In the order every CPALMS lesson runs

Florida Lesson Plan Template

Florida has no mandated lesson plan form, but Florida teachers see the same one every time they open a CPALMS lesson, and this sheet follows it: the B.E.S.T. benchmark in code and text, learning objectives, prior knowledge and guiding questions, then teaching phase, guided practice, independent practice and closure with the formative assessment and feedback to students beside each, and accommodations, extensions and materials at the foot.

Benchmark to closure

Florida lesson plan template

Portrait Florida lesson plan with benchmark and objective boxes, prior-knowledge and guiding-question boxes, a four-row phase table with a formative assessment column, and accommodations and materials boxes

Word Google Docs

Florida Lesson Plan (B.E.S.T.) — Word & Google Docs

B.E.S.T. benchmark and learning objectives, prior knowledge and guiding questions, then teaching phase, guided practice, independent practice and closure with formative assessment and feedback beside each.

Download Word Open in Google Docs

PDF

Florida Lesson Plan (B.E.S.T.) — fillable PDF

One page, portrait. Type into the fields or print it blank and handwrite.

Download fillable PDF

Specifications: US Letter, 8.5 × 11 inches. Word files are editable .docx that open in Word 2007 through Microsoft 365, including Word for Mac; the Google Docs link makes a copy in your own Drive; the PDF has real form fields and prints as plain hairline boxes when blank. Free to use in as many classes as you like, no account, no watermark.

Why it is laid out this way

About the florida template

The Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking replaced the Florida Standards for English language arts and mathematics, and B.E.S.T. benchmark codes are what Florida principals look for at the top of a plan; science and social studies still cite the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards, and the benchmark box takes either. The rest of the sheet uses the CPALMS vocabulary deliberately — prior knowledge, guiding questions, teaching phase, feedback to students — because a Florida teacher's mental model of a lesson plan is the CPALMS one, and a form in the same words is one they do not have to translate.

Florida district rules are about availability rather than format: Miami-Dade's handbook, for instance, says plans need not be routinely submitted but must be available during classroom visits and before an observation. That makes the realistic use of this sheet an observation or a formal lesson rather than every day; for the week, the weekly grids in this section are what most Florida teachers keep.

Questions teachers ask

Florida lesson plans, answered

Do I have to use B.E.S.T. codes?

For ELA and mathematics, yes — the Florida Standards they replaced are retired. For science, social studies and most electives the current standards are still the NGSSS, and the benchmark box is labelled to take either; CPALMS lists both.

Is this what CPALMS uses?

It follows the field order and vocabulary of CPALMS-vetted lessons as Florida teacher-preparation programs teach it; CPALMS itself is a state repository, not a template you download. The sheet is an independent layout in that vocabulary.

What are feedback to students and guiding questions?

Feedback to students is the CPALMS field for how students will learn whether they got it during the lesson, not just at the end; guiding questions are the two or three questions the lesson works toward. Both are on this sheet because they are the two fields Florida teachers report their district forms borrow from CPALMS.