrief and collect learnings. At the very least, I take 15 minutes to think through this quick “Regret, Celebrate, Learn” process I learned from the Mediate your Life program. To do that, I quickly jot down some notes or a mental map in response to the following three questions:

• Regret – what happened at the workshop that I regret, am worried or sad about? How did I feel about that? Do I know why I did it (what needs was I trying to satisfy?) 
• Celebrate – what happened at the workshop that I really celebrate and am glad about? How did that feel? What needs of mine were met? 
• Learn – with those things in mind, are there any learning points I want to draw and remember? 

I might, for example, regret answering a participant’s question rather brusquely, and realize I did that because I was feeling rushed for time. At the same time, I might celebrate that I did take that person aside to check in with them during the break. This may lead me to remind myself to invite people who have off-topic questions to “park” them on a poster to answer at a later time. 

You may want to add some notes next to certain tools or methodologies you used: most workshops present an opportunity to do something slightly different next time. If you are using SessionLab, you can add these to a certain activity’s card, so you’ll find them waiting for you next time you pick the same method from your personal library . 

Celebrating

Celebrating can mean different things to different people. If I am traveling to/from the workshop, I consider that time spent on the train on my way back, taking notes on my diary, part of celebration. 

Plenty of other actions might help you feel like the circle is closed: taking a relaxing break, going out for dinner with your team members, buying yourself a little gift… whatever helps you keep your energy level high and integrate the experience into the flow of your life. Processing your reflections and giving them some time to settle is likely to lead straight to the next great idea. How about we took this learning from this workshop and did that with it? Time to start taking notes, because these thoughts are the sign that a new cycle of ideation is about to begin! 

Processing your reflections and giving them some time to settle is likely to lead straight to the next great idea.

In closing 

When I asked our in-house designer to come up with the illustration on the top of this article, it felt very appropriate to summarize the complicated process of designing a workshop into a single, perfect circle.

Now that it’s done, I realize it’s really not a circle at all, because once all the work is complete nobody, neither client nor facilitator nor participants, is in the same place they began from. The process of designing a workshop is actually like a spiral , that widens and opens each time we go around. By the end of all these steps, everyone will have changed in some way. Relationships will have formed, new ideas defined, and lessons learned.

At the start of the spiral, there is only an idea, which becomes a design as it is shared, consolidated and refined. The facilitator’s job is to turn it into an agenda, and go through all these steps, alone or with a team, to make it happen. By learning from all that took place, the flow will, in time, become more natural, fluid, almost second nature. My hope in setting it down in this piece is that it will help you along the journey.

Want to see an entire workshop journey in action and get help in putting together a water-tight agenda? Explore our workshop planning template to go through a proven agenda design process that will help you dazzle potential attendees.

Does this process describe how you have been designing your workshops? Did it give you new ideas? Leave a note in the comments, and join the discussion in our Community !

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Writing Workshop: Helping Writers Choose and Focus on a Topic

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This lesson, conducted in a workshop format, helps young writers bring greater focus to their writing. Students use a timeline to break a larger topic into several events or moments; then, each student selects an event to write about from the timeline. Students first work with a whole-class topic, then apply this strategy to self-selected topics. Students share their writing and respond constructively to one another's efforts. Finally, teacher–student conferences help students incorporate feedback and work on specific weaknesses.

Featured Resources

Journal Writing Idea s : This website offers a great list of topics that students may choose from for writing workshop. Make sure to gradually help students brainstorm and develop their own topics to write about. The focus of this lesson on is helping them to focus in on a specific event.

From Theory to Practice

• Even beginning writers can make decisions that affect the clarity and power of their message when they are aware of aspects that contribute to the effectiveness of a piece of writing (such as choosing a topic, making illustrations, maintaining focus, and using time sequence to organize).
• Listening to the sharing of ideas and consulting charts are especially helpful to students who experience difficulty selecting a topic.
• Sharing their writing helps students write with a specific audience in mind and reinforces the sense of being a part of a community of writers.

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
• 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

• Flipchart with paper and markers
• Pencils and crayons
• Portfolio binders or folders
• Journal paper with illustration box
• Lined paper

Preparation

To prepare for this lesson, it is important that students have a good understanding of the structure and expectations of a writing workshop.

• Students will gather at the start of each session for a short minilesson.
• Students will work independently and with partners or small groups to draw illustrations and create first drafts.
• As students draw and write, you will be holding one-on-one conferences to discuss each student's writing and to help with revisions.
• At the end of each workshop session, students gather to share their writing.

To prepare, it is also beneficial if students have a pool of self-selected topics to choose from. If you need to develop this pool of topics with students, a good place to start might be at the Journal Writing Ideas webpage. Depending on students' needs and abilities, you could share the entire list with them or present them with a shorter version of it. Of course, you will want to teach students strategies to find their own topics for writing. In this and subsequent workshop sessions, encourage students to add to their own topic lists.

Student Objectives

Students will

• Learn a strategy (i.e., timeline) to bring greater focus to their writing
• Explore ideas on a topic by creating detailed illustrations
• Write about selected events with focus and detail
• Participate as members of a writing community, offering feedback to peers throughout the writing process
• Reflect critically on their writing during conferences, making revisions in response to peer and teacher feedback

Note: This lesson should serve as part of an ongoing classroom workshop to develop writing abilities. Time estimates for each workshop segment are given in Session 1. As students become more familiar with the workshop setting and more proficient with the writing process, the session layout and the time given to each segment may be altered accordingly.

Minilesson Expect to spend about 15 minutes on the steps in this section. During subsequent writing workshops, you would spend the beginning of the session teaching other writing aspects that suit your students' needs.

Independent work. From the class-generated timeline, ask each student to select one event that he or she wants to write about. Have each student draw a picture of the event in the illustration box of the journal paper . (This should take 10–20 minutes depending on grade level and ability.) Explain that drawing is meant to help them "rehearse" for their writing. It is a chance for them to explore and work out their ideas about the event before writing. With less experienced writers, you may want to model how you move from selecting an event to creating a detailed drawing. Use the event you selected from your personal timeline as an example. Collaborative work. Have students work with partners or in small groups to share their drawings. (Allow 5–10 minutes for this step, depending again on students' needs.) Talking about their drawings further helps students prepare to write their pieces and often generates details they might not otherwise have included. Encourage students to add details to their drawings as a result of their conversations.

Sharing Gather as a class and spend 5–10 minutes having students share selected topics and drawings. Talk with students about how, in the next session, they are going to take these drawings and move to a piece of focused writing.

Independent work. Below the illustration box of the journal paper , each student should begin to write about the pictured event. Remind students to be specific and to include written details about what is happening in the story and in the picture. (As students progress in subsequent workshops, you may also want to make available additional lined paper for longer writing pieces.) Encourage students to use their drawings and their experiences for ideas when writing. What is taking place? Who's involved? Where is this happening? What sounds, sights, feelings might be involved? Collaborative work. Have students confer with one another, possibly with the same partners or in the same groups as before.

Conferences As students are writing and working together, conduct one-on-one teacher–student conferences. Each conference should take about 5–10 minutes. You may not have time to confer with every student in the same session; instead, plan to spread conferences across several workshop sessions.

Sharing Spend the remainder of the session on sharing and feedback. You may want to have students share in the order the events are listed on the timeline. Depending on the number of students in your class and their level of writing, additional sharing time may need to be scheduled in subsequent sessions. After each student reads his or her writing, make observations and provide feedback on the writing process. Ask other students to also share their feedback, which should include positive comments, thoughtful questions, and suggestions for improvement.

Having developed a shared topic and timeline as a class, it is essential that students apply these writing strategies (timeline creation and illustrations as rehearsal for writing) to topics of their own choosing. Minilesson At the start of the session, review the use of a timeline to break a general topic into several moments or events. Then, review how to consider the items on the timeline and select one to write about. (Refer to charts from Session 1 as necessary.) Timelines

Independent work. Have each student consult his or her own topic list, create a timeline on a self-selected topic, and choose a moment or event from this timeline for his or her next writing piece. If students finish early, they can try this strategy with other topics. Collaborative work. After students have created the timelines and have selected their events, have them meet with partners or in small groups to share this work and make changes.

Conferences As students work on their timelines, continue from where you left off with student–teacher conferences, keeping anecdotal records of student performance and allowing students time to make revisions. Sharing Have students share their timelines with the class. Encourage each presenter to talk about why he or she has selected a particular moment or event to write about.

Minilesson In a short minilesson, return to examples of drawing about a selected topic, then moving from drawing to writing. Again, younger writers may need modeling help with transitioning from drawing to writing. Independent/Collaborative Work Allow individual and group time for drawing and writing, as was done in Sessions 1 and 2. Depending on grade level and abilities, these steps might continue to be conducted across separate sessions. Conference s During the drawing and writing stages, continue to hold conferences with students. Sharing End the session with further opportunities for sharing and feedback.

In subsequent writing workshops, second-grade students may enjoy creating their timelines using the interactive Timeline tool. This tool allows students to sequence and describe events, and can be printed for reference before writing. If use of the online tool detracts from the purpose of the lesson (i.e., having students choose and focus on a topic), a handwritten timeline should be used instead.

Student Assessment / Reflections

Assess each student's ability to:

• Narrow a general topic into several events using a timeline
• Create a drawing and use it to support his or her writing
• Maintain focus in his or her writing

When assessing students, refer to their written work (timelines, drawings, and drafts) as well as your anecdotal records from conferences. You will want to ask questions such as the following:

• Has this student selected a topic?
• Has this student used a timeline effectively and selected a more focused event or moment within the broader topic?
• Has this student created a drawing that elaborates on the selected topic?
• Is this student's draft a focused piece of writing?
• For older students, is the piece written with added description and/or dialogue?

A rubric could be created with an area for students to reflect on questions such as those listed above and an area for your assessment of their work. Obviously, a rubric used for kindergartners will look different from one for second graders. A good rubric will be designed based on the work you have done with this particular group of students, your assessment of their strengths and needs, and the expectations you have for their writing.

This strategy guide explains the writing process and offers practical methods for applying it in your classroom to help students become proficient writers.

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Writer’s Workshop Middle School: The Ultimate Guide

Feb 23, 2021

Writer’s Workshop Middle School: The Ultimate Guide defines the writer’s workshop model, its essential components, pros and cons, step-by-step set-up, and further resources.

What is the writer’s workshop model?

Writer’s workshop is a method of teaching writing developed by Donald Graves and Donald Murray , amongst other teacher-researchers.

The writer’s workshop provides a student-centered environment where students are given time, choice, and voice in their learning. The teacher nurtures the class by creating and mentoring a community of writers.

So, why does the writer’s workshop in middle school matter?

Students learn more during the writer’s workshop because you can mentor them toward what they need to know and practice, and they have lots of time to write and read in order to improve at their own pace (to an extent). 

For example, if the skill I need to teach is how authors use mood and tone to create meaning , then I would use a mentor text to teach that concept. However, after reading, the focus will not be on answering questions about the text in written form. Instead, I demonstrate how writers choose particular words and the arrangement of those words to create a mood and tone. 

Students then try creating mood and tone with their own pieces of writing. Only after students have practiced their own creations, do I then circle back around to other literature for students to practice literary analysis of mood and tone and its effect on meaning.

Why I focus on writing in the ELA classroom?

I’ve found students are more likely to read assigned texts if I’ve given them a reason to use those texts. That reason? To apply what they learn from mentor texts to their choice writing. Middle school students love to express themselves in creative ways, and by giving students this choice, you build engagement and motivation to continue learning.

The essential components of the writer’s workshop in middle school are:

• Time to write daily 
• Student choice 
• Exploring the writer’s voice
• Building a community of writers
• Mentor teaching 

1. Time to Write Daily

Students need a chance to write daily. Various ways you can do this are through Bell Ringers at the beginning of the class, writing during the mini-lesson, and writing projects during workshop time. My students use writing journals because they need a space to think before they face a blank computer screen.

Students do read in my classes. However, their purpose for reading is to become better writers. This reading is either assigned, student choice, or a choice between the assigned reading and student choice, depending on the skill or concept I’m targeting that week. 

This is how I break up our daily writing:

• Write Now (bell ringer) 
• Mini-lesson and sharing 
• Writing/Reading Workshop while I confer with writers 
• Short turn and talk, log off computers and pack up 

Below is an example of my story writer’s workshop time transformation. This is what I use when we are writing narratives. I’m using a fantasy magic theme here:

2. Student Choice

To keep students motivated to write, you want to build in student choice whenever and wherever possible. Just to clarify, you don’t have to give them choices for everything they do. 

For one thing, that would be as overwhelming as shopping on the cereal aisle at your local grocery store. Just too many choices. 

When I introduce a concept, I may give them a few choices on how students can practice that concept. If I give them a writing assignment, I often allow them ONE choice in topic, genre, audience, or mode of writing. 

If you need students to complete an assignment/activity within a certain time period, tell them ahead of time. Let them know they can turn in an excerpt if they want to write something longer than you expect. 

Of course, this is not always possible. They need to learn how to write within certain time parameters. So, let them practice this through timed writings or word sprints .

One way to help students with choice is to have them do listing activities frequently. They could even have a section in their writing notebooks just for lists of ideas.  

3. Exploring the writer’s voice

Writer’s voice – that elusive term that most writers have no idea how to achieve until they’ve written for a while, and then finally realize they have it. The ultimate goal for me as a writing teacher is to help my students to find their voice.

I want students to be able to explore what is important to them personally and to explore how they can share this with others. From encouraging students to participate in small group sharing to author’s celebrations, students need the opportunity to see their writing voice matters.

There are so many different ways for kids to publish safely online – Edublogs, Adobe Spark, Google Sites, FlipGrid, etc. 

4. Building a community of writers in your writer’s workshop for middle school

Middle school students are very social, but even the quiet writers need to socialize often with other writers. This component of the writer’s workshop for middle school is what makes this model an actual workshop.

Students share their writing with each other. Usually, I allow for natural partnerships and groups to form. However, at the beginning of the year, I often pair up students for short activities. This helps everyone feel more comfortable with each other.   

One way I build a community of writers is to play the name game at the beginning of the year. We all stand in a circle and we toss a ball to each other and say our name and all the people who have had the ball tossed to them. It gets fun when students start to forget names. They all start out being self-conscious but end up laughing and smiling.  

Another way to build a community is during share time. I have students write in their notebooks as soon as they come into the classroom as a warm-up, starter activity that I call Write Nows. These Write Nows are projected up on the screen, and students write for 2-5 minutes. After this, I ask students to turn and talk to a neighbor about what they wrote. 

Sometimes this writing is a review of the previous day or another activity that goes along with the skill we are learning. Other times it is a prewriting activity that helps break writer’s block .

Write a Letter to your Students

To help students get to know me as a community member, I write a letter to them and they write back to me. This starts the relationship-building between my students and me within the first week, and I conference with the students about their letters. This also gets them into the swing of a writer’s workshop.

My students love this letter-writing activity that I’ve done every year for the past 24 years. It’s a hit every year and establishes the tone and mood of our workshop.

5. Teacher as Writing Mentor

One of the most important components of the writer’s workshop in middle school is you – the writing teacher.

To teach writing well, you should write along with your students. Over the years, I’ve written on transparencies, used a document camera, and filmed myself writing. All of these methods work. Generally, I write along with students during the bell-ringer activity, which I call Write Now, but sometimes I’ve prewritten the Write Now.

Additionally, I show students my various writing projects, both published and unpublished, during daily lessons.

My students have seen this blog, heard my podcasts , listened to me read aloud from stories I’ve written and/or published. My students are the ones who pushed me to publish my first YA books . You’ll be amazed at what you come up with and how this creates a bond with your students that lasts a lifetime.

Also, by completing the writing assignments you assign, you’ll be able to empathize with and anticipate the writer’s struggle with each assignment.

Terms to Know for Writing Workshop

This is not an exhaustive list, but one that will be added to as I find more terms that should be added here.

Activity:   the practice of a skill or process, especially when gaining new knowledge

Assignment: a product created by the student after practicing a skill or process that may be revised up until a particular due date

Bell ringer: a beginning of the period activity (I call these Write Nows in my class)

Blended learning environment: in-person LIVE teaching and learning or digital learning with recorded lessons

Conference: a meeting between teacher and student about their writing

Journal write:  handwriting in a journal for ideas, bell ringers, collecting information, etc.

Mini-lesson: a short 5-10 minute lesson that teaches either a whole or partial skill or process

Mastery Learning: quizzing students on their conceptual knowledge, giving them different activities based on the results of their quizzes – either reteach or extend – and quizzing again. Revisions can also be mastery-learning pieces. 

Mentor texts: well-written, multicultural texts used to demonstrate a literary concept or style

Rubric: a breakdown of the skill into levels of learning – students revise to earn a higher level

Writing Workshop Middle School Pros and Cons

• Builds student relationships with you and each other – lots of SEL
• Easier to differentiate for students than the traditional classroom model
• Grading can be accomplished during conferences
• Students are more engaged and begin to enjoy writing
• They might even enjoy reading more, too
• Mini-lessons are short, sweet and to the point, less prep time for presentations 
• Breaking through writer’s block
• Teaching students how to use the technology 
• Helping students revise if they don’t have access to technology
• Adapting to technology challenges that arise (switch to writing journals or change Internet browsers) 
• Deadlines can be difficult to manage sometimes

As far as time management is concerned – one of the things I am going to stress to my students is the need for getting assignments turned in, even if it’s not perfect. I need to be able to keep them to deadlines. So, this year, I’m going to teach my student’s Parkinson’s Law :

How to start a writer’s workshop for middle school

These are the steps I’m taking this year to start my writer’s workshop, and I’ve used these for quite a few years now. Some steps may be done simultaneously on the same day. There will be future blog posts about each of these steps.

• Create a welcoming classroom space.
• Decide what technology you will be using – hardware and software. If you need help with Canvas LMS, click here .
• Send out your course syllabus with materials students will need for your course.
• Create a course outline based on your school’s curriculum guides or state standards. 
• Plan and post your first 2 weeks of lessons and assignments into your online course (if you are using technology in your course).
• Establish classroom expectations and routines.
• Build a classroom community of writers.
• Show students how to navigate your course online.
• Write a letter to your students and have them write back to you as their first assignment.
• Confer with your writers as they are writing their letters and make a list for yourself of things students need to work on with their writing.
• Set up writing journals and begin writing workshop routines.
• During mini-lessons, teach the 5 tricks that break writer’s block .
• Students write in journals to gather ideas and begin writing pieces.
• Assign a short writing piece and confer with writers during workshop time. 
• Teach ONE revision strategy during a mini-lesson, depending on your curriculum.
• Teach ONE editing strategy during a mini-lesson, depending on your curriculum.
• Allow writers to revise and edit before turning in their first short writing assignment.
• Celebrate your writers with the Author’s Chair presentations.
• Continue writer’s workshop by using daily bell ringers, mini-lessons about writing and reading, sharing, writing/reading workshop, conferencing, and turn and talk.
• Breakaway from the writer’s workshop routine every once in a while to play – escape rooms, read-arounds, watch a movie, celebrate authors, group brainstorm, catching up on overdue assignments.

References for Writing Workshop in Middle School

Atwell, Nancie. In the Middle: A Lifetime of Learning about Writing, Reading, and Adolescence. Heinemann, 2014.

Graves, Donald H. “All Children Can Write.” http://www.ldonline.org/article/6204/  

Lane, Barry. After The End: Teaching and Learning Creative Revision. Heinemann, 2015.  

Murray, Donald. “The Listening Eye: Reflections on the Writing Conference”  https://secure.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/CE/1979/0411-sep1979/CE0411Listening.pdf

Learning materials for Writing Workshop for Middle School

Writing Literary & Informative Analysis Paragraphs

Students struggle with writing a literary analysis , especially in middle school as the text grows more rigorous, and the standards become more demanding. This resource is to help you scaffold your students through the process of writing literary analysis paragraphs for CCSS ELA-Literacy RL.6.1-10 for Reading Literature and RI.6.1-10 Reading Information. These paragraphs can be later grouped together into writing analytical essays.

PEEL, RACE, ACE, and all the other strategies did not work for all of my students all of the time, so that’s why I created these standards-based resources.

These standards-based writing activities for all Common Core Reading Literature and Informational standards help scaffold students through practice and repetition since these activities can be used over and over again with ANY literary reading materials.

Included in these resources:

• step-by-step lesson plans
• poster for literary skills taught in this resource
• rubrics for assessments standards-based
• vocabulary activities and notes standard-based
• graphic organizers that incorporate analysis of the literature and information standard-based
• paragraph frames for students who need extra scaffolding standard-based
• sentence stems to get students started sentence-by-sentence until they master how to write for each standard
• digital version that is Google SlidesTM compatible with all student worksheets

List Making: This resource helps students make 27 different lists of topics they could write about.

Sensory Details:  This resource will help you to teach your students to SHOW, not tell. Descriptive writing with a sensory details flipbook and engaging activities that will get your students thinking creatively and writing with style.

Included in this resource are 2 digital files:

• Lesson Plans PDF that includes step-by-step lesson plans, a grading rubric to make grading faster and easier, along with suggestions for what to do after mind mapping.
• Google SlidesTM version of the Student Digital Writer’s Notebook allows students endless amounts of writing simply by duplicating a slide.

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Mini-Lesson Plans: Template for Writers Workshop

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A mini-lesson plan is designed to focus in on one specific concept. Most mini-lessons last approximately 5 to 20 minutes and include a direct statement and model of the concept from the teacher followed by a class discussion and execution of the concept. Mini-lessons can be taught individually, in a small-group setting, or to a whole classroom.

A mini-lesson plan template is divided into seven sections: the main topic, materials, connections, direct instruction, guided practice (where you write how you actively engage your students), link (where you connect the lesson or concept to something else), independent work, and sharing.

Describe specifically what the lesson is about as well as what major point or points you will focus on in presenting the lesson. Another term for this is the objective —ensure that you know exactly why you are teaching this lesson. What do you need the students to know after the lesson is completed? After you're perfectly clear on the goal of the lesson, explain it in terms your students will understand.

Gather the materials you will need to teach the concept to the students. Nothing is more disruptive to the flow of a lesson than realizing you don't have all of the materials you will need. Student attention is sure to decline sharply if you have to excuse yourself to gather materials in the middle of a lesson.

Connections

Activate prior knowledge. This is where you talk about what you taught in a previous lesson. For example, you might say, "Yesterday we learned about..." and "Today we will learn about..."

Direct Instruction

Demonstrate your teaching points to the students. For example, you might say: "Let me show you how I..." and "One way I can do that is by..." During the lesson, ensure that you:

• Explain teaching points and give examples
• Model by demonstrating how students will achieve the task you are teaching
• Allow for guided practice, where you walk around the room and help students as they practice the concepts you are teaching

Active Engagement

During this phase of the mini-lesson , coach and assess the students. For example, you might start the active engagement portion by saying, "Now you are going to turn to your partner and..." Be sure that you have a short activity planned for this part of the lesson. 

This is where you will review key points and clarify if needed. For example, you might say, "Today I taught you..." and "Every time you read you are going to..."

Independent Work

Have students practice working independently using the information they just learned from your teaching points.

Come together again as a group and have students share what they learned.

• Students can do this independently, with a partner, or as part of the entire classroom group. 
• Ask students: "Did you use what you learned? Did it work? How will you use it next time? What types of things would you do differently?"
• Tie up any loose ends and use this time to further instruct.

You can also tie your mini-lesson into a ​ thematic unit  or if the topic warrants further discussion, you can beef up the mini-lesson by creating a full  lesson plan.

• How to Write a Lesson Plan
• Here's What You Need to Know About Lesson Plans
• Components of a Well-Written Lesson Plan
• Write Lesson Plans
• Writing a Lesson Plan: Guided Practice
• Writing a Lesson Plan: Independent Practice
• Writing a Lesson Plan: Direct Instruction
• Writing a Lesson Plan: Closure and Context
• Lesson Plan Step #8 - Assessment and Follow-Up
• Topics for a Lesson Plan Template
• Mini-Lessons to Upgrade Downtime
• Comparative Words Lesson Plan
• Writing Lesson Plans in the Self-Contained Classroom
• Methods for Presenting Subject Matter
• Teacher Interview Questions and Suggested Answers
• A Lesson Plan to Teach Rounding by 10s

Creating Lesson Plans

There are many approaches to writing lesson plans. Some instructors develop their plans independently from scratch, while others borrow plans from a shared curriculum. Some carefully write out all the details for their lesson, while others use a brief outline. Your approach to writing lesson plans will depend on various factors: how well you know the material you're teaching, how long you've been teaching, the kinds of teaching you've done, and the students you expect to have in your class. There is no single formula for writing lesson plans, but this guide will help you think through some of the processes that other instructors have found valuable to their own lesson planning.

Guidelines for writing lesson plans:

Consider Your Destination

Sequence your objectives, know your time frame.

• Create Activities to Meet Your Objectives

Check for Understanding

Sample lesson plan format.

• Citation Information

When creating lesson plans, always keep your destination in mind. Where do you want students to end up? If you're planning daily activities, think about how these activities connect to the larger goals for the course. Ask yourself, how will each activity prepare students for the upcoming portfolio assignment? Assuming that your assignment sheets accurately reflect the course goals, use them at the beginning of each unit to determine:

• What is the overall goal for this assignment? What is the assignment asking students to do?
• What knowledge do students already have that will help them meet the goals for writing this assignment?
• What skills and concepts will students need to meet the goals for this assignment?

From these questions, create a list of smaller objectives to use as stepping stones for your destination. If you are planning writing assignments for student portfolios, your list of objectives may include:

Portfolio 1 - Objectives for Teaching Summary/Response

• Students will think about their purpose, audience and context for writing.
• Students will use critical thinking skills and critical reading strategies to become better writers.
• Students will practice writing academic summaries.
• Students will practice writing different types of response.
• Students will learn to develop a claim and support that claim with reasons and evidence.
• Students will learn to value revision through workshops and other peer review activities.

While sequencing your objectives, consider how each one builds off another. How might one objective prepare students for learning another? If reading critically helps students summarize an argument, you might address your critical reading objective before teaching summary.

Also, think about what your students know. Given the information they already have, which objectives would be best met at certain points in the unit? Will simpler objectives work better at the start of a unit? Will more complicated objectives make clearer sense to students after some basic objectives have already been met?

Finally, determine how your sequencing of objectives will best meet these goals and requirements for the upcoming assignment.

While sequencing your objectives, be aware of the amount of time allotted for each portfolio. Based on the overall goals for the portfolio, determine how much time you will need to spend addressing each objective. Keep in mind that a single lesson will address only one or two objectives. Some of these goals will be easily met, while others will present a challenge for students. You may decide to build in extra time to review concepts that are more challenging.

Try to be flexible, but remain within a reasonable time frame. Spending three days on one essay may be too much (even if students are thrilled by the subject matter). One strategy to help you keep up your pace, is to utilize outside resources such as the CSU Writing Center or online tutorials. The Writing at CSU home page contains plenty of online resources as well. Use these resources to compliment discussions and save you some time in class.

Below is an example for how you might organize your sequence and time frame for the first student portfolio:

Portfolio I - Sequence and Time Frame for Objectives:

• Students will begin to think about their purpose, audience and context for writing. (day 1)
• Students will use critical thinking skills and critical reading strategies to become better writers. (day 2)
• Students will practice writing academic summaries. (days 3 - 4)
• Students will practice writing different types of response. (days 5 - 6)
• Students will learn to develop a claim and support that claim with reasons and evidence. (day 7)
• Students will learn to value revision through workshops and other peer- review activities. (day 8)

Develop Activities to Meet Objectives

Once you've sequenced your objectives within a given time frame, the next step is to create activities that will help students meet each objective. Decide which activities are most relevant to your desired objectives. Take the time to revise existing activities and to create new ones that meet the needs of your class. You may also combine activities or eliminate some that seem less related to your objectives.

Two questions that you should always keep in mind when constructing activities are: "What do my students already know that will help them meet a desired objective?" And, "What activities will best help students meet a desired objective?"

Below is an example illustrating how you might design activities to meet a particular objective:

Objective: Students will use critical thinking skills and critical reading strategies to become better writers.

Activities:

• Define critical reading and provide a list of strategies on an overhead (this is useful because many students do not know what critical reading is).
• Model critical reading strategies (show students how to implement critical reading strategies).
• Have students practice critical reading strategies with their homework.
• Ask students to respond to an in class writing, describing their experience with the critical reading assignment. Have them speculate as to how this process of critical reading will influence their own writing. As a group, discuss the connection between reading and writing.

Just as you did with objectives, you'll need to create a sequence and time frame for your activities. Which activities should come first? How much class time will each activity take? Planning this out ahead of time will help you create smoother transitions between activities and it will help you connect your activities to larger, writing-related objectives.

The final step in planning lessons is to make time for assessing students' learning. How will you check to see that students understand the new concepts you're teaching? When will you revisit the material that they didn't quite grasp?

Intervention along the way can help you learn what students are struggling with. Many instructors collect homework once a week, or assign quizzes and short writing exercises to assess their students' progress. Conferences and e-mail exchanges are other effective means for gauging students' understanding.

Depending on what you learn from using evaluative measures, you may need to revise your lesson plans. If students' homework indicates that they're having trouble summarizing main points, you may spend the first fifteen minutes of the next class reviewing this concept. Addressing such struggles early on will help students face the more challenging objectives that follow.

Just as you did with objectives, you'll need to create a sequence and time frame for your activities. Which activities should come first? How much class time will each activity take? Planning this out ahead of time will help you create smoother transitions between activities, and help you connect your activities to larger, writing-related objectives.

Course: Date: Materials needed: Class Announcements:

• Class Objectives: Write out the goals or objectives for class. Try to limit these to one or two things.
• Connection to Course Goals: Describe how your daily objectives connect to the overall course goals.
• Anticipatory Set: Sometimes referred to as a "hook." Use an informal Writing to Learn (WTL) exercise, a question, a quote, or an object to focus students' attention at the start of class. This activity should be brief and directly related to the lesson.
• Introduction: Write down what you'll need to inform students of the daily goals and class procedures. Be sure to explain how these procedures relate to students' own writing.
• Procedures: List your activities, including any discussion questions and transitions along the way.
• Conclusion: Describe the objective for the lesson and point students forward by connecting your objective to their own writing.
• What to do Next Time: Leave space in your plan to reflect on the lesson and suggest future changes.

Also see the guide on Planning a Class for help with writing introductions, transitions, and conclusions.

Eglin, Kerry. (2008). Creating Lesson Plans. Writing@CSU . Colorado State University. https://writing.colostate.edu/teaching/guide.cfm?guideid=96

The Write Stuff Teaching

Helping Teachers Inspire Learners

Writer’s Workshop in 2nd & 3rd Grade

Writer’s Workshop is a fantastic structure that you can put in place in your 2nd or 3rd-grade classroom to help you teach writing and to help students learn how to write. While it’s important that your students be taught explicit writing skills in order to move them forward in their writing development, It is equally important to create an environment to help them LOVE writing! Using a step-by-step writing unit will help your students scaffold learning to become confident writers.

Warming Up to Writing

Starting a writer’s workshop without front-loading a bit of curiosity-provoking and wonder may interest many of your students, however, it may not grab them all. We have all seen the students that we might refer to as “reluctant writers”. Those students can be tough to read. Why don’t they like writing? Another common sight is the students that plow through their writing and are either very proud of their work or ask you “Is this good enough?” (My most dreaded question.) Sometimes the kids that are proud of their work just need a little support with revision or editing, other times, there is so much writing but not a lot of thought was put into the process.

2nd and 3rd-grade writers need a strong introduction to writing before they can dive deep into the lessons, therefore, the first step in setting up your writer’s workshop lessons should be to find out who your writers are and what they like or don’t like about writing. I created an entire writing unit curriculum that begins right there. (If you would like to go straight to the resource, click here. )

Skill-based and Joyful

This writing unit curriculum aims to hook your writers from day one. It is aligned to CCSS and the Write Traits. You will find that it aligns with many state and province curricula as well due to the wide range of concepts and skills covered.

In order to help you determine your students’ thoughts and mindset around writing, you can begin with a survey on writing that is included in Unit 1 Beginning a Writing Program unit. This survey and an accompanying writing sample that is included in the set will help you to determine your class of writers and their needs.

Using these mentor texts and the lessons for each book will help your students learn that writing is personal and that everyone can write! Sometimes, writing is all about drawing and sharing the story behind the pictures.

Setting Up Writer’s Workshop

• Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk
• Ralph Tells a Story by Abby Hanlon
• The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli
• Chester’s Masterpiece by Melanie Watts

It’s really not as difficult to set up a writer’s workshop as you may think.

I have created a FREE Launching Writer’s Workshop resource to help you do just that! There are teacher notes on the process and a PowerPoint for you to use to introduce Writer’s Workshop to your class and also includes some blackline masters for student use.

Once it is set up and the framework is understood, teaching the lessons that are already written in a step-by-step format in the Writers Workshop Year Long Curriculum is a breeze. Just bring your enthusiasm!

Sentence Writing

Your second and third graders will learn what a sentence is and how to write a great sentence with the Unit 2 Sentence Building unit. Keep in mind that all units can be used as stand-alone units. If you have already taught sentence writing, you can move on to the next unit in the series. You can also use a unit to enhance what you are already doing or to give your students a boost. If you use the whole set, one unit after the other, the learning is scaffolded in a very organized fashion.

Write Trait focus: IDEAS

For unit 1, you will use the following mentor texts:

•   Rocket Writes a Story  by Tad Hills
• Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street  by Roni Schotter
• Punctuation Takes a Vacation  by Robin Pulver
• Little Red Writing  by Joan Holub

What Teachers are Saying

The following is just a sample of the feedback that this unit and the other units have received.

This resource promised to engage reluctant writers and it did just that. Also, I LOVE the mentor texts! This bundle is like taking a master class in teaching writing!

This is a really comprehensive product! I love how you added mentor texts, which will help my students make strong connections. Thank you!

My students are loving this unit. I bought this on Sunday and started to teach with it Monday. It is all ready to go. I even found the books at my local library as e-books and am projecting them on the Smartboard for all to see. Great resource!

This was such a great resource! The lessons are engaging and follow a really clear path to a finished product. I love these writing units- they’re age-appropriate and are written in a way where skills are broken down so that kids aren’t overwhelmed. Thank you!!

It’s important to teach your students both fiction and non-fiction writing throughout the year and not as a separate full unit. I used to start with story writing at the beginning of the year thinking it was easier. It was easier for some kids but to others, it wasn’t. Then I decided to switch it up and teach non-fiction first so that I could focus on having students make more real connections to their own lives and also give them a choice about what they wanted to write about. Students varied in who found which kind of writing was “easier” or more pleasant to write. The real “AH-HA” was when I intertwined the writing and taught fiction and non-fiction together, off and on, throughout the whole year. I was able to interest and engage the whole class in one way or another!

Organizing Writing

Whether you are writing fiction or non-fiction, students need to understand how to organize their writing so that it makes sense to the reader. The Unit 3 Research unit helps you to teach for the organization. Students will be writing small research reports and also some fiction.

The unit starts with looking at what organization is in the real world: ie. a clean kitchen, or a clean room with real photos, and then connects this to the organization in writing. (We always want real-world connections, don’t we?)

Write Trait focus: Organization

Skill Focus: Elements of Good Writing: Beginning, middle end, Introduction, Body, Conclusion

The mentor texts used in this used are:

•   Roberto the Insect Architect  by Nina Laden
•   Cats vs Dogs  by Elizabeth Carney (National Geographic)
•   Dog vs Cat  by Chris Gall
•   Stellaluna  by Janell Cannon

Students will have fun comparing cats and dogs and looking at fiction and non-fiction on the very same topics. As with many of my other teaching resources, there is always an element of social and emotional learning (SEL), and the reason I choose certain books. Stellaluna and Roberto the Insect Architect were chosen for those reasons.

The Unit 4 topic for writing is narratives. Students will look at memoirs and stories based on personal experiences like Chris Hatfield’s The Darkest Dark and develop their own understanding of writing narratives.

• The following mentor texts are used throughout the unit:
• Memoirs of a Hamster  by Devin Scillion
•   Our Tree Named Steve  by Alan Zweibel
• A Bear in War  by Stephanie Innes
• The Darkest Dark  by Chris Hadfield

Write Trait focus: Sentence Fluency

These are perfect books to not only help students understand narratives but also to showcase the power of writing a variety of different kinds of sentences. Sometimes short sentences are impactful. Other times, longer sentences are necessary.

The Unit 5 unit is all about procedural writing. Students will learn to write “how-to” pieces. While this seems like an easy thing to do, it really needs to be modeled and broken down into steps. The lessons in this unit show you how to do this quite easily.

Skill Focus: paragraph writing

You will be using the following mentor texts:

• The Plot Chickens  by Mary Jane and Herm Auch
• Meanwhile  by Jules Feiffer
• Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude  by Devin Scillion
• The Christmas Wish  by Lori Evert

These books go deeper into different writing styles and strategies as well as choosing different words for effect. Students are taken step by step into a simple paragraph writing lesson. Second grade can be young for paragraph writing but in my experience, many are beginning to learn this as they get more and more experience with daily writing through the use of this curriculum. By 3rd grade, students are feeling much more comfortable with learning to develop a paragraph. Part of the reason why is due to the incremental focus on skills from the beginning of the year onwards.

Author Studies

Any good writing program must include the use of quality children’s literature (mentor texts). This is how children learn about what it is about writing or a book or text that they find interesting. There are many different kinds of texts that students should be reading and writing but for this unit, let us just look at the power of Author Studies . That is the topic of the unit 6 set of this writing unit.

You might be wondering why I haven’t mentioned grammar skills or conventions. These are very important aspects of learning to write, however, it is much more effective to include these things as part of your teaching rather than as isolated lessons. Jeff Anderson (the original mentor sentences author) has stated that teaching students grammar starts with these mentor texts. Let’s have students look at the positive aspects of writing and then emulate them in their own writing.

• 50 Below Zero  by Robert Munsch
•   Scaredy Squirrel  by Melanie Watt
•   Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse  by Kevin Henkes
• Mr. Putter & Tabby Write the Book  by Cynthia Rylant

This is where author studies come in. This unit focuses on 4 authors and looks at their biography and their books. Students get to learn about who the authors are and what stands out in their writing. Students can identify what trait they think each author is strong in.

Write Trait focus: Word Choice (Students are also introduced to “voice” in writing and what it is.)

Narrative Writing: The Writing Process

Unit 7 is all about the writing process! Students will be putting everything they know about story elements, word choice, and writing sentences and paragraphs to practice. Students will learn to write great hooks, rich middles, and powerful endings. They will put it all together and then take a look at their writing with a revising eye.

It is my belief that students need not all be in the same place of the writing cycle at the same time. Some students may still be writing while others are editing with a peer. The whole point is that it is a process and the focus is on that: process . Throughout most of the year, the final product is not the destination.

You will need:

• I n My Heart  by Jo Witek
• The Story of Diva and Flea  by Mo Willems
• Mad Scientist Academy: The Weather Disaster  by Matthew McElligott
• The Lion Inside  by Rachel McBright

You will love these books! The Story of Diva and Flea is priceless. It is a short novel perfect for 2nd and 3rd graders.

Write trait focus: Voice (Students will use what they learned to add voice to their work. If you don’t have the previous unit, this one will fill in the gaps by using voice.)

Opinion Writing

In Unit 8 , (or any other time you need this), students will learn about opinion writing. It will be important to practice voice as that is what comes out when you are sharing your opinion. Students can learn that voice in opinion writing doesn’t mean raising their voice (!) but that how they choose words and expressions to write influences the reader or listener more than a raise in actual voice.

• Hey Little Ant  by Phillip Hoose
• The Perfect Pet  by Margie Pilantini
• The Night Gardener  by the Fan Brothers
• Henry & Leo  by Pamela Zagarenski

Write Trait focus: conventions, editing and revising

Students will engage with the books (that also have an SEL theme) and practice different opinion writing tasks. Students will give their opinion on the Perfect Pet and then conduct surveys throughout the class.

These writers’ workshop units are active. Students are encouraged to talk, move around and engage with the teacher and others in order to learn and grow their ideas and their own writing skills. Books are purposely chosen based on the time of year and/or the link to the focus skills.

While this poetry unit is part of Unit 9 of the writer’s workshop due to Poetry Month, it is my firm belief that poetry should happen all year long. Not only is poetry a powerful tool in learning to read, but kids also LOVE IT!

I am also a big believer in learning about and protecting the environment all year. April just also happens to be the month we find Earth Day . In order to be able to have a rich learning experience, I often integrate subjects. This month, students will be learning about poetry writing and the overriding theme of the unit is the environment. How great that students can be putting their heart, soul, and passion into writing and learning poetry through the thoughtful lens of protecting the Earth. Talk about working smarter, not harder and having a big impact!

You will need access to these fantastic books:

• The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle  by Alison Inches
• Our Big Home  by Linda Glaser
• Human Footprint  by Helen Kirk (National Geographic)
• Compost Stew  by Mary McKenna Siddals

Skill focus: oral language

Your students will enjoy learning all about different kinds of poetry. They will also follow the journey of the plastic bottle as it gets recycled. A human footprint is an important concept in the environment and students will learn what it is and write about their own footprint as it relates to the environment. As students learn about composting through the poetic verse of Mary McKenna Siddals, they will also write Haiku poems about worms!

Publishing and Presentation In Writer’s Workshop

Probably one of the most underrated aspects of learning to write is the celebrated world of presentation and publishing. You might not realize that you need this unit but wow what an impact this has on my little writers!

Whether you have used any other units in this Writing Unit set or not, you can use this unit to amplify your little writers’ voices.

We learn to write so we can communicate, express ourselves, and create. Therefore, this unit will explore all of these aspects as a way to celebrate writing. Students will learn all about different kinds of communication. They will use a maker space to create and generate writing ideas and they will write and present their final product.

Pre and post-assessments done by the student, their peers, and the teacher are included.

All Students Can Learn to Write

No matter what the challenges are, all students can learn to write. Remember, “writing” does not always involve a pencil. Adaptations can be made for students that experience the physical difficulty of writing or those that struggle with coming up with ideas or any other challenge. With the right mindset, everyone can be successful. I’ve written about this before here. If you have any questions or comments, please ask them in the comments section or feel free to email me at [email protected]

You can find the Year-long Writer’s Workshop and Writing Curriculum by clicking here.

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How to Write a Lesson Plan for Corporate Training

Table of Contents

The global e-learning market was growing at a fast pace even before COVID-19 hit. With a global pandemic, between 2020-2022, the elearning market has accelerated and the data predicts the market growing to $319 billion in value by 2029 (Source: Elearning Statistics ).

More and more people and corporations choose online education and training , not only because of its comfort and flexibility but also safety.

This trend encourages teachers to adjust to new conditions; most of them start thinking about creating and selling online courses , practicing distance schooling, or earning extra money by planning online lessons for corporate trainers.

But, the catch is that an effective lesson plan for online trainees is not the same as for traditional students.

In this article, we’ll show you how to write lesson plans for success. We’ll reveal the features and structure of a perfect lesson plan and share actionable tips on how to write a lesson plan for different groups of online learners.

What are Lesson Plans?

All educators and corporate trainers write lesson plans to ensure that they address the requirements of the curriculum (when in school or university), plan their teaching time effectively, and address student needs based on their prior knowledge and learning style.

When you work in a school or any other educational institution, they may have one general lesson plan template for teachers to fill in for lesson planning. But when you teach online , you’ll have to come up with those templates on your own, taking into consideration all the critical components we’ll discuss below.

As far as you’ll work with learners in virtual classrooms, you also need to think about how you’ll hold their attention during a lesson and what tricks you’ll use to motivate them to visit your next class and finish the course. (According to statistics, 93% of students give up online courses, and one of the reasons is because of their low-quality lessons!)

The Components of Lesson Plans

So, before you take a seat and start writing, make sure you know and include all the critical components of lesson planning.

They are seven, derived from the Hunter Model (named after Madeline Hunter, an education writer and UCLA professor, who initially developed it).

1 Learning objectives

Your students will be most motivated and learn best when they know what they are going to learn and why they need this knowledge. So, the first component of your lesson plan will be a specification of learning objectives — goals for your students and takeaways they’ll get after your lesson.

In plain English, it is the answer to the question, “What will my students be able to do after completing my lesson?”

It will allow you to specify clear lesson objectives. Based on them, you’ll understand what lesson model to use, what materials or tasks to give, and how to measure student success for better results.

As a way to make the process of writing your learning objectives more straightforward, feel free to use the strategy that we all know as S.M.A.R.T :

This model is standard for business and startup resources, but it also works in the context of lesson planning. The S.M.A.R.T. criteria suggest you specify the objectives that will be:

• Attainable by all students
• Relevant to your students
• Time-based, aligning with your syllabus

This worksheet from Wayne State University will help you specify learning objectives for your every lesson. Just fill it in, answering the questions on behalf of your students: What will my students achieve? How will they know when it’s done? And so on.

2 Anticipatory set

This component goes first in some lesson plan formats, as it refers to specifying something that will grab the students’ attention so they would get involved and excited about the upcoming lesson. For schools with a healthy environment for education , the anticipatory set becomes a mission; not only they strive to organize it in lessons but in the whole learning process in general.

But what is an anticipatory set in a lesson plan? An anticipatory set refers to a short activity the teacher will plan for to draw the students’ attention before the lesson begins. When writing your lesson plan, think about what it could be in your particular case: a question about their prior knowledge, a handout (for online courses, it becomes digital, of course), an example problem, etc.

The idea is to focus student attention on your lesson. So, when thinking about this component of your lesson plan, make sure your anticipation set is:

• relevant to the topic
• connected to the core part of your lesson
• followed by a transparent bridge to the learning objectives

Also, make sure your anticipatory set will reappear during a lesson, and you’ll refer back to it here and there. It will help students get the point.

3 Input modeling

This component refers to a lesson procedure. Often prepared as an essay outline , input modeling specifies the list of steps a teacher will follow to present learning materials. So, here you write about how your lesson will progress during your online course session.

What does a teacher need to specify?

• How you will introduce the topic to students.
• What materials you will use: a text lecture, videos, presentations, demonstrations, audio, pictures, etc.
• What activities you will initiate during a lesson to involve students and practice their knowledge.
• What real-life scenarios relating to the topic you can use.
• How much time you will spend on every thesis and activity during a lesson.

In plain English, input modeling is your step-by-step instructions for what you will do through a lesson, from the time students enter a class until the bell (real or virtual) rings.

4 Checking understanding

For a lesson to be successful, you’ll need to know if students understand what you’re saying. So please include some questions or any other signals in your lesson plan that you’ll use during a lesson to check the students’ understanding.

It can be simple questions such as, “Is everything clear?” or “Should I move forward or back up?”

Or, in the case with online courses, you can try the “answer before we proceed” tactic: for example, add a quiz or mini-exame before the next section. Once you’ve finished explaining the concept, provide students with a survey on the screen: They’ll see a question you’ve just discussed and a few variants of answers to choose. Once done, you continue a lesson.

Here’s what it looks like in The Science of Well-Being course from Yale University at Coursera:

5 Guided practice

These are exercises you’ll provide students so that they could demonstrate their grasp of new knowledge under your direct supervision. Consider the tripodal, see-hear-do approach when choosing the practices for this component of your lesson:

• See : a visual demonstration of how to do an exercise
• Hear : an audio (or your voice) explanation
• Do: your help while students do a task (you observe how they do it and provide recommendations if needed)

6 Independent practice

These are exercises or materials students will do and examine without the need for your supervision or intervention.

In traditional schools, it’s homework or seatwork assignments. In online courses, it may be homework as well as tests, lists of references and notes for further learning and self-study, actions to practice at home, etc.

No matter what you choose, make sure these exercises are relevant to learning objectives you’ve specified before, and remember to include this independent practice in your lesson plan.

And finally, here goes the last but not least component to include when writing your lesson plan: a closure. It’s a step when a teacher wraps all the things up, reviewing the main points of the lesson and asks if students have understood everything.

This component is like a concluding part of your essay or book: Think of a series of statements or actions that will help students bring the material together and organize their learning better.

And now that you know all the critical components to have in your lesson plan, let’s go to its overall structure.

The Structure of a Lesson Plan

Now it’s time to see how to structure a lesson plan. The top three items to include in your lesson plan are learning objectives, timing, and materials you’ll use. Depending on how much time you have and how many students are in a class, your lesson plans may vary.

The basic structure of a lesson plan is as follows:

• Warmer (5-7 minutes) : Get your students interested in what will happen in the class during a lesson; ask a question, come up with a creative name for your lesson, or provide them with some reviews so that they would get involved in the learning process.
• Presentation (up to 10 minutes) : Create the need for students to learn what you are going to present.
• Procedure (the remaining class time) : Prepare lesson materials you’ll use with students when learning the topic: digital handouts, videos, visuals, textbooks, some software platforms, etc.
• Practice (10-15 minutes) : Think about exercises and other activities your students will practice in the lesson with you, individually, or in groups.
• Review and assessment (5 minutes) : Think about how you will finish a lesson; write the takeaways for students to sum up their new knowledge.

Lesson Plans for Corporate Training

When it comes to writing lesson plans for corporate training , a teacher also needs a clear understanding of who their students are. As a rule, corporate training is for business development purposes, and organizations choose it for employees so they would grow the necessary skills. So the better you understand your trainees and their learning styles, the more efficient your lesson plans will be.

With that said, your first and foremost element of a lesson plan for corporate training will be the answer to the question:

“Who are my students?”

It includes their interests, learning styles, — are they visual, auditory, tactile, or a combination? — and any special needs they may require during your lessons. Make sure to know what online software they’ll use to train with you: Its features will allow you to get a better idea of what types of learning materials you’ll be able to use during lessons.

Also, please check if you understand what your corporate students already know. Their prior knowledge of your subject can help to plan lessons by far. Test them before the start of your online course, master class, or webinar to see their level and understand what topics or materials you’ll need to cover.

Based on all the above information in this article, your lesson plan for corporate training may center around the K.I.S.S. model :

• Choose learning objectives, depending on your trainees’ prior knowledge and learning style.
• Draft hooks or mini-lessons for them to get interested in what you’re going to teach.
• Make a list of necessary materials (consider the features of e-learning software you use) and guided/individual practices for your trainees, according to your timeline.
• Choose a few assessment methods for your trainees: quizzes, writing assignments, tests, marketing activities whenever relevant, etc.

So, How to Write a Lesson Plan

Long story short, here goes your step-by-step instruction on how to write lesson plans:

1) Write down the objective

If wondering how to write a lesson plan objective, think of a statement that would describe what your students will be able to do after completing your course. It needs to be short, simple, and up to a point. Think of it as a thesis statement : Outline the main ideas you want to cover in your lesson.

2) Write a lesson overview

Outline your lesson: what hook you will use to warm-up the students, what big ideas you’ll cover to explain the topic, etc.

3) Schedule your timeline

Break your lesson plan into sections, depending on how much time you have to cover the topic. Therefore you’ll know where you can speed up or slow down to control the process. For example:

And here go some actionable tips on how to prepare for your lesson better:

• Always gather all needed equipment and prepare materials in advance.
• Present material in small steps, providing students with practice after each block of information.
• Remember to review the students’ prior knowledge and do a recap of what you’ve learned with them before.
• Give them clear and detailed explanations.
• Ask questions, check for understanding, involve students in communication. Make sure you interact with all students in your group, and all students in your class participate in the learning process.
• Guide students during their first practice, and do your best to encourage them to practice more.
• Provide feedback. Don’t merely tell a student they are wrong but explain why and what they can do to correct their mistakes

All teachers, no matter if they educate online or offline, need to know how to put together a lesson plan to make sure their training sessions will run smoothly. Depending on students they teach and the timeline they have on their hands, educators set learning objectives, break the material up into sections, and choose learning activities that will be suitable for each trainee.

When looking for information on how to write a lesson plan, you may find tons of templates available online. Given that the basic format of a lesson plan has been around for years already, you can use those templates once or twice to get a general idea of lesson planning. And yet, you’ll have to adjust them to different classes, different training formats, and different student groups.

It’s critical to be flexible: Trainees are different, and they may respond to the same material differently. As a responsible teacher, you need to consider all the above-described aspects and determine the best format for your lesson plans to fit the students’ needs.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is an anticipatory set in a lesson plan.

An anticipatory set is a short activity the teacher will plan for to draw the students’ attention before the lesson begins. It might be a story, a video, or something else that will capture their interest and help them focus on the lesson.

How to put together a lesson plan?

When putting together a lesson plan, it’s important to first determine the learning objectives of the lesson. What do you want your students to learn? Once you have a good understanding of the learning objectives, you can then begin to brainstorm what materials and sections will be best suited for each trainee.

Keep in mind that not all trainees are the same, so it’s important to tailor the lesson plan specifically to their needs. For example, if one student is struggling with a certain topic, you might want to spend more time on that particular topic during the lesson. Conversely, if another student has already mastered that particular topic, you might want to move on quickly.

How to structure a lesson plan

When it comes to structuring a lesson plan, there are a few key things you need to keep in mind. First, you need to identify the objectives of the lesson. What do you hope your students will be able to accomplish by the end of it? Once you have the objectives in mind, you need to determine the needs of your students. What information or skills do they need in order to meet the objectives? Based on that, you can then start planning out your lesson.

Start with a lesson warmer. Present the lesson. Allow for some practise time. At the end, review the lesson and do any assessments required.

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Lesley J. Vos

Lesley Vos is a professional copywriter and guest contributor, currently blogging at Bid4Papers, a platform that helps students and authors with writing solutions. Specializing in data research, web text writing, and content promotion, she is in love with words, non-fiction literature, and jazz.

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Student Podcast Challenge

• Contest Website
• Submissions Form
• College Contest Rules
• Middle/High School Contest Rules
• Podcasting Resources
• Students’ Podcast

Teaching Podcasting: A Curriculum Guide for Educators

Whether you're leading your class or advising an extracurricular group, we hope this guide will make the podcasting process easier.

Below, you'll find a breakdown of the process and a series of sample lesson plans to ensure that students have the skills and background knowledge to start making a podcast.

For our contest, teachers must submit entries to NPR, but we expect that students themselves are the ones creating them. (Teachers: The submission form is here.)

That's why we've provided a guide for students, covering the same material, here .

Planning Instruction

We recommend dividing the project into stages, listed below. Of course, you and your students are the best judges of what works in your classroom.

Download this guide here.

Learning About Podcasting

• Lesson: Podcasting overview (Download)

Planning Your Podcast

• Lesson: Choosing a topic (Download)
• Lesson: Planning the story (Download)
• Lesson: Brainstorming sounds (Download)

Podcast Production

• Lesson: Recording Practice (Download)
• Lesson: Interview practice (Download)
• Resource: Checklist for field recording (Download)

Submission forms are available now through March 31. Teachers must fill out these forms to submit their students' work.

Podcasting overview, 60 minutes

Objective: Students will learn the difference between scripted and Q&A podcasts and familiarize themselves with a wide range of podcast topics.

What you need: A computer with speakers and an internet connection.

What students need: A pencil and paper.

This can be completed as a class activity or by breaking into groups, if students have access to computers or laptops.

Part 1: Gauging Student Knowledge

Start by spending five minutes in a class discussion about podcasts. Gauge what students know or don't know about them by asking a few questions.

• What's a podcast?

YR Media has a handy list of sounds that all podcasters should consider recording while planning their podcast. Scroll down to "what sounds to gather" on this page to find that list.

• What are podcasts about?
• Where can you hear podcasts?
• Why would YOU listen to a podcast?
• What makes a podcaster different from a YouTuber?
• How does it change the way you tell a story when you're on the phone? How does it change the way you listen when you can't see someone?

Part 2: Listening

Have students listen to a few examples of podcasts and radio stories to get a feel for some different podcast examples.

Kind World : So Chocolate Bar (7 mins, 23 sec.)

In this episode of Kind World , host Erika Lantz uses sounds and interviews with multiple people to tell a story about a friendship.

Have students listen to the episode, then start a group conversation. Do they like it? Who did they hear talking in it? What sorts of sounds does it use, besides interviews?

Hidden Brain : The Haunting Effects of Going Days Without Sleep (7 mins, 2 sec.)

Here's a guide from YR Media about the best ways to record audio on your phone.

Play this story twice. The first time, ask students to make a note of all the sounds they hear and people that speak on tape. Afterwards, have students break into partners or small groups and compare notes.

Then, play the story through a second time — having students follow along with the transcript to check their work. Talk briefly about the sounds that they missed the first time.

How I Built This : Instagram: Kevin Systrom & Mike Krieger (33 mins, 32 sec.)

This is a long one, so perhaps just listen to a few minutes at the beginning. (A good place to start is about 30 seconds in.) Have the class discuss what makes this podcast similar or different from the others they've heard.

After this discussion, the class should understand that this podcast follows the structure of a Q & A/conversation. Unlike the past two podcasts, this doesn't weave in and out of scripted narration. That's one type of podcast that students can choose to make for the Student Podcast Challenge.

Part 3: Debrief

Before wrapping up, have students spend 5 minutes talking as a class about podcasts. Have them consider:

• What types of sounds do podcasts include?
• Students should understand that podcasts vary greatly — but most include a host and can include sounds from interviews, audio from events, audio from movies or TV, and sounds from the world around them.
• What are some ways that podcasts are structured?
• Students should walk away from this discussion understanding that there isn't one right way to tell a story. Some podcasts use narration from a host or a reporter, others feature a conversation between a group, others might be a one-on-one interview between two people. The structure of a podcast fits its content.

Additional resources

If your students are still looking for podcast examples, here are some we recommend:

Kind World : A Different Window (7 mins, 2 sec.)

Hidden Brain : How Labels Can Affect People's Personalities and Potential (6 mins, 35 sec.)

Choosing a Topic, 60 minutes

Objective: Students will choose a topic for their podcast.

*Skip this stage if you're assigning the class a prompt or idea for the podcast. Alternately, use this time as an opportunity for students to brainstorm for that prompt.

What you need: N/A

What students need: Pencil and paper

Part 1: Small-group brainstorming, 30 minutes

*If your class is creating podcasts in small groups, have them split into those small groups now and spend the entire class period completing this activity.

Distribute copies of the following prompts to students as they work in small groups of 3–5.

Directions for students: Pick three of these prompts that you think would be fun to make a podcast about. Come up with an idea for each of these three prompts. How would you structure it? (A conversation as a group? An interview with one person? A story with clips of interviews and sounds, narrated by a host?)

• Tell us a story about your school or community: about something that happened there — recently or in the past — that you want your audience to know about.
• What is a moment in history that all students should learn about?
• Show us both sides of a debate about an issue that's important to you.
• What do you want to change about the world? What's a big change that you want to make in the future?
• Explain something that kids understand and grownups don't.

After 20 minutes, go around the room and have each group share their favorite idea with the class. Have students write these ideas on the board. (10 mins)

Part 2: Class brainstorming, 30 mins

Students should narrow down the ideas on the board to one. Use these questions to help. Students should be thinking about specific tasks — interviews, sound recording, or editing — that each podcast idea could involve.

• What obstacles might come up as we create this podcast?
• If this idea involves traveling somewhere far away or interviewing someone famous, it might be difficult.
• Does the timeline work?
• Can students complete their interviews or record other sounds well before the podcasts are due — so that they have time to edit the audio?

Planning The Story, 60 mins

Objective: Students will determine how they'll structure the podcast.

What you need: Six large pieces of tear-off construction paper or easel pad paper.

What students need: A notebook and writing utensil.

Before class:

Place six pieces of large tear-off construction paper or easel pad paper in various places around the classroom. Two should be at the front of the room or the board. Label these two:

• What is my story's driving question?
• What is the story not about?

Label the others:

• How will I ensure my story is fair to the people and ideas it represents?
• How will I engage my audience — and hold them?
• What are my dream ingredients?
• What will the audience remember when it's over?

Part 1: Review Your Options, 10 mins

Start by opening up a class discussion about what types of podcasts students have heard. What are some ways a podcast can be structured? Why might a podcast be a one-on-one conversation, instead of a story told with using clips of multiple interviews?

Part 2: What's the story?, 25 mins

Spend 15 minutes working with students to craft responses to the two questions at the front of the room. Have them raise their hands and give ideas until the group settles on one driving question. Then move on to the second: What is the story not about? The class should have lots of answers to this question and there's no need to settle on one.

Then move on to the papers around the room. Students should get up and write a response to each question. If they like someone else's response, they should draw a star next to that response. Tell students to return to their desks after 10 minutes.

Part 3: Recap, 20 mins

Once students have finished, have one classmate stand at each paper around the room and share the responses. Then debrief: Given the class's responses, what do students envision their podcast including? What will it NOT include? How will these ideas shape the structure of the podcast — will it feature one long conversation or multiple short interviews? Pieces of tape from interviews and scenes?

Keep these posters around to guide students through the podcasting process. When they've recorded interviews and other sounds, remind them to look: this is what they envisioned for the podcast.

This lesson is based on a post from NPR Training . Teachers: Here's a downloadable poster from NPR Training you can use in the classroom.

Brainstorming Sounds, 60 mins

Objective: Students will come up with a list of sounds they'll record for their podcast.

What you need: A computer with speakers, a large tear-off piece of construction paper or Easel Pad paper

Part 1: Listening to examples, 20 mins

Play the following radio stories for the class.

Directions for students: As you listen, make a note of the sounds you hear — the ones that aren't people speaking — on paper.

Listen to this "Radio Field Trip" from New Hampshire Public Radio. (4 mins 12 s)

Ask students: Where is host Rick Ganley? How can you tell?

And here's this one, from Radio Rookies, a series from WNYC. (8 mins)

Ask students: Apart from sounds of Edward's narration — what sounds did you hear? How do these sounds help tell Edward's story?

Part 3: Brainstorming, 20 mins

Label a large easel pad paper "sounds" and place it at the front of the classroom.

Directions for students: In small groups of 3-5 students, come up with a list of three to five sounds you think should be in your class' podcast. Talk about why you think it would help the audience to hear these sounds.

Then, have one representative from each group come to the front of the room and write their ideas onto the large paper.

Open the discussion up to the class. Have students shout out the sounds that are on the paper more than once. Circle those. Then have students underline those they think are especially unique or worth recording.

Keep this paper — it should serve as a guide of the sounds that the class will gather to create the podcast.

Recording Practice, 90 mins

Objective: Students will familiarize themselves with their equipment, including their recording device.

What students need: One phone or voice recorder, one pair of headphones, one computer / per small group. Notebooks and writing utensils.

*Before starting, we recommend identifying a) a voice recorder and b) a computer or laptop. Most smartphones, including iPhones, have built-in voice recorders which can be used for recording narration and interviews for podcasts.

Part 1: Recording, 1 hour

In groups of 3–5, have students practice recording themselves and each other.

Directions for students:

Record your own voice

• Say your name, grade and age into the microphone, and then listen back to the recording on the phone or recording device.

Record another person's voice

• Come up with one interview question for a group member. Record the question and answer. Then, listen back on the phone or recording device.

Record a conversation between two people

• One group member should come up with two interview questions for another. While one person interviews the other, a third group member should record them. Then listen back. Take turns so that each person has a chance to record using the phone or recording device.

Record sounds from around the classroom

• Each group member should record TWO sounds that last approximately 10 seconds from around the classroom. As a group, listen back to the recordings on the phone or recording device.

Part 2: Uploading, 30 mins

In the same groups, students should turn to their computers.

Identify a sound-editing software.

• If your school already uses a sound editing software — like ProTools or Adobe Audition — feel free to keep that and use it. You could also download Audacity , a free audio editing software that students can use to mix their podcasts once they've recorded interviews and sounds.

Upload recordings onto a computer or laptop

• Have students practice saving their recordings into the computer or a drive in a place they can find.

Interview Practice , 60 mins

Objective: Students will practice asking engaging interview questions while recording.

What you need: A computer with sound.

What students need: One phone or voice recorder, one pair of headphones, one computer / per pair of partners. Notebooks and writing utensils.

*If recording devices are scarce, this is a good time for students to split into smaller groups to plan various aspects of the podcast. While some students practice interviewing, others could research for the podcast or begin drafting a script.

Part 1: Review, 5 mins

Take five minutes to review what student learned in the "recording practice" lesson. Student should remember to 1) ask others to introduce themselves and 2) record their own questions while interviewing.

Part 2: Practicing in Partners, 30 mins

Assign students partners. Designate a Partner 1 and Partner 2 in each set. Set a timer for 15 mins.

Partner 1: Ask your partner about the one thing they are most PROUD of. It could be something at home, it could be something at school, it could be something athletic — it doesn't matter.

Once they've answered, keep asking questions about their response until the timer goes off. Why are they proud? How did they achieve this?

When the timer goes off, turn off the recording and switch.

Partner 2, now start recording again — and ask Partner 1 the thing they're most proud of. Don't stop asking questions until the timer goes off.

When the timer goes off, turn off the recording.

Part 3: Class debrief, 10 mins

Ask students to raise their hands and share (with their partner's permission) what they learned and what questions they asked in order to learn what they didn't know about their classmates before.

Part 4: Uploading, 15 mins

Students should use any remaining class time to upload their recordings onto a computer and listen back to as much as they can. They should make notes about parts of the recording that sound clear and strong and those that don't.

It's Go Time

At this point in the podcasting process, your students should be ready to get out there and record sound.

Before they record interviews or sounds, students should set aside time to:

• Contact and reserve time to interview guests
• Write out possible interview questions
• Write a list of sounds to record using the large construction paper from the Brainstorming Sounds lesson

Students should check (and double-check) that they're ready to record before heading to interviews or to record at events. Find our checklist for field recording, which students can take with them, below.

Checklist for Field Recording

Download a checklist for students to take as they prepare to record.

Additional Resources

Sign up for KQED Teach to access this set of guides to teaching podcasting , from the very beginning.

NPR Training is a site full of helpful guides about radio and podcasting.

Guides for creating radio and podcasts, from YR Media, are here.

This Radio Rookies site lists examples of stories that may be useful to play as examples in the classroom.

Transom.org is the go-to site for podcasting hopefuls in public media.

If students are looking for help with tools or learning to use sound editing software, this site likely has what they're looking for. Here's Transom's Kid's Guide To Recording Stories .

StoryCorps provides a series of lessons on storytelling and interviewing here.

Poetry Out Loud

Lesson plans.

Poetry Out Loud is not intended to replace classroom activities like creative writing. In fact, the two naturally complement each other. For that reason, we have created a number of optional writing activities and lesson plans for teachers.

Do you have some great Poetry Out Loud lesson plans? Email us at [email protected] to share your ideas!

For further ideas on poetry instruction, visit the  Poetry Foundation’s Learning section.

 “My English class would practice with each other every week, getting tips and tricks from our teacher before the class competition. My main focus was always ensuring that I had a deep understanding of the author’s intended tone and purpose.” Ella Weinmann, 2023 New Hampshire Champion

Downloadable PDF Lesson Plans

Poems Put to Use  (PDF) Students write about poems being put to use and, in the process, imagine the practical advantages of poem memorization and recitation.

The Tabloid Ballad  (PDF) This lesson teaches students about the typical metrical forms and narrative structure of the ballad by having them write ballads based on comic, even outrageous source material.

The Tone Map  (PDF) As students learn to name the tones of voice that the poem moves through, they learn to describe mixed emotions and to distinguish subtle shifts in tone and mood. 

Poetry, Celebrity, and the Power of Connotation  (PDF) Students learn to recognize some of the most common strategies that poets use when writing about historical figures. With these in mind, students then hunt up and present other poems about historical figures.

Golden Shovel   (PDF) Students learn to read and write poems through a new form.

In Another’s Voice  (PDF) This lesson focuses on poems that enter into a voice other than the poet’s, perhaps not even a human voice, so that students can explore the dramatic possibilities within a poem.

Keeping Score  (PDF) In this lesson, students practice close readings of poems by analyzing the style—what musicians call the “dynamics” —of the poem: its volume, speed, language, syntax, lineation, and punctuation.

Poetry As Ceremony   (PDF) This lesson focuses on poems that have the sound of ritual, often with an incantatory rhythm that can guide students in memorization and performance.

Visualizing Voice  (PDF) In this lesson, students will practice close reading by deciding points of emphasis within a poem.

Line Dancing  (PDF) This exercise will help students become more comfortable with line breaks, to think about the ways in which they can inform not only the meaning of a poem on the page, but also how understanding line breaks may aid in the performance of poetry out loud as well.

Lesson Plans by Eileen Murphy that complement Poetry Out Loud

Sonic Patterns: Exploring Poetic Techniques Through Close Reading Students use the idea of a composed memory and their knowledge of sonic patterns to draft, revise, and share their own original text.

Speaking Poetry: Exploring Sonic Patterns Through Performance Students engage in a variety of vocal activities and performance techniques based on word sounds and then prepare a recitation for small group performances and compare their interpretative choices as part of the reflection process.

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BTEC Workshop Plan

Subject: Accounting and finance

Age range: 16+

Resource type: Lesson (complete)

Last updated

22 February 2018

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AngelaD2015

Empty reply does not make any sense for the end user

Great to keep track of where students are up to and for them to set their own individualised targets. Thanks

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