Lesson Planning

1. Lesson Planning AEE 535

2. Parts of a Problem Solving Lesson Plan I. Title (Minimum: Problem Area Title) II. Situation III. Teacher Objectives IV. Teaching Procedures A. Interest Approach B. Group Objectives C. Problems and Concerns D. Problem Solutions V. References VI. Evaluation Lesson Plan

3. Need for Lesson Plans • Planning for instruction is essential! • Lack of experience can often be offset with good planning! • “Shooting from the hip” leads to misinformation and is unacceptable • Lesson plans allow the teacher to be better organized and prepared for teaching.

4. Lesson Plans This presentation provides information on a very complete format for lesson plans. It provides a sound basis for planning. This format is NOT a daily plan. It is a plan for teaching a given amount of information in agriculture, usually we think of planning for 5-10 days of instruction.

5. Writing Titles Unit Titles • Identify the general topic • Used for filing/organizing materials, but sometimes not included on the actual lesson plan • Examples: Animal Science; Small Engines; Landscape Design, etc. Enterprise Titles • Specifies what type of agricultural commodity is to be studied • Examples: Beef Production; Engine Repair; Design Principles Problem Area Titles • Defines the content of the lesson (MOST IMPORTANT PART OF TITLE!) Should be the title of the actual lesson plan. • Use “ing” words to denote action and application • Personalizes the lesson to the learner

6. Developing the Situation • Defines the context in which the lesson is taught • Consider • to whom the lesson will be taught (class) • prior knowledge and experience of students • situation in community (current practices, importance to ag in community, unusual problems) • State and national situation

7. Example of Situation Statement 1. This lesson will be taught to the Horticulture I students. 2. Students have no experience in plant propagation, but have received instruction in identification and use of horticultural tools, including grafting knives. 3. Budding and grafting is used extensively by 3 major nurseries in the area that produce fruit trees and by orchard managers in the area. 4. Lesson will be taught just prior to optimum season for grafting trees. 5. Most students have fruit trees at home and could benefit from information on grafting.

8. Teacher Objectives • Statements of what the teacher hopes to accomplish • State in behavioral terms • May involve all three domains of learning • Consistent with problems and concerns. • Also called performance objectives.

9. Writing Teacher Objectives Consists of 3 parts: • Conditions: Under what conditions will the activity be performed? • Specific behavior: What is the student supposed to do? • Criteria for evaluation: What is the acceptable level of performance?

10. Examples 1. Given a list of 10 soil nutrients, the student will be able to correctly classify the nutrients as micronutrients or macronutrients, as defined in the class. 2. Given a fruit tree, scion stock, and grafting equipment, students will be able to produce whip grafts with an 80% success rate.

11. More Examples 3. Given four breeding gilts, students will be able to rank them from best to least desirable, using characteristics described in the swine judging guide. Note: Sometimes the conditions and the criteria are assumed and are not stated. 4. Students will be able to take soil samples.

12. Making Lists of Teacher Objectives Suggested Procedure: Students will be able to correctly: 1. Xxxxxxx xxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx 2. Xxxxxxxx xx xxxx x x 3. Xxxxxxxx xxxxxx x xxxxxxxxxx. Note: You must have all teacher objectives included in your list of problems and concerns. Objectives are sometimes more specific than Problems and Concerns.

13. Teaching Procedures Interest Approaches • Interest approaches were discussed as a tool for motivating students in an earlier lesson. • Interest approaches should be conducted at the beginning of a new lesson plan (problem area) • Interest approaches are often useful at the beginning of a new topic within a lesson plan (a problem solution) • Keep in mind that the idea is not to teach the material during an interest approach--it is simply to create more interest. Avoid falling into a teaching mode at this point!

14. Interest Approaches Planning Required: (remember the 3 goals) Gain Attention • Describe what will be done--tell story, show a model, set up a problem situation Develop a Mental Set • List of lead questions that will establish either what the students already know or prior experience with the topic Create Uncertainty • List of questions (beginning with a general question leading to specific questions) designed to show students there is more to be learned about the topic.

15. Developing Group Objectives Once the interest approach is completed, another motivational tool for the teacher is the establishment of group objectives. Group objectives: • Answers the question, “Why is it important for you (the student) to learn this information?” • Should be general and stated as goals for the students. • Should emphasize why they should learn the information, not what they are to learn. • Are more effective if the students come up with the list of reasons to study the topic rather than being told by the teacher that the information is important.

16. Planning Needed for Group Objectives • Two or three lead questions: Why is it important to learn about _______? How will you benefit from learning about _______? • List of anticipated group objectives (why you think the students should learn this information). For a landscaping lesson: 1. To improve the beauty of our own home. 2. Because there are lots of career opportunities in landscaping. 3. To increase the value of my home. Note: These are why to learn, not what they should learn about landscaping!

17. Problems and Concerns Problems and Concerns comprise what will be included in the lesson. They consist of a list of questions that a student may need to have answered in order to achieve the Teacher Objectives listed earlier in the lesson. In that sense, the must address all of the Teacher Objectives. By breaking this down into a list of questions, the focus of the learning is changed from simply learning subject matter to dealing with real-world agricultural problems or concerns.

18. Problems and Concerns • Should be stated in a question format. • Should be fairly general in nature and should require several sub-points in order to answer the question. • Are too specific if the question could be answered in a sentence or two. • Allow the students to develop a list of questions/ problems (motivation technique--provides ownership in the lesson) • Teacher adds to the list to insure all objectives are addressed.

19. Planning Required List of lead questions (for developing a list of problems with student input) 1. What do you need to know in order to_____? 2. What skills are required in order to______? List of anticipated problems and concerns (This list provides order and structure for the final list of problems and concerns--students will not list them in any particular order. Also insures that the list is complete.) Example: 1. What steps are involved in caring for a mare prior to foaling? 2. How do I select the best variety of corn to plant?

20. Problem Solutions For every problem and concern, the teacher must develop a plan for the problem solution. Now that the question has been posed, what is the answer? This is the part of the lesson where teaching new material begins! Up until this point, the teacher is using techniques to motivate students to learn the new material. Problem solutions in the lesson plan should contain all of the information that you plan to teach. Don’t rely on your memory!!!

21. Parts of a Problem Solution A problem solution should have 3 parts: • A trial discussion--find out what students already know about the specific question posed. • Information to be learned (structured with appropriate learning activities) • A summary or conclusion--This is the critical part of the entire problem solving approach! Allow the students to arrive at the answer to the question--after they have received the related information. (Repeated for each problem or concern identified.)

22. Planning Required Trial Discussion • Very simple and brief (2-3 minutes maximum) • May need a lead question to determine what the students already know about the question/problem. • Key point: Just because one student appears to have a lot of knowledge, don’t assume all students have equal knowledge.

23. Planning Required Information • Contains all of the information--major part of plan • Includes teaching techniques/learning activities to teach the information • Includes visuals, handouts, worksheets, etc. • Contains notes to yourself (directions listing when to do certain activities)

24. Summary and Conclusions • Often the part of the lesson that results in critical thinking by the students • If we pose a question at the beginning (a problem or concern), shouldn’t we arrive at an answer at the end? • Conclusions are better than summaries! • A traditional teaching strategy is to simply provide the information, leaving the students to arrive at the conclusion on their own. This will not work for some students!

25. Summary and Conclusions Options: • Develop a case study/situation and ask for students to arrive at the answer, based upon the information taught in the lesson. (asks for a conclusion) • Ask questions related to the content to check for understanding (way to summarize) • Teacher can summarize major points for the students (clearly the weakest approach)

26. Evaluation Methods used to evaluate student performance should be developed. Could include: • Tests and quizzes • Laboratory assignments • Worksheets/daily activities • Homework

27. References Why needed? • Important to document the source of your information • Good idea to have a list of references used in developing the lesson. • May not be necessary to have a complete reference as you would if writing a paper.