I can't tell you how much we appreciate the time, attention and effort so many of you are putting into lesson planning. To continue to support your efforts I have devoted several blog posts to lesson planning and the lesson plan components that our district has asked us to focus on. I have found so much that I want to share but not all at one time. This week's blog is a bit longer but I think the information is worth the read. Our Learning Showcase for this week is THOUGHTS ON LESSON PLANNING. I wanted to share this because it should 1) encourage you that you are on the right track and 2) provide some ideas about lesson planning that you may not have considered. As always I am not asking you to do exactly what you read here but to reflect on it and add things that will make your practice better.
LEARNING SHOWCASE FOR THIS WEEK: THOUGHTS ON LESSON PLANNING.......
The first excerpt comes from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/planning-lesson-telling-story-karen-lea
How many of you would go see a movie or read a book that was all mixed up? Let's face it, we all like a good beginning, middle and end in movies and books. So why not in our lessons?
If you think about a book or movie, the beginning should catch your attention. I don't know about you, but if the beginning doesn't catch my attention I will probably quit reading the book and might leave the movie. So how do we catch the attention of students? We call that a hook; something that makes students curious, something that makes them want to learn more. That is our beginning in a lesson.
Let's look at the Common Core Standards in writing as a foundation and source of possible beginnings.
Kindergarten Standard
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.1: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events; tell about the events in the order in which they occurred; and provide a reaction to what happened.
Beginning: Be a mime for a few minutes. Explain to students that you are going to tell them a story without words. You want them to watch and, at the end, guess what the story was. Then use pictures and gestures to tell a story.
6th Grade Standard
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6: Write argSupport claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text.
Beginning: If you wrote that standard on the board and said, "This is what we're going to do today," the students would start ignoring you right away. Instead, think about starting class with a little controversy. Act as if you are reading a news article that states dogs with long hair are smarter than dogs with short hair, and give several made up claims about why this is true. Then discuss it. Middle school students love to debate, and that kind of claim will grab their attention. Make the reasons so strange that they start looking at you and wondering what's going on.
The Rest of the Plan
Now that we have our beginnings, what about the middle? This does not mean the middle is boring. However, since we do have everyone's attention, the middle is full of information. Look at the standards we are using; what would be your middle? Post it in the comments section below, and let's talk.
And then there's . . . the ending! This is where you bring the lesson to a close. You might do that by repeating the beginning, you might give the conclusion yourself, or lead the students there and let them give the conclusion. When you create the ending, you are answering the question, "What do I want my students to remember?"
But wait -- you aren't finished! Students need time to reflect. Reflection on the entire lesson is as important as the beginning. I like to give students a sticky note or 3X5 card and have them write the most important thing they learned, and up to two questions that they still have. Then I ask them to write why they think this lesson is important. Careful here, let them be honest. It will assist you in planning future lessons.
The second Learning Showcase comes from http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/p2_5
Strategies for Effective Lesson Planning Stiliana Milkova
Center for Research on Learning and Teaching
A lesson plan is the instructor’s road map of what students need to learn and how it will be done effectively during the class time. Before you plan your lesson, you will first need to identify the learning objectives for the class meeting. Then, you can design appropriate learning activities and develop strategies to obtain feedback on student learning. A successful lesson plan addresses and integrates these three key components:
- Objectives for student learning
- Teaching/learning activities
- Strategies to check student understanding
Specifying concrete objectives for student learning will help you determine the kinds of teaching and learning activities you will use in class, while those activities will define how you will check whether the learning objectives have been accomplished (see Fig. 1).
Steps for Preparing a Lesson Plan
Below are six steps to guide you when you create your first lesson plans. Each step is accompanied by a set of questions meant to prompt reflection and aid you in designing your teaching and learning activities.
(1) Outline learning objectives
The first step is to determine what you want students to learn and be able to do at the end of class. To help you specify your objectives for student learning, answer the following questions:
- What is the topic of the lesson?
- What do I want students to learn?
- What do I want them to understand and be able to do at the end of class?
- What do I want them to take away from this particular lesson?
Once you outline the learning objectives for the class meeting, rank them in terms of their importance. This step will prepare you for managing class time and accomplishing the more important learning objectives in case you are pressed for time. Consider the following questions:
- What are the most important concepts, ideas, or skills I want students to be able to grasp and apply?
- Why are they important?
- If I ran out of time, which ones could not be omitted?
- And conversely, which ones could I skip if pressed for time?
(2) Develop the introduction
Now that you have your learning objectives in order of their importance, design the specific activities you will use to get students to understand and apply what they have learned. Because you will have a diverse body of students with different academic and personal experiences, they may already be familiar with the topic. That is why you might start with a question or activity to gauge students’ knowledge of the subject or possibly, their preconceived notions about it. For example, you can take a simple poll: “How many of you have heard of X? Raise your hand if you have.”
Develop a creative introduction to the topic to stimulate interest and encourage thinking. You can use a variety of approaches to engage students (e.g., personal anecdote, historical event, thought-provoking dilemma, real-world example, short video clip, practical application, probing question, etc.). Consider the following questions when planning your introduction:
- How will I check whether students know anything about the topic or have any preconceived notions about it?
- What are some commonly held ideas (or possibly misconceptions) about this topic that students might be familiar with or might espouse?
- What will I do to introduce the topic?
(3) Plan the specific learning activities (the main body of the lesson)
Prepare several different ways of explaining the material (real-life examples, analogies, visuals, etc.) to catch the attention of more students and appeal to different learning styles. As you plan your examples and activities, estimate how much time you will spend on each. Build in time for extended explanation or discussion, but also be prepared to move on quickly to different applications or problems, and to identify strategies that check for understanding. These questions would help you design the learning activities you will use:
- What will I do to explain the topic?
- What will I do to illustrate the topic in a different way?
- How can I engage students in the topic?
- What are some relevant real-life examples, analogies, or situations that can help students understand the topic?
- What will students need to do to help them understand the topic better?
(4) Plan to check for understanding
Now that you have explained the topic and illustrated it with different examples, you need to check for student understanding – how will you know that students are learning? Think about specific questions you can ask students in order to check for understanding, write them down, and then paraphrase them so that you are prepared to ask the questions in different ways. Try to predict the answers your questions will generate. Decide on whether you want students to respond orally or in writing. You can look at Strategies to Extend Student Thinking,http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/P4_4.php to help you generate some ideas and you can also ask yourself these questions:
- What questions will I ask students to check for understanding?
- What will I have students do to demonstrate that they are following?
- Going back to my list of learning objectives, what activity can I have students do to check whether each of those has been accomplished?
An important strategy that will also help you with time management is to anticipate students’ questions. When planning your lesson, decide what kinds of questions will be productive for discussion and what questions might sidetrack the class. Think about and decide on the balance between covering content (accomplishing your learning objectives) and ensuring that students understand.
(5) Develop a conclusion
Go over the material covered in class by summarizing the main points of the lesson. You can do this in a number of ways: you can state the main points yourself (“Today we talked about…”), you can ask a student to help you summarize them, or you can even ask all students to write down on a piece of paper what they think were the main points of the lesson. You can review the students’ answers to gauge their understanding of the topic and then explain anything unclear the following class.
The Week Ahead
October 5--Eppley/Cuthrell/Connor to the Dixie Classic Fair
October 6--Frazier @ Joint Principal's' Meeting 7:30 am/ Dental Screening for Grades Pre-K, 3 and 5--schedule will be e-mailed to you
October 7--October Faculty Meeting and Monroe/Crowell/Sterne to Dixie Classic Fair
October 10--Bully Walk--please be sure you have read the information from Mrs. Williams
Looking Ahead into October.....
October 12--October School Improvement Team Meeting
October 14--Early Release Day #3---I am looking for a volunteer to do a 5 minute energizer on that day. If you have a great energizer that you want to lead--let me know!
October 15 and 16---Hispanic Heritage Celebration during Connections---more information to come! K and 2 Field trips
October 19---Haiku Training during planning times--district personnel will be on site to make sure that we know how to utilize Haiku--every school has this training
October 20-23--End of Quarter Testing for grades 3, 4, and 5
October 26--No School for Students and Classified Employees
Twitter accounts----@cjfbolton @Principalcjf
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