A lesson plan template can help save time but can also assist with creating an engaging and thought-provoking opportunity for students to learn. Using customizable templates, our list offers up multimedia content resources suitable for all grade levels and biology subjects.
8 Lesson Plan Template Resources for Biology Teachers
Lesson plan templates can help save teachers time and also improve their ability to successfully teach students without the hassle of starting from scratch for every lesson. Teachers around the world have grouped to share content on various platforms, and now students and educators alike can reap the benefits.
Lesson plans are also an excellent way to organize ideas and plan subject matter out in advance without having to memorize lectures or assemble multiple lists of resources. Creating a sound lesson plan complete with links, handouts, and thought-provoking questions can make learning fun, and create time for essential teaching moments.
Effective Use of Lesson Plans
Lesson plans can be a helpful guide for delivering engaging and thought-provoking lessons that help students understand the material and take an interest in the subject matter. A well thought out lesson plan also has the ability to serve as a reference to make sure a lecture stays on track and within a preset time limit.
Using a lesson plan template effectively can be a bit more of a challenge since it is likely that you’ll be working with formatting done by another person who may think differently about how to put together an engaging lesson for students.
However, there are many benefits to using a lesson plan template, including:
- Discovering how other educators organize and deliver information
- Innovative solutions to common problems
- Time savings and efficiency
There’s no shame in managing your own time by using a lesson template, and frequently it can help you assess how reliable or efficient different templates can be in a real-world scenario. Lesson plans also can limit the amount of multi-tasking that you’ll be doing while trying to teach students which can simplify and space out learning opportunities.
Clear lesson plans also include enough time for questions, reflection, and opportunities to encourage in-depth student thinking to enhance learning. Assignments can then be coordinated to be purposeful instead of becoming just busy work that doesn’t reinforce the essentials discussed in class.
8 Lesson Plan Template Resources
There are a number of lesson plan template resources available online for a variety of subjects but finding the right one can be time-consuming. Here’s our list of recommended resources to get you started and connect you with content that is both functional and applicable to biology instruction at all grade levels.
The Teacher’s Guide
The Teacher’s Guide may look a little outdated, but the lesson content provided includes free worksheets, lesson templates, and other planning materials that have been created by other teachers. You can view the material by subject, and grade level recommendations are also listed.
Many of the links go to a webpage that includes other helpful information, diagrams, links, and handouts to help you create a more engaging lesson. These pages can easily be copied into a word document, uploaded to google drive, or used on a laptop as is.
Share My Lesson
Share My Lesson is another excellent website where content is provided by other educators for free, and there are comments and ratings to help you navigate among the material.
Finding the best content is easier with the ratings, but there are also descriptions, and lesson tags to help you find what you need more quickly so you can assess your options.
The content itself is also listed by grade level, and you can use the search filter options to see what is available without having to click through countless pages. Many of the lessons include PowerPoints, word documents, handouts, and note how many times the content has been downloaded.
The comments on the page are also a helpful resource that can let you know the thoughts of other educators, and you can share any content you find via the helpful social media buttons located on each page. You can also email the content to yourself or others, and upload documents to google drive.
The Biology Corner
This super basic lesson plan template from the Biology Corner is great for planning out your lessons week by week, but it doesn’t offer the same detailed breakdown as other templates. What it does do is provide a simple model that you can download as a pdf or save to google docs and use over and over.
Although it is simple, it can also be edited to have different headings and include more information. It will also save you from having to buy an expensive lesson plan book that you have to lug around day in and day out.
Science Teacher Program.org
The Science Teacher Program website is a treasure trove of templates listed by year and grade for a variety of different subject matter. If you have a specific topic in mind, this cohesive list can help you get a ton of material together and get started on a lesson plan quickly.
Each lesson plan is unique, and many of them include helpful diagrams and details that you can copy and paste into slides as a visual during the less. The lessons are also in a simple webpage format, so they are easy to convert to word documents or view on your laptop as is.
Slide Share
SlideShare is an exciting resource where people can upload presentations and slides on any subject they choose to share with the rest of the web. This website offers up tons of original content that works for other presenters, teachers, educators, speakers, and even conferences.
The wealth of material also provides ample inspiration and many times you can download the slides for your own personal use. Not only can this save you a considerable amount of time when creating your lesson plan, but you can also get new ideas for how to present information.
There are also ratings, statistics, and other information about how many people have clipped, downloaded, or viewed the slides so you can get an idea for how popular the format is. There are also comments and notes towards the bottom which can provide more detailed information.
NASA
The NASA site is chalk full of information related to science, but lesson plan templates are probably not the first thing that comes to people’s minds when they think about the organization. In fact, the website offers several different files and lesson plan examples for different subjects and a vast number of grade levels.
Each template includes a fillable area for organizing your thoughts and ideas about the lesson contents, and the template allows for a considerable number of notes. Subject matter can efficiently be arranged in a number of different ways based on teaching style, and the headings allow for quick reference during more extended sessions.
Teachers Pay Teachers
Teachers Pay Teachers is an innovative site to get a lesson plan template that has been designed by another teacher. These downloads are often very inexpensive, typically around $1 or so, and offer a preview of the document before you purchase.
There are details about what the template is for, and how it is meant to be used. Many of them indicated a time frame for how many hours and minutes each part of the lesson should take, and the template is completely customizable as well.
Most of the templates are word documents which makes them easy to download and edit. Many of them are also suitable for a wide range of grade levels and include a rating based on the feedback from other teachers who have used the template.
One Note
This Microsoft application is standard as part of the Windows 10 operating system, and the website offers a number of lesson plan templates suitable for different subjects. There are many fun and interactive templates that can be found and downloaded for free, and the tutorials make it a breeze to get caught up on all the features.
The best part about OneNote for teachers is that it allows them to easily save and collate previous lesson plans for reference, so they have all their information and links at their fingertips at all times. For busy teachers working on material for several subjects at a time, they can even have multiple digital notebooks that can each be customized for their intended use.
Additionally, One Note receives regular updates from Microsoft which mean that you can expect regular upgrades to both content and functionality, and the website is full of new material that arrives regularly.
For cutting-edge learning material, and excellent visualizations, you can’t beat One Note which has STEM material, Minecraft, Skype, and other apps that make it the most versatile and customizable option available for free.
If you’re worried about keeping your wealth of material safe, worry no longer because you can create a Microsoft account and backup all of your files as you create them to ensure you’ll always have access even if you don’t have your computer on hand.
You can even share your lessons with others and view pre-made lessons from other educators on hundreds of different topics. There is also a function on OneNote for a virtual career day, a toolkit for school leaders, and specific content for higher education.