LESSON PLANNING

1. LESSON PLANNING & PRESENTATION

2. Curriculum refers to the subjects taught at an educational institution, or the elements taught in a particular subject. A comprehensive (complete, includes everything) curriculum will address physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development. CURRICULUM... Curriculum types include fine and performing arts (music and art), vocational or career and technical (business, industrial technology, Family & Consumer Science) core academics (English, math, social studies, science), and physical education. An integrated or interdisciplinary curriculum is education that is organized in such a way that it cuts across subject-matter lines. Example: if the topic is Nebraska students in social studies learn the geography of the state, students in food’s class learn what food products are manufactured in this state, math students calculate how many hours and minutes it takes to drive the length of the state at 65 MPH, music students play or sing the state song, art students paint a picture of the state flower, English students read a story written by a Nebraska author, etc.

3. To write an individual lesson plan, you start with an objective. An objective is the “goal” you wish to accomplish within a specific curriculum area. OBJECTIVES... The objective must be child-directed. You may start each objective with “the child will…” or “the student will…” or “the learner will…”. (If an objective was teacher-directed, it might read “the teacher will present a lesson on multiplying single digits…”.) The objective must be measurable. As you write the objective, think of a method you could use to observe or measure whether or not the student actually accomplished the objective. “The student will add…, draw…, list…, explain…, write…, demonstrate the ability to…, differentiate between…, recite…,” Those sound like words in a test question. You cannot see or measure “the student will know…, understand…, visualize…,”. Later on in the lesson, during assessment, you will refer back to the language of the objective to evaluate whether or not the child has met the objective.

4. Sequence refers to the order in which knowledge is learned. Learning how to add and subtract is a necessary prerequisite (required first in order for something else to happen) to learning how to multiply. The sequence then, must be to teach adding and subtracting first and multiplying after. SCOPE & SEQUENCE... When developing objectives for a lesson, you must consider “scope”. Scope simply means “the range of information” covered in an activity, or on a subject or topic. Example: if the topic is vegetables, will the scope of the lesson include how to plant vegetables, how to cook vegetables, daily nutritional requirements of vegetables, differentiating between vegetables and other foods, common vegetable colors, how to spell names of vegetables… or will the scope be limited to one or more areas.

5. ANTICIPATORY SET... Suppose the teacher said it was time for a new lesson, and then started by putting on a hat and trenchcoat, pulling out a magnifying glass, and looking around the room through the magnifying lens. How would the children react? Of course they would get excited, and “anticipate” what the lesson was going to be about. They would “look forward to” what they were going to learn next. They might guess “are we going to investigate something?... solve a mystery?... hunt for clues?...” The way the teacher introduces the new lesson should create this anticipatory set. Now that you’ve got their attention, they’re “ready” to learn.

6. Input is the information that is imparted to the student in a lesson, and the method a teacher chooses in order to provide the information. INPUT... The younger the child, the more active or interactive the presentation needs to be. The teacher must look at the type of information to be presented and their own abilities in deciding “how” to present the lesson. Lab? Lecture? Reading assignment? Video? Game? Discussion?

7. The way any human being learns anything… is through practice. The only variable is “how much practice does any one person need?” PRACTICE... There are two different types of practice. Both help reinforce the teaching of the input. Guided or monitored practice is done in the presence of the teacher. After the lesson input, the teacher allows students to practice and get help as needed. Independent practice is that which is done away from the classroom. Homework is the most common form of independent practice, where students are expected to practice a skill or review information without assistance of the teacher. While one child may learn a particular concept with just one practice, another child may need to practice over and over and over again.

8. ASSESSMENT... An assessment is a form of evaluation. How well does the child meet the objective? Look back at the objective. Did it say “the child will be able to match states and capitals?” If so, your test question should be matching. Sometimes criteria becomes a part of assessment. Criteria is an acceptable standard used in judging how well the child met the objective. Perhaps the criteria added to the objective is “the child will match states and capitals with 70% accuracy.” That means the child “achieves or passes” the objective with an allowable percentage or number of errors.

9. If the child is tested on adding single digit numbers such as 2+2, and if the criteria is “70% accuracy”… Then what happens if the child scores 55%? RE-TEACHING... Ideally, if the child does not “pass the objective”, then the teacher should go back and re-teach the information again. Re-teach, and then re-assess… until the child is successful. After all, what will happen if the child doesn’t know simple addition, but the teacher goes on to subtraction? The child falls further and further behind. When re-teaching a lesson, the teacher may need to use a different method of input. To re-teach using the same methods may cause a greater degree of frustration for the student. Consider this problem: If only 1 or 2 students need re-teaching, and the rest of the students are ready to proceed… what should the teacher do?

10. Within a single classroom, student abilities may vary widely, from slow to average to high ability learners. MODIFICATIONS... The goal of education is to stimulate and challenge each child at their own level of development. Expectations of students that are too high cause students to become frustrated. Expectations of students that are too low damage self-esteem, promote laziness, or cause boredom. Objectives are written for the average student learner. The teacher may take the basic objective and make changes or “modifications” in the input or practice portions in order to accommodate special needs of students. Caution: bored students create their own stimulation!

11. BLOOM'S TAXONOMY... 1913-1999 In order to challenge all cognitive levels of students, you should vary types of assessment. Benjamin S. Bloom developed this taxonomy (system of classification) of assessments. They progress from simple to challenging. This taxonomy has been revised several times since its inception in the early 1950’s. This illustration shows the now-widely-accepted revisions of Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001.

13. The purpose of grading and reporting student progress is to engage teachers, students, and parents in the process of increasing student achievement. An effective system allows educators to clearly communicate student progress towards curriculum objectives in a form that is equitable, accurate, and useful. GRADING... Grading younger children usually requires the frequent use of an extrinsic rewards system. They need to see gold stars, smiley and frowning faces, scratch-n-sniff stickers, a special prize such as a pencil, awards certificates, small trophies, blue ribbons, etc. These rewards provide recognition, motivation, an encouragement. The older a child gets, less frequent extrinsic rewards are necessary, and more frequent intrinsic rewards are used. How many ways can you think of to tell a child they did a good job?

14. An activity that is considered an enrichment or enhancement to the curriculum is supplemental to instruction. ENRICHMENTS... Extracurricular activities or programs are those happening outside the normal curriculum. These activities often involve participants from another school. An example would be an extracurricular sports team from a school that competes with team members from another school. A basketball game might supplement physical education or encourage a sense of competition. Actually constructing and trying out this catapult might supplement a history or physics lesson. Intramural activities or programs are those occurring within or involving members of a single school. An example might be an intramural science fair. Students work with students from their own school on science projects and compete against other similar teams from their own school.

15. RESOURCES... Education costs money. School districts must budget money for teacher salaries, the electric bills, transportation, maintenance staff, textbooks, and consumable supplies. Private schools solicit donations and may charge students fees and tuition to cover these costs; public schools must operate within the confines of a tax-dollar-supported budget. Resources are limited! Teachers cannot afford, nor do school districts expect them to purchase supplies with their own money…although temptation to do so is great!

16. The quality of lesson presentation rests with the teacher. LESSON PRESENTATION... 3 Qualities of a good teacher: clarity - the ability to convey ideas and concepts to students; includes good background knowledge and careful planning and organization. ability to actively interact with students; includes getting down on the child’s level of thinking and activity, questions and answers during lesson presentation professional attitude; includes ability to command authority and respect, courage to admit limitations, ability to assess student strengths and weaknesses, enthusiasm for his/her field of expertise, caring for children

17. Read the book and rehearse in front of a mirror…perform! READING TO A CHILD... 2. Hold the book to the front so the children can see the pictures (you have to know the story well in order to do this); point out things in pictures that go with the story 3. Use props whenever possible. 4. Allow time for questions and comments. 5. Change your voice to fit different characters in the book. 6. Speak louder or make a funny sound if you see you are losing children’s interest…or stop and ask a question. 7. Act out, act out, and over act! Ham it up! 8. Over-exaggerate your emotions, your voice, and your gestures.

18. READING PRACTICE... • I didn’t sleep at all well last night because my back was hurting. I must have hurt it lifting furniture for my grandmother. It hurts to move this way and it hurts to move that way. All I do is hurt, hurt, hurt. • What has happened here? This place is a mess! You need to get this cleaned up immediately! We’re having company and they will be here any minute. Get moving, don’t just sit there! 3. The little kitten looked at it’s mother and purred, “mama, mama, I saw a furry little creature running across the floor, what was it?” The mother cat replied in a quiet but excited voice, “Where did you see it? Where did it go? Tell me little one, tell me quickly!”

19. LESSON PLANNING & PRESENTATION THE END