Becca Gottfried Educ 351 Final Paper

To be able to write an effective, cohesive lesson, teachers need to keep a few things in mind, such as the students in the classroom, the SOLs and objectives, and coming up with aligned assessments and activities for these lessons. Another main consideration teachers must have is after they have taught a lesson, to sit down and reflect on how the lesson went, what could be changed, and what could be done better next time. The first thing to do in any lesson is to sit down and figure out what exactly is going to be taught. The best reference for this is the Virginia Standards Of Learning (for teachers in Virginia). The SOLs provide a clear outline of material that needs to be covered in the class (Cunningham). From this, KUD objectives can be formed. Having objectives is the fundamental basis for lesson planning. The key objectives (KUDs) should have the students understand, know, and be able to. The objectives should always focus on what the students should get out of a lesson (Milkova). Objectives should always be clear, focused ideas. One good thing about planning a lesson around SOLs is that the lessons can build from previous knowledge, and have students get to a higher level of Blooms Taxonomy (Shrawder). After objectives are created, there are a few different tactics to planning out the lesson. One is backwards design, where the first step of creating a lesson is to come up with the assessment. This way, the entire lesson plan is based on the knowledge the students should have

at the end of the lesson, and the models used for teaching the lesson and the activities and formative assessments all align with the summative assessment at the end of the lesson or unit (McMillan, 2011). Another way to begin a lesson is to start with coming up what model would best work for students in the classroom, and then come up with the activities and assessment based on this. This way, the lesson is being taught based on the thought that the material will be taught in the most effective way (Colorado State University). This way, the students will be able to have the material taught to them using a cohesive model. The one do NOT in beginning a lesson is to plan it around the activities this will make the lesson activity based, rather than learning based the students will not have the material presented in a way that will help them learn the information (Shrawder). A key consideration to come into play when planning the lesson and the assessment is the specific classroom and students the lesson is being planned for. Every single classroom is different, and every single student is different. Some key thoughts when planning a lesson are if students in the class have disabilities, what ways they can be accommodated, how to differentiate a classroom, and the best way to get students to learn the most material (Milkova). One way to to do this it to present a lesson using differentiated instruction, so many learning options are given, and can be tailored to students needs (McMillan, 2011). One example of this is this paper three different options were given instead of writing a paper, so the students in the class could pick a final examination that they felt they could use to their advantage to best show off their knowledge. Some will choose artistic projects, while others, like myself, will choose research papers.

Another important concept to keep in mind during planning lessons is to make sure there is time to observe students during class and make sure they have time to ask questions. This way, students are not doing the work at home through homework and learning it incorrectly (Cunningham). A good way to do this is handing students exit slips at the end of the class, so any clarifications that need to be made can be made by the next class. Once a lesson is planned with KUDs, assessments thought of (and perhaps made, though they should not be set in stone, so that the assessment always aligns with the lesson), the models planned, and the activities created, the next step is to come up with materials to be able to present the lesson, and come up with back up alternatives for the materials and lesson, in case something goes wrong (Cunningham). Once the resources are gathered to teach a lesson, the lesson is ready to be taught. One step that many students and teachers forget, that may be the most important part of planning a lesson, is being able to reflect on a lesson after it has been taught at least once (Milkova). If a lesson is being taught and something goes terribly wrong in the lesson, a teacher should be able to modify a lesson and turn around and teach the modified lesson to the next class they have. Also, once a lesson is entirely taught it is important for teachers to be able to look back and see what could be done differently next time perhaps the model chosen was not the most effective, or perhaps something happened along the way that made the lesson and assessment seem less aligned. Looking at assessments and being able to know whether sections of a lesson need to be retaught can be essential in planning future lessons, especially if the knowledge will be built on further in the class. It is also key to keep in mind that each class is different, so lesson plans should change year to year, and be modified to the specific classroom and students that are being taught (Colorado State University).

It can be seen that there are many important factors to keep in mind when planning a lesson, including the SOLs and KUD objectives, the model being used, the activities in the lesson, the formative and summative assessments, differentiating the lesson for students, and reflecting on a lesson to see what can be changed for future lesson plans. With any of these steps missing, a lesson may quickly fall apart, or not be taught as effective as it could be. With these considerations in mind, a teacher should be able to come up with an individualized, effective lesson for teaching their own unique classroom.

References Colorado State University. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/teaching/esl/lessontips.cfm Cunningham, G. C. New teachers companion. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109051/chapters/lesson-plans-and-unit-plans@-thebasis-for-instruction.aspx McMillan, J. (2011). Classroom assessment. (5 ed., p. 8). Milkova, S. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/p2_5 Shrawder, J. H., & Warner, D. (0). Retrieved from http://www.wwcc.wy.edu/facres/tfs/focalites/LessonPlan_Focalite.pdf