5 Essential Elements Yoga Lesson Plans Should Include

Summary: Effective yoga lesson plans include measurable learning outcomes, estimated timings, a logical teaching flow, assessments and detailed trainer notes. These elements keep trainees engaged and trainers on track.

 

Teacher trainers, have you experienced this? You walk into a training session prepared. You know the topic inside and out. But halfway through, the class takes an unexpected turn and you’re suddenly diving down rabbit holes. You start to feel panic as you run out of time and have to rush the last few learning points. You think: I’ll get to this tomorrow…but a few days later and it’s still hard to get back on track.

If you’ve experienced this, you are not alone! This particular challenge is not about your knowledge or teaching ability; it’s about your lesson plan. Thoughtfully designed yoga lesson plans do much more than organize class activities; they help us to organize our time, stay focused on what’s important, and maximize students; learning.

Whether you are building a new teacher training course or refining an existing one, refining your lesson plans can have a positive impact on your training. I’m Rachel Scott, a yoga teacher trainer and instructional designer, and I help studios and teachers create excellent education! Let’s look at what a great lesson plan should include. Here you go!

Creating Effective Yoga Lesson Plans: A Guide for Teacher Trainers

1. Measurable Learning Objectives

Before you start developing a lesson plan, you must first create your learning objectives. In fact, articulating your objectives is the most important part of this process. Learning objectives are measurable descriptions of what your students will be able to do at the end of your training session. To create an effective learning objective, you want to complete this statement: “By the end of this session, students will be able to….” But here’s the kicker: your learning objectives have to describe something your student can DO. For example, rather than writing, “students will be able to understand yoga anatomy,” I would need to instead describe a measurable (observable) skill, such as, “students can accurately landmark key anatomical structures of the hip on their own body, including the ASIS, sitting bones, pubic bones, femur, sacrum, and pubic symphysis.” You should aim for 4-6 learning objectives per session.

Your learning objectives give you the big picture view of what you need to accomplish with your time.

2. Estimated Timings

Nothing derails a YTT like challenges with time management. When you create your lesson plan, it’s essential to estimate the expected amount of time for each lecture, activity and assessment (hint: activities take longer than you think!). By estimating your timing, you can ensure that you are staying on track with your intended outcomes and adjust on the fly as needed.

Hint: nothing derails your teaching flow like unexpected (and unrelated) questions)! Your trainees may be super curious and ask lots of questions (which is great) – but not all questions need to be answered! (Read that again: not all questions need to be answered…at least not exactly at that moment.) By knowing the scope of your entire training, you can confidently say, “Great question, Andrea…and we’ll cover that in the Injury Module on Day 22, so hold your question til then!” If you don’t have a lot of time, it’s also acceptable to say, “Andrea, great question, but that’s beyond the scope of this lesson right now.”

3. A Logical Flow That Builds Understanding

Here’s a quick tip for developing a lesson plan flow:

1. Inspire students to recognize what they already know about the topic
2. Lecture/present/facilitate group discussions to teach new content
3. Apply the content (student activities, discussions, applications)
4. Assess the learning through performance

A strong yoga lesson plan starts with connecting trainees with what they already know. For example, at the beginning of a module on sequencing, I may have students brainstorm sequencing principles based on their experience as a practitioner. By connecting new ideas to current knowledge, students can more easily integrate new information and concepts.

For totally new information, you will need to lecture/demonstrate. However, it’s always important to chunk this new information into sections and integrate opportunities for students to apply this information through activities, group problem solving, interactive discussions, or practice teaching. (You never want trainees sitting for hours and listening to uninterrupted lectures.) We want our trainees to apply concepts – not memorize them.

Finally, end your lesson with a summary and assessment (informal or formal) to solidify understanding, ensure your students are able to implement the new information, and set a foundation for your next lesson.

4. Assessments

Whether your assessment of your students is informal (observing them and giving them oral feedback) or specific (a quiz or activity with a graded rubric), you want to make sure that you have lots of opportunities to assess your students and give them feedback. In each lesson plan, consider how you would know that your students “get it.” Even if they are short and quick, integrating assessments intentionally can have a massive impact over the course of your program.

5. Detailed Trainer Notes for Teaching

If you are teaching your own program, you can get away with shorter bullet points for your lesson plan. However, taking the time to create a through and detailed lesson plan can be incrediobly valuable for several reasons.

One: you may not teach this material again for awhile. Even if your quick note, “do the activity with the skull bones,” makes sense to you now, in a year it may be fuzzy and you could lose key points. By writing more detailed training notes, you ensure you can get your head “back into the game” when the time comes.

Two: easier to uplevel and refine. Well-planned lesson plans need fewer edits and tend to be better integrated with the whole program. When you create detailed lesson plans, you can more easily refine and improve them for future trainings.

Three: sharing the load. If you want to bring additional trainers on board – without losing the integrity and consistency of your training – then detailed lesson plans are a must. Nothing confuses trainees more than different trainers speaking a different language. Detailed lesson plans ensure that you can have multiple faculty working together (or that you can simply be out sick for a day and have a substitute teach without a setback).

Four: Comprehensive trainer notes also help you map your time effective (see point #2) and teach with greater confidence.

6. Resources That Support Different Learning Styles

Every trainee is different, and they often prefer different learning activities. While some may like listening, others prefer reading, seeing videos, or diving into hands-on practice. An fun and engaging yoga lesson plan includes a variety of activities to support different access points to the material.

Presentations, videos, student manuals, worksheets, reflection exercises, guided discussions, skits and practical demonstrations can all be great activities. Multiple activity types also helps keep up interest and energy by providing a diversity of experiences during the training day.

For yoga teacher trainers, investing in high-quality lesson plans helps create a training experience that builds confidence, encourages deeper understanding, and prepares future teachers.

Want to know more? Send me an email or book a free chat!