How to create a Lesson Plan
Lesson plans are a guide for presenters to follow when instructing about the topic. Lesson plans include what participants need to learn, methods of instruction, and how to assess learning.
Lesson plans may be used by Meetup organizers, WordCamp speakers, training providers, schools, Learn WordPress workshop and course creators, plus many more scenarios.
Objectives
After completing this lesson, participants will be able to:
- Contributors will be able to write objective statements for lesson plans.
- Contributors will be able to write a lesson plan by using the template provided.
- Contributors will be able to describe additional editing involved in lesson plan writing before publishing.
Prerequisite Skills
Participants will get the most from this lesson if they have familiarity with:
- WordPress
- Lesson Plans available on Learn.WordPress.org
- Skills in the topic of lesson plans
Readiness Questions
- Would you like to help train the trainers, or provide resources for others to use while instructing?
- Is there an area of WordPress that you know particularly well?
Materials Needed
- A local install of WordPress
- Demo content
- Access to log in to Learn.WordPress.org
- Screenshot software
Notes for the Presenter
- Sharing an example of a Lesson Plan will be especially useful, such as the Block Directory lesson plan.
- Consider drafting objective statements together as a group, or collaboratively writing a lesson plan through the walkthrough.
Lesson Outline
- Select a topic from the approved choices to adopt in the “You can help” column
- Write Objective Statements
- Write the Lesson Plan Example / Walkthrough
- Complete any other Lesson Plan template segments and taxonomy
- Review the “Review Process” as well. See Instructional Review and Copy Editing
Exercises
- Write objective statements for lesson plans
- Write a lesson plan
- Revise or audit lesson plans
Assessment
I can write a lesson plan in any format I’d like
- True
- False
Answer: 2. False, the Training Team formats all lesson plans in a standard manner
Lesson plans can be used by Meetup organizers and Workshop creators
- True
- False
Answer: 1. True. Lesson plans began as a way to help Meetup organizers plan the content for attendees
Anyone can write a lesson plan
- True
- False
Answer: 1. True. Following the team guidelines, needs, and delivering content in a timely manner will be the most beneficial
Objective Statements help identify what the learners will be able to do upon completion
- True
- False
Answer: 1. True.
Additional Resources
Lesson Plan Walkthrough
How Lesson Plans are Proposed
Lesson plans can come from a wide variety of ideas. WordPress releases often bring new features that need to be included.
Before submitting a lesson plan idea check:
- The title describes the topic of the lesson plan
- A short description of the lesson plan has been written
- The objectives for the lesson plan have been listed
- The lesson plan idea could be picked up by another contributor and they would understand what was intended by the idea. They would have enough information to begin working.
If all these are available, submit your lesson plan idea to the Training Team’s Github submission page under, “Lesson Plan Template”. From there, a member of the training team will assess your topic and either approve it or not.
Remember, you can always ask questions in the Training Team Slack Channel if you get stuck during the process.
How to Write an Objective Statement
Learning objectives must contain 4 parts:
- Audience – Whose behavior do you hope to change?
- Behavior – What is the new knowledge, skill, and/or attitude you hope to achieve?
- Condition – What are the circumstances under which they will demonstrate the behavior?
- Degree – How well or how often will they demonstrate the behavior?
Ex: You will be able to write learning objectives, using the ABCD model provided above, including all four components in every objective without assistance.
The objectives should be:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Time-Bound
Try to focus on what the learner will do, not what the learner will learn.
Learning objectives will fall into one of the three categories of Bloom’s Cognitive Domain:
- Knowledge – Example objective verbs: Describe, recall, recognize, identify, explain, paraphrase, distinguish, give an example, summarize.
- Skills – Example objective verbs: Apply, modify, construct, produce, solve, use, predict, evaluate, devise, design, create.
- Attitude – Example objective verbs: Relate, implement, illustrate, show, defend, apply, critique.
Gathering Topic Research
All lesson plans start with preliminary research. We review if there are existing materials already existing across:
- WordPress.org/support
- Developer.WordPress.org
- Learn.WordPress.org in various formats (lesson plan, workshop, course)
- WordPress.tv topics
- Core Dev-Notes
- Test Calls for Testing
- Other pertinent sources of information
We collect this information in the Training Team Content Development GitHub Project Board as comments on cards in the Topic Ideas column. As the research is appended, we progress the card over to the “Ready to Create – You Can Help” column.
How to Adopt a Lesson Plan
See a topic you’d like to write a lesson plan for? During the Training Team meetings, express interest in adopting any of the lesson plans in the “Next Up” column, or summarized on the monthly Sprint documents. Share when you anticipate completing the lesson as well.
From there, the team will start a draft post of the lesson, including the formatting standard we use for all lesson plans. This is stored as a reusable block in the Learn WordPress site at this time.
Begin drafting the lesson plan and update the team with your progress.
Note our helpful guides:
When you are finished writing the lesson plan custom taxonomy, including:
- Audience
- Categories
- Duration
- Instruction Type
- Experience Level
- Series
- WordPress Version
- Included Content
These features help organize the content across the Learn WordPress site, and make it more efficient to audit for releases.
When preparing a lesson you follow a lesson plan and the associated learning and development materials (presentation slides or demonstrations), each lesson taught from the plan will fundamentally be the same but each lesson will be different because the presenter presents the lesson in their own way.
Your lesson plan must provide the lesson structure. The lesson plan must also give room for the presenter to make the lesson their own.
As you write your lesson plan imagine the story you are trying to tell, if your story is strong and interesting your lesson plan will be as well.
Reviews
When your lesson plan is complete, share the update in the Training Team Slack Channel. From there, copy editors and instructional designers will review the content in final passes. From there, the team will publish the lesson plan.