approach to lesson plans

[elibats]

Hello all,

I am starting grad school to study secondary education, specifically the teaching of English to high school students. I'm sure I'll come to understand in my studies the concept of lesson plans and how to write them, but I was wondering if there are any teachers out there who want to share ideas about how they write their lesson plans.

Thanks,
Polly

[qimissung]

First of all, it's easier once you are actually teaching because one usually works with a curriculum. You might also meet with a team of teachers to make some decisions abut the focus or material that will be used.

The way that I actually write them, once I've decided on a core group of activities, is as follows:

Monday:

Students will write a journal entry on the most dangerous thing that has ever happened to them.

Students will then, along with the teacher, read the first two pages of "The Most Dangerous Game."

I always phrase things in terms of what the teachers or students will be doing.

[Zee.]

That book is freaky, especially considering the fact that it inspired the Zodiac killer..

[motherhubbard]

I’m an education student and when I make a lesson plan these four things are always required.

A primary framework and any secondary frameworks
The student learning expectations using guidelines from Bloom’s Taxonomy
Observable/measurable objective
Assessment


I end up with the same four sentences just written a little differently. When I’m in the classroom I do find thinking about the lesson this way helpful.

[sehrish Liaquat]

Hello to all,

I am conducting a research on "satan as embodiment of leadership qualities in paradise lost" any one can help me in review of related literature.
Thanks a million

[Charles Darnay]

sehrish Liaquat, this is a good idea, but the wrong place to post this.



Hello all,

I am starting grad school to study secondary education, specifically the teaching of English to high school students. I'm sure I'll come to understand in my studies the concept of lesson plans and how to write them, but I was wondering if there are any teachers out there who want to share ideas about how they write their lesson plans.

Thanks,
Polly

Alright then....bringing it back to the question at hand.....


*I am aware of the oldness of this post......but for anyone now who is starting on the Teacher's journey.......*

I am currently a new teacher, and what I have found (and I am not the only one) is that while in teacher's college you write fancy lesson plans, as you progress, lesson plans devolve into scribbles on a napkin (a bit of an exaggeration but still...)

However you write out a lesson plan, the important things to consider (aside from the good ideas mentioned above):

1. Start with the "big idea" - what is it that you really want the students to learn that day/group of days?

It is so easy to fall into the "Design-up" group, in which you spend your time and energy designing "activities" in order to teach this book, or that play &c. The real trick is to know first what your goal is. "Today I want my students to understand how the tension between thought and action exists in Hamlet" - so with that in mind, you begin to design strategies to accomplish this goal.

2. Make it flexible

This may seem like an obvious point, but.... As good a plan as you design, you want to make it so that if a student asks a question that may draw you on a tangent, you don't automatically disregard it because it doesn't fit into your plan. While it is a good idea when writing a plan to allocate amount of time per section, be flexible with that.

3. Try and make assessment a part of each class. I do not mean have a quiz/test every day - but some form f formative assessment that helps students learn. Depending on where you are, your educational system will have some form of assessment plan in place, but regardless, informal assessment (whether that is discussion or a small task) engages students with the material and encourages them to take stock of where they are in learning and how they can improve.

These are just some ideas that come to mind. In your programme you will be given (I'm sure) templates for actually writing the plan, but as I said at the start, the ideas are more important than the plan itself. Outside of Teacher's College, no one will be looking at your lesson plans but you (or anyone you may ask to, such as fellow teachers) - so focus on the ideas behind the plan.

Take care!

[Motherof8]

I would test them to see what there weak points are, and put more emphasis on the things they need to learn most. It is also helpful to find out their learning styles and try to make the course interesting.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

What's stupid about lesson plans is that you only ever write them when you're in a class about becoming a teacher. When you get into a classroom, you don't have time to write out every little state education requirement your plan encompasses. You don't have time for that bull****. You sketch some notes and you're good to know. I wrote dozens of lesson plans when I was studying to be a teacher. As a teacher? Not one.

[Charles Darnay]

I still write them out on occasion. Mostly unit plans rather than lesson plans. I learned some useful tips from the "How to write a lesson plan" parts of teacher's college that not only affect the physical lesson plan, but how I structure the class. I wouldn't go as far to say they are bull****.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Well, I guess I meant the lesson plans themselves aren't bull****, just the idea that a teacher needs that much detail to effectively teach a class.

[Scheherazade]

I have been teaching for many years and rarely walked into a class without having a lesson plan at hand. I almost never look at the plan while teaching but while writing it, I am really prepared for the class.

[Paulclem]

Me too. In fact it's a requirement that we produce lesson plans ready to submit to inspectors.

I find them useful in structuring lessons, and they usually follow a whole group activity - small group/paired work and then individual work with a discussion at the end. What goes into the lesson plan initially comes from a scheme of work which is a half term or terms routemap of learning. This is flexible though, and usually become modified when I have to spend more time on something than I had planned for.

The useful thing we do is to add a reflection after each lesson to note what learning has taken place and what teaching worked/ didn/t work/ needs repeating etc. I find this ensures a continuity between lessons.

[synodbio]

A warm up activity can be used in a number of ways. It can get your students thinking about material that will be used later on in the class, review material from a previous class, or simply get your students thinking in English, moving around, or awake. This activity should only take up a small portion of your lesson, perhaps five minutes.

[BFrank]

Hi Polly,
I am an English teacher, literacy coach, and technology coordinator at a school in Queens, NYC. I have been teaching for over a decade, and I love curriculum planning and lesson planning. I have attached a lesson plan template that I use, which a I adapted from Wiggins and McTighe's Understanding by Design (UbD). While UbD is the process of backwards design for unit plans, I created this lesson template to align to my unit plans. (I'm sorry if the formatting is off; I downloaded the file from Google Docs.)

Good Luck,
Barry

[mrlinh15]

I learned some useful tips from the "How to write a lesson plan" parts of teacher's college that not only affect the physical lesson plan

[sunnyy]

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