Effective Use of Lesson Plans to Enhance Education in U.S. and Turkish Kindergarten thru 12th Grade Public School System: A Comparative Study

In this study, first lesson plans as they are practiced in U.S. educational system are reviewed followed by the Turkish case, and then areas where the two overlap and differ are explained afterwards. Therefore, first daily, overall yearly, and substitute teacher lesson plans are reviewed as they are implemented in the U.S. system. Commonly implemented lesson plan practices include the concept or objectives to be taught, time block, procedures to be used, required materials, questions, independent practice, and evaluation. Ways of writing and implementing lesson plans are reviewed taking into account effective use of class time and classroom management by having positive expectations for student by administering routines about beginning and ending the class and about possible transitions and interruptions that might occur during the class, e.g. taking attendance, addressing the students who missed the work, dealing with students who are tardy, etc by taking into account extracurricular academic activities such as daily starter or warm-up or bell-work extra credit work such as puzzles, brain treasurers, reading assignments, e.g. within Accelerated Reader (A/R) program, etc. for students who finish class assignments early. More effective use of lesson plans via incorporation of C-Scope program into Kindergarten thru 12th grade United States public schoolsâ?™ academic program is examined. C-Scope is a curriculum support system that is fully aligned to the state mandated curricula designed to provide a common language, process and structure for curriculum development. In Turkish case, There are mainly two types of plans. One of them is unit -based yearly plan and the other one is lesson plan. Unit-based yearly plans are designed by Branch Teachers' Council at beginning of academic year and it is delivered to school administration. Lesson plan is a plan of subject matter that can be studied in a class period or in a few classes period. The teacher is responsible for planning it. Guidebooks prepared by Ministry of Education can be also used instead of lesson plans.