Over the course of the school year, most students in first grade will develop the stamina to participate in more structured lessons for an increasingly longer period of time. It is amazing how much they will grow academically, socially, and emotionally over the course of just one year! In order to foster that growth, it is important to plan your lessons accordingly. Here are seven things to incorporate to ensure student success:

1. Standards. What standard(s) does your lesson cover and are there any prerequisite skills that students need to be taught before they can fully grasp the new content?

State standards are set forth by the state in which each school resides. They are written for each grade level and dictate what each student is required to learn within a school year. Standards are important and should be one of the factors that guides teacher planning. Will every lesson taught correspond to a state standard? Not always. There are times when a teacher needs to recognize that prerequisite skills are necessary for each student to master the skill represented by a particular state standard. It is also possible to require several lessons to teach just one state standard. This is a time when a teacher is guided by his or her students rather than the need to keep moving through a comprehensive list of state standards.

2. Objectives. What is the objective ("Big Idea") that you want students to learn?

Objectives are a vital part of any lesson. They not only guide the lesson, but inform students of what they are learning and keep the teacher focused throughout the lesson. When preparing a lesson for first graders, the number of objectives should be kept between one and three. This is a reasonable range of expectations for the age level. At the onset of a lesson, be sure to state the objective and repeat it throughout. This will prepare students for what is going to be taught and inform them of what the learning expectation is.

3. Supplemental materials. What supports will you use to help solidify the new information?

Because first graders are still developing their vocabulary, it is important to introduce new words by pairing them with supplemental materials. Those materials should be in the form of the written word and any visual aid that can help describe the word. Visual aids can come from a variety of sources-pictures, 3-dimensional objects, actions, or hand/body motions. When presenting new vocabulary, have students repeat the word with you and then help them use it in different contexts. By using a multitude of ways to present new vocabulary, all students will benefit by making connections between what they hear and what they see.

4. Guided practice. How will you model the new skill?

After introducing the learning concept, students should be explicitly taught how to use the new skill through direct teacher instruction or guided practice. During this time, the teacher should model the new skill and provide one-to-one assistance to ensure every student is developing an understanding of the new skill.

5. Independent practice. How will you actively engage students so that they can master the skill independently?

Once each student has had the opportunity to practice the skill with guided support from the teacher, students should be offered the opportunity for hands-on, independent practice. Independent practice requires that the teacher monitor each student as they engage in using the skill and provide assistance when, and if, it is needed. As students demonstrate their ability to complete the skill independently, further opportunities to use and perfect the skill should be provided. This often occurs by incorporating use of the skill in the lessons that follow and in multiple situations.

6. Closure. How will you ensure that each child is acquiring the "Big Idea" from the lesson?

Bringing closure to a lesson is important, yet often over-looked and forgotten. Due to the time constraints teachers are faced with, lessons often ended abruptly. Providing closure to a lesson only takes a few minutes and it serves multiple purposes:

* It allows the teacher to reiterate the key concepts from the lesson, helping children to solidify information.

* It encourages students to reflect on what was learned in the lesson.

* It revisits the objective(s) and aids in assessment for both teacher and student.

* It notifies students that the lesson on that particular subject/topic is over for the moment. This is particularly important for students with a learning disability. Many of those children get lost when there is a shift in learning with no clear. They are often left trying to make connections between things that do not necessarily relate.

7. Assessment. How will you assess each child's development of the new skill?

Assessing each child's mastery of a skill is how instruction is guided. That is why it is important for assessment to be on-going and not strictly reserved for the end of the lesson. When assessing first graders, provide a variety of ways for students to demonstrate their acquisition of the new skill. Some students may be strong writer's, while others may be better served physically modeling how they produced something.

For specific examples of first grade lesson plans that include the Seven Must Haves for Student Success, visit http://www.lessonplansource.com.