Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Chapter 10/How do we plan lessons, and why is it important? 2

From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection

How do we plan lessons and Why is it important? by: Carrie MacLeod

Imagine, being hired as a new teacher, walking into your classroom for the first time with no guidance from the administration and no guide for your teaching curriculum. How intimidating! What do you teach, how do you teach it? This is not a nightmare. This is happening in many schools even today. This leads us to a very important tool for every new teacher, the curriculum guide. With the use of the curriculum guide you will be led down the path of your entire year. This guide will direct you to what your students will learn. This guide will help you build your lesson plans. Why do we need lesson plans? Why are they important? The following paragraphs will lay out basic tools for producing effective lesson plans and explain why these plans are so important to teacher and student success.

What is a lesson? In a classroom, a lesson focuses on the teaching and learning activities to be carried out during a specific period of time. A lesson plan is a logical arrangement of concepts/ideas or skills to be covered during the teaching and learning process.

Initially when a new teacher is hired they should receive a curriculum guide from the school administrator. This guide lays out the state standards. These standards are the base points from which lesson plans begin. They are also the goals you want to reach in your teaching. If your school does not have a curriculum guide seek out a fellow teacher as a mentor. It needs to be someone who is very willing to share their experience. Then follow the steps below starting with your state learning standards as your objectives.

Andrew Johnson, an assistant professor of Mankato State University in Minnesota specializes in teacher education and effectiveness. He has designed an outline for lesson planning. He has taken the infamous Madeline Hunter model and simplified it into five steps: 1. The objective- this is the standard from the curriculum guide, what you want the students to learn, keep them clear and simple. These can be used to build tests from. 2. The introduction- this links the new information to what the students already know, this should also include something to arouse student interest and curiosity, something to motivate learning. The more interesting the introduction, the more interested the students. 3. The input- easily lay out in outline form what exactly is to be taught. Step by step instructions that correspond to the objectives. This section can include prompts to remind oneself of visual aids to be used. This should also include questions that will test the students' comprehension. 4.The activity- this step involves action with the input. This is what the students are going to do with the new information, how they will apply what they have learned. Blooms taxonomy divides verbs into six categories to develop activities on different levels. Side bar: http://edtech.clas.pdx.edu/presentations/frr99/blooms.htm 5. Closure and review (optional)- this is used to reflect on the objectives that should have been learned and may also be a lead into the next lesson. The review can be looked at two ways. It can be an optional review for the students of the information they received, or it can be used as the teacher’s review of the lesson. An effective teacher must take the time to review the lesson and take note of any changes, additions or adjustments that need to be made.

These five simple steps explain how to build a lesson plan. Now why do we need lesson plans? Effective lesson plans lead teachers through what they need to teach and inform students of what they are responsible for learning. If the lesson plan is effective, it will lay out the objectives of what is to be learned, the input of how it will be learned and the activity that will reinforce the learning. It is important that the activity corresponds with the objective so that it will help the students retain the information. Lessons need to make the students active learners. Teachers that go home at the end of the day exhausted are doing too much of the work and the students are not doing enough.

When a teacher takes the time to build an effective lesson plan, it allows for purposeful instruction. The teacher knows the goals and how to reach them. Through building lesson plans the teacher explores the curriculum and becomes well informed. When the teacher is well informed they are confident and comfortable about their instruction.

When the teacher has a plan it allows the students to spend time learning rather than wondering what they are going to learn. With an effective lesson plan, the teacher has planned activities that will reinforce the lesson. This keeps the students engaged and interested. Without well planned lessons, the students lose focus and interest. When the students lose interest, the classroom becomes chaotic. Nothing gets accomplished with chaos. An effective lesson plan helps with classroom management. When students are involved in learning, they don’t have time to misbehave. It is important to integrate technology into today’s classes. The students are interested in technology therefore they are interested in learning lessons through technology.

With all this, the important thing for all new teachers to remember is to take time to build effective lesson plans. The objectives are simply stated so the teacher knows what is to be taught and the students know what they are responsible for learning. The activities need to correspond with the objectives to make active learners retain information. With effective lesson plans both teachers and students know where they are going and what steps are going to take them there. This always makes for a successful trip.

Harry Wong, author of How to be an Effective Teacher, The First Days of School states, “Without a lesson plan, without a classroom map, and without a guide of some form, there is no way you can grow. You can only grow if you have some direction. Thus, if you dare to teach, you must never cease to learn. Teaching, growing and learning are continuous, lifelong processes….As your lesson plans grow, you grow, and your students will grow with you.”

Essay question: How do effective lesson plans build successful teachers and students?

Multiple choice: 1. Why does Andrew Johnson say that teachers need to have simply stated objectives? a. because the students are stupid. b. so the teacher know what they are teaching. c. so the students know what they are responsible for learning. d.. both a and b e. both b and c

2. How should a new teacher handle making lesson plans if they don’t receive curriculum guides from their administrators? a. seek a mentor teacher, b. quit c. build from state standards. d. none of the above. e. both a and c.

3. Why should teachers include an activity in their lesson plans? a. to keep the students busy so they can nap. b. so the class can get exercise. c. so the students can put their new information to work. d. to explain what is to be learned.

4. Teachers should review their lesson plans to a. improve upon them. b. to grow as an educator. c. to emphasize what the students should take away from the lesson. d. all the above.

5. Why is the lesson introduction so important? a. So student and teacher can get to know each other. b. To grab the students attention. c. To introduce the new information. d. both a and b e. both b and c

Sources:

Wong, Harry and Rosemary. How to be an Effective Teacher: the First Days of School. Wong Publications. Mountain View, CA, 2004.

Library of Congress. Esspecially for Teachers: Getting Started. American Memorial project. Retrived September 17,2006. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/index.html.

Johnson, Andrew P. It's Time for Madeline Hunter to go: A New Look at Lesson Plan Design. Action in Teacher Education, 22 nol 72-8, Spr 2000. http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.proxy.lib.odu.edu/hww/results/results_single_fulltext.jhtml.

Wong, Harry and Rosemary. Effective Teaching: Hitting the Bulls Eye as a Beginning Teacher. May 2006. Retrived September 17, 2006, from http://teachers.net/wong/May06/wongrint.html.

Blooms Taxonomy. Retrieved September 17,2006, from http://edtech.clas.pdx.edu/presentations/frr99/blooms.htlm.

Multiple choice answers: 1.e 2.e 3.c 4.d 5.e