Standard, target, opening to closing

Georgia Lesson Plan Template

Georgia districts plan in a recognizable shape: a Georgia Standards of Excellence code, a learning target with success criteria, and a lesson in three parts — opening, work session, closing — with a formative check. This sheet is that shape, with differentiation, academic vocabulary, assessment and resources at the foot, which is what the state's teacher evaluation rubric looks for under instructional planning.

GSE to closing

Georgia lesson plan template

Portrait Georgia lesson plan with standard and learning-target boxes, a three-row opening, work session and closing table with a formative check column, and four boxes for differentiation, vocabulary, assessment and resources

Word Google Docs

Georgia Lesson Plan (GSE) — Word & Google Docs

GSE standard, learning target and success criteria, then opening, work session and closing as three tall rows with teacher, students and a formative check.

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PDF

Georgia Lesson Plan (GSE) — fillable PDF

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

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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 georgia template

Georgia has no state-mandated lesson plan form; the Department of Education positions the GSE as the planning framework and leaves the template to districts, and districts have converged on the opening, work session, closing structure because it is how the state's frameworks and most of its adopted curricula are written. The three rows are tall on this sheet because the work session is most of the period and needs room for teacher and student columns and a formative check — the check is in its own column because Georgia's evaluation rubric asks for it explicitly.

Learning target and success criteria are the Georgia idiom for the objective — the target in I-can language, the criteria as what a student could check their own work against — and they share a box so they are written together. GSE codes for mathematics and English language arts were revised between 2021 and 2023; the footer reminds you to check the current prefix for your course before a code goes on a plan an evaluator will read.

Questions teachers ask

Georgia lesson plans, answered

What is the difference between a learning target and success criteria?

The target is what students will be able to do by the end, in their language; the criteria are how they will know they did it — two or three statements they could check. Georgia districts increasingly expect both on the board as well as on the plan, which is why they share a box here.

Which GSE codes do I use?

The current ones for your course, and they changed recently: mathematics was recoded in 2021 and English language arts in 2023, so a code copied from an older plan may be retired. GaDOE's standards site lists the current codes by course; the box takes code and text.

Does this match the TKES rubric?

Standard 2 of the Teacher Keys Effectiveness System — instructional planning — looks for standards alignment, learning targets, differentiation, assessment and resources, all of which have a box. The sheet is organized for that rubric but is not a state form; Georgia does not have one.