Keep Your Lesson Plan Template. Make Feedback More Meaningful.
Lesson plan reviews should generate insight—not paperwork.
Most educator preparation programs already have a lesson plan template that reflects their curriculum, standards, and approach to preparing future educators. The challenge is ensuring that reviewers interpret candidate responses consistently and provide feedback specific enough to improve future planning and instruction.
Available through the EPiC™ Support Dashboard, the Evidence-First™ Lesson Plan Review allows programs to keep the template they already use while strengthening the evaluation of submitted plans. Clearly defined evidence markers help reviewers identify what is present, what is missing, and what the candidate could add or revise.
The result is more actionable feedback for candidates, meaningful data for faculty, and stronger preparation for the planning expectations candidates encounter in the EPiC™ Key Assessment.
Move Beyond Completed Fields
A completed lesson plan is not necessarily a strong lesson plan.
A candidate may identify a standard, write a learning objective, list instructional activities, and include an assessment. A meaningful evaluation looks beyond whether each section has been filled in to determine whether:
The objective is measurable and aligned with the standard.
Learning activities directly support the objective.
Prior knowledge is intentionally activated.
Questions promote an appropriate level of thinking.
Instruction responds to students’ talents, backgrounds, and experiences.
Supports address identified learner needs.
Assessments measure the intended learning.
Planned tasks provide appropriate cognitive rigor.
Evidence-First markers provide reviewers with a shared language for identifying elements within the candidate’s existing lesson plan. Instead of relying on a general impression, reviewers can point to specific evidence when assigning a performance level or recommending a next step.
Show Candidates What Stronger Planning Looks Like
Feedback is most useful when candidates can act on it.
Consider a lesson plan that includes several content-related questions. Telling the candidate to “include more rigorous questioning” does not clearly explain what needs to change.
An Evidence-First review can distinguish among questions that ask students to recall information, apply understanding, justify their reasoning, or extend their thinking through real-world application.
The reviewer can identify the evidence currently present and recommend a manageable next step—for example, revising one recall question so students must compare possible solutions and justify their reasoning.
That feedback improves more than one document. It helps the candidate understand how planning decisions influence classroom instruction and student learning—an important connection as candidates prepare to demonstrate those decisions through the EPiC Key Assessment.
Turn Candidate Results Into Program Insight
Each lesson plan evaluation supports an individual candidate. Aggregated results can also reveal program-level patterns.
For example, candidates may consistently align objectives and assessments but struggle to plan questions requiring strategic or extended thinking. Faculty can then provide additional modeling, practice, or support before those candidates complete the EPiC Key Assessment and examine later results for evidence of improvement.
This creates a clear continuous-improvement cycle:
Candidates use the program’s established lesson plan template.
Reviewers evaluate specific planning evidence.
Candidates receive actionable feedback.
Faculty identify recurring strengths and gaps.
The program provides targeted support.
Later lesson plans and EPiC results are examined to identify areas for improvement.
Rather than simply collecting completed plans or final scores, the program can demonstrate how candidate evidence informs support, program decisions, and future performance.
Better Feedback Does Not Require a New Template
Many EPPs already have a thoughtful lesson plan template. What they may need is a clearer, more evidence-based way to evaluate the planning it captures.
By using the Evidence-First Lesson Plan Review alongside the EPiC Key Assessment, programs can make expectations more transparent, feedback more actionable, and candidate support more intentional, without replacing the planning process they already trust.
Keep your lesson plan template. Strengthen the feedback, preparation, and learning that come from it.
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