Ask any B. Ed. student preparing for their first teaching practical and they will ask the same question: "Which format am I supposed to follow?" The answer surprises most people. CBSE and NCERT do not prescribe a single, mandatory lesson plan format for Indian teachers. What they do provide, through the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2023 and CBSE's Teacher Energized Resource Manuals (TERMs), is a set of core components that every effective plan should include.
This matters because the flexibility is a feature, not a gap. Teachers are encouraged to adapt their planning to fit their students, their subject, and their school's context. This guide breaks down the lesson plan format options available to CBSE and NCERT teachers, including the 5E model, Bloom's Taxonomy action verbs, and subject-specific structures for Math, Science, and English.
What Is a Lesson Plan in the Indian K-12 Context?
A lesson plan is a teacher's guide for a single class period — it specifies what students will learn, how they will engage with the content, and how understanding will be checked. In Indian schools, lesson plans translate NCERT textbook chapters into structured classroom instruction.
The NCF 2023 and NEP 2020 have reoriented what planning should accomplish. The policy shift is from content coverage, completing chapters in sequence, to competency development. A lesson aligned with current national policy should show how students will build skills and apply knowledge, not simply receive and reproduce it.
NCF 2023 emphasizes experiential learning, cross-disciplinary integration, and higher-order thinking. Lesson plans that treat the textbook as a script to narrate, rather than a resource to teach from, are increasingly out of step with these national directives.
Indian teacher training has historically centred on the Herbartian five-step method: preparation, presentation, association, generalization, and application. CBSE resource materials still reference this approach, and it remains a recognized framework in teacher education. Many modern private schools, however, are moving toward the 5E model, which is better suited to inquiry-based, competency-focused instruction.
Core Elements of a Standard CBSE Lesson Plan
CBSE leaves the lesson plan format to schools, yet its teaching manuals and resource materials consistently point to the same core components. A plan that includes all of these will satisfy the requirements of most CBSE schools, B. Ed. supervisors, and teacher educators.
Header Information
Each plan opens with identifying information: subject, class and section, topic and sub-topic, duration (typically 35 to 45 minutes), date, and the teacher's name. This sounds administrative, but it also forces clarity — you cannot write a plan for "Chapter 3" without naming exactly which concept you are teaching and for which grade.
General Learning Objectives (GLOs) and Specific Learning Outcomes (SL Os)
This is the most important section in the document. GLOs describe the broad educational aims of the unit: "Students will develop understanding of the water cycle." SLOs are the specific, observable targets for this one lesson: "Students will be able to label the stages of the water cycle and explain why evaporation rates increase with temperature."
GLOs set direction. SLOs tell you whether you arrived.
Previous Knowledge Test (PKT)
The PKT, also called the Introductory Activity or Motivation step, is a 2-5 minute activity that connects the new lesson to what students already know. It might be a quick question to the class, a brief recall activity, or a short puzzle. It serves two purposes: activating prior knowledge and giving the teacher a real-time read on where the class is before instruction begins.
Teaching Aids
This section lists everything the teacher will use: textbooks, worksheets, charts, physical models, lab equipment, digital slides, or online tools. Specifying aids forces deliberate planning of the full learning experience, not just what the teacher will say.
Presentation and Instructional Procedure
The main body of the plan details the step-by-step sequence of teacher and student activity. Effective plans balance direct instruction with student work — questioning, pair activity, problem-solving, and discussion.
Assessment and Homework
Assessment describes how the teacher will check whether SLOs were achieved: a closing question, written exercise, exit ticket, or student demonstration. The homework section specifies any follow-up practice, linked explicitly to the lesson's outcomes rather than assigned by default.
The 5E Lesson Plan Format: A Modern Approach for CBSE Schools
The 5E model was developed by Roger Bybee at BSCS (Biological Sciences Curriculum Study) as a framework for inquiry-based instruction. Its five phases (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate) map directly onto the experiential learning goals embedded in NEP 2020 and NCF 2023. Many private CBSE schools now prefer it for that reason.
Here is how each phase runs in a standard 40-minute period:
Engage (5 minutes)
The teacher poses a question, phenomenon, or problem that activates curiosity. This serves the same function as the PKT. For Grade 8 Science: "Why does iron rust but gold doesn't? What do you think is happening at the level of the material itself?" The goal is to generate questions, not answer them.
Explore (10 minutes)
Students investigate the question with minimal direct instruction. They might observe samples, sort information, work through a structured activity in pairs, or make predictions. The teacher circulates, asks probing questions, and resists giving answers. The productive struggle is the point.
Explain (10 minutes)
The teacher introduces the formal concept, vocabulary, or procedure that explains what students just experienced. This is the direct instruction phase — but it comes after exploration, not before it. Students connect the formal explanation to what they observed.
Elaborate (10 minutes)
Students apply the concept to a new context or extend their understanding. In a Science lesson on oxidation, this might mean predicting which metals corrode fastest and why. In a Math lesson on fractions, it might mean solving a real-world problem that requires division of mixed numbers.
Evaluate (5 minutes)
A short assessment checks whether the learning outcome was achieved — an exit question, brief written response, a problem to solve independently, or a peer-teaching moment. This is not a separate event bolted on at the end; it completes the instructional cycle.
Writing your lesson plan in the 5E format signals alignment with current national policy. Many teacher educators now prefer it over the Herbartian format when assessing candidates for their ability to design active, inquiry-based lessons.
How to Write Measurable Learning Outcomes Using Bloom's Taxonomy
The most common weakness in lesson plans across Indian schools is vague outcomes. "Students will understand photosynthesis" is not a learning outcome — it is a hope. It tells you nothing about what you will observe or how you will measure it.
Bloom's Taxonomy, developed by Benjamin Bloom at the University of Chicago, organizes cognitive skills into six levels, from simple recall to complex creation. Matching your outcome verb to the right level makes the SLO specific and testable.
| Bloom's Level | What It Means | Action Verbs for SLOs |
|---|---|---|
| Remember | Recall facts and basic concepts | List, label, name, identify, define, recall, state |
| Understand | Explain ideas in own words | Describe, summarize, classify, explain, paraphrase |
| Apply | Use knowledge in new situations | Solve, calculate, demonstrate, use, construct, show |
| Analyze | Break information into parts | Compare, differentiate, examine, organize, contrast |
| Evaluate | Make judgments based on criteria | Judge, justify, defend, assess, critique, argue |
| Create | Produce something new | Design, compose, formulate, plan, invent, write |
A well-formed SLO has three elements: who (the student), what they will do (the action verb), and with what content (the specific topic). For example: "Students will calculate the area of composite figures using the formulas for rectangles and triangles." That is observable, measurable, and tied to a specific cognitive level.
Most single-period lessons will target two or three adjacent Bloom's levels, starting from Remember and moving upward. A lesson that never moves past Understand is not developing higher-order thinking, regardless of how engaging the delivery is.
— Bloom's Taxonomy, 1956 — still the most practical tool for lesson planningThe purpose of education is to develop the ability to think, not merely to store information. Verbs make that purpose visible in a lesson plan.
Subject-Specific Formatting: Math, Science, and English
The core lesson plan structure applies across all subjects, but the emphasis within each section shifts by discipline. Using one generic template for every subject produces plans that don't reflect how each subject actually works.
Mathematics
A Math lesson plan centres on a clear problem-solving sequence. The PKT often involves mental math, a rapid review question, or a warm-up problem that links to prior content. The Explain phase should model worked examples step by step using a Think Aloud approach — the teacher narrates their reasoning visibly, not just the procedures.
The Elaborate phase must include practice problems of increasing difficulty. Students need sufficient independent practice within the lesson, not just as homework. Assessment in Math is almost always written: two to three problems solved without teacher support before the period ends.
Key teaching aids: graph paper and manipulatives for lower grades; digital graphing tools and spreadsheets for Class 9 and above.
Science
Science lesson plans should build around observation and investigation. The Explore phase carries more weight here than in any other subject — students should handle materials, record data, or observe a phenomenon before the teacher provides the explanation. CBSE's Teacher Energized Resource Manuals for Science include suggested activities and assessment tasks aligned to NCERT learning outcomes, and these can anchor the Explore and Evaluate phases directly.
For lab-based lessons, add a Safety and Materials section before the instructional procedure. Specify quantities, equipment, and any hazard notes. This is not optional in a well-written Science plan.
English
English lesson plans are structured around the four LSRW skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. A 40-minute period typically develops one or two of these skills, and the SLO should specify which one and how. A Reading comprehension lesson looks nothing like a Writing lesson focused on paragraph construction.
Grammar should be introduced in context, linked to a reading passage or a listening activity, rather than taught as an isolated exercise in naming parts of speech. The PKT section in an English plan often activates vocabulary students already know from earlier units or from prior reading.
Digital-First Planning: AI and Ed-Tech in the Lesson Plan Workflow
More schools are using digital tools to support planning, and the workflow benefits from it. Flip Education's AI-assisted tools can generate a structured 5E lesson plan draft from a topic, grade level, and subject — including suggested activities, discussion prompts, and assessment questions that align to NCERT content.
This is not about replacing teacher judgment. A well-structured draft means teachers spend their preparation time on what only they can do: calibrating the plan to the specific students in front of them, swapping in better examples, adjusting the Explore activity for available materials, refining the assessment for the class's current level.
AI tools reliably handle lesson plan structure, activity suggestions, and draft SLO writing. They are less reliable for NCERT-specific content accuracy, local classroom context, and nuanced assessment design. Review any AI-generated plan against the relevant NCERT chapter before teaching from it.
CBSE's Teacher Resources portal provides competency-based resource materials, sample tasks, and assessment items across subjects and grades. These are underused by most teachers and are worth building into your planning routine.
Downloadable Lesson Plan Templates
The following templates cover the most common formats required in CBSE schools and B. Ed. practicals. Your institution may have its own preferred version, but these structures reflect what the core components look like in practice.
Template 1: Standard CBSE Lesson Plan ( Traditional Format)
Best for: Government schools, B. Ed. practicals, and teachers new to formal planning.
Sections:
- Subject / Class / Topic / Duration / Date
- General Learning Objectives
- Specific Learning Outcomes (2-3 per lesson)
- Teaching Aids
- Previous Knowledge Test (Motivation activity)
- Presentation (Step-by-step instructional procedure with estimated timings)
- Blackboard Summary
- Assessment / Recapitulation
- Homework
Template 2: 5E Lesson Plan (NEP- Aligned Format)
Best for: Private CBSE schools, NEP 2020 implementation, and demonstration lessons.
Sections:
- Subject / Class / Topic / Duration / Date
- Learning Outcomes (linked to NCERT competency framework)
- Materials and Teaching Aids
- Engage (Hook activity + estimated time)
- Explore (Student investigation activity with guiding questions)
- Explain (Direct instruction and formal concept introduction)
- Elaborate (Application and extension task)
- Evaluate (Assessment activity and exit check)
- Differentiation notes (for students needing additional support or challenge)
Template 3: Daily Lesson Diary ( Log Format)
Best for: Daily lesson diaries and school observation records required by the principal or HoD.
Sections:
- Chapter / Topic / Period number
- Learning outcome for the day (one clear sentence)
- Method used (lecture, discussion, activity, lab, digital)
- Teaching aids used
- Student response and participation note
- Assessment carried out
- Follow-up required
What This Means for Your Practice
The lesson plan format you choose matters less than having a clear format and using it consistently. Any plan that specifies what students will learn, how they will engage with the content, and how you will verify understanding will improve instruction compared to walking in with only a chapter reference and experience.
If your school has no stated preference, the 5E model is the stronger choice for new lesson plans. It aligns with where CBSE and national education policy are heading. It builds student activity into the structure by design. And it forces the teacher to write specific, Bloom's-aligned outcomes that go beyond "students will understand the chapter."
Start with the learning outcome. Decide what students will be able to do by the end of the period. Then build the lesson backward from that target. The template, whichever one you choose, is the container. The outcome is the point.
That is the real lesson plan format, regardless of what you put at the top of the page.
