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Planning for the Sample Lesson

By AAEE — January 20, 2015 1 min read
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Looking good on paper, and saying the right things in an interview is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to landing your dream job. Many principals are incorporating the delivery of a sample lesson into their interview process. After a successful interview, you may be asked to step into an actual classroom on their campus and deliver a 30 minute lesson to students at their school.

They need to know, will you be a good fit on their campus?

Things to consider:

1. If possible, use and/or tweak a successful lesson that you created during your student teaching.

2. Have a clear, well-written objective.

3. Construct questions to ask during the lesson.

4. Print copies of the lesson plan for your observers.

5. You won’t be able to go through the whole lesson cycle, follow a schedule similar to this:


  • 5 minute brief warm-up
  • 5 minute mini-lesson
  • 15 minutes for guided practice/student activity
  • 5 minute conclusion/wrap-up

6. Students can often be unusually quiet when a guest is in their classroom, especially if there are many visitors in the room. Plan questions and activities that will promote high engagement.

What are they looking for?

1. Can you build rapport with their students?

2. Are you able to maintain command of the room and lesson?

3. Is your lesson engaging?

4. Are you prepared?

5. Are you asking higher-level questions to promote critical thinking?

Whitney Hill, Recruiter (on behalf of)

HISD Teacher Recruitment

Houston Independent School District, TX

The opinions expressed in Career Corner are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.