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 Good lessons must be planned. Planning helps to make your lessons clear and well-timed, meaning that students can be active and interested. Effective planning also includes some built-in flexibility so that teachers can respond to what they find out about their students’ learning as they teach. Working on a plan for a series of lessons involves knowing the students and their prior learning, what it means to progress through the curriculum, and finding the best resources and activities to help students learn. Planning is a continual process to help you prepare both individual lessons as well as a unit of lessons, each one building on the last. The stages of lesson planning are:
(TESS, 2015) Educational goals and objectives provide a sense of mission and purpose. The more aware you are of your mission and purpose in teaching an area of content, the more you will be able to inspire your students to learn it. Your ability to articulate goals conveys to learners your sense of purpose, from which they can make a commitment to learn. This is why goals are important—they energize and motivate students to become actively engaged in and committed to the learning process. Goals help teachers articulate “Why am I teaching this? Learning objectives, although written for the teacher, are expressed from the learner’s point of view. In other words, objectives identify what your students will learn from your instruction. Deciding what you want your students to accomplish during a lesson or unit of instruction requires answering the following questions:
( Nicole Arduini-Van Hoose.) Watch Video from Teach Like a Champion- How do you plan for class? (7:03 minutes) Getting Started >>Lesson PlanningTo begin developing your lesson plans for the course you will download the lesson plan template from the teacher education resource page. Below is a picture of the top section of the template which includes the:
What are learning objectivesExcerpt from Learning Objectives,The Glossary of Education Reform by Great Schools Partnership is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. In education, learning objectives are brief statements that describe what students will be expected to learn by the end of school year, course, unit, lesson, project, or class period. In many cases, learning objectives are the interim academic goals that teachers establish for students who are working toward meeting more comprehensive learning standards. Defining learning objective is complicated by the fact that educators use a wide variety of terms for learning objectives, and the terms may or may not be used synonymously from place to place. For example, the terms student learning objective, benchmark, grade-level indicator, learning target, performance indicator, and learning standard—to name just a few of the more common terms—may refer to specific types of learning objectives in specific educational contexts. Educators also create a wide variety of homegrown terms for learning objectives. While educators use learning objectives in different ways to achieve a variety of instructional goals, the concept is closely related to learning progressions, or the purposeful sequencing of academic expectations across multiple developmental stages, ages, or grade levels. Learning objectives are a way for teachers to structure, sequence, and plan out learning goals for a specific instructional period, typically for the purpose of moving students toward the achievement of larger, longer-term educational goals such as meeting course learning expectations, performing well on a standardized test, or graduating from high school prepared for college. For these reasons, learning objectives are a central strategy in proficiency-based learning, which refers to systems of instruction, assessment, grading, and academic reporting that are based on students demonstrating understanding of the knowledge and skills they are expected to learn before they progress to the next lesson, get promoted to the next grade level, or receive a diploma (learning objectives that move students progressively toward the achievement of academic standards may be called performance indicators or performance benchmarks, among other terms). The focus of this chapter will be on single lesson or class-period learning objectives. Teachers may also articulate learning objectives for specific lessons that compose a unit, project, or course, or they may determine learning objectives for each day they instruct students (in this case, the term learning target is often used). For example, teachers may write a set of daily learning objectives on the blackboard, or post them to an online course-management system, so that students know what the learning expectations are for a particular class period. In this case, learning objectives move students progressively toward meeting more comprehensive learning goals for a unit. There are two commonly used formulas for developing MLOs. One is using the SMART attributes and the other is the ABCD method. These two methods are very similar, but one or the other may be more or less helpful to you personally when writing MLOs. We will look at both methods and you can decide which makes the most sense when considering the type of lesson you are planning. From Wikimedia Commons Excerpts from Kolling, D, and Shumway-Pitt, K. (2019). GSC Lesson Planning 101. Retrieved from https://granite.pressbooks.pub/lessonplanning101/SMART goals/objectives S-Specific: Concise, well-defined statements of what students will know, understand, and be able to do at the end of the lesson. The objective should state exactly what is to be accomplished by the student and the conditions in place, such as, “Given a topic on American history”, “Provided with a calculator and a three minute time limit”, or “Independently, following the five-step scientific method”. Learning outcomes should be simply stated in student-centered terms. If students are aware of the intended outcome, then they know where their focus should lie. This clarity helps decrease anxiety about their ability to succeed and helps build intrinsic motivation. M-Measurable: Learning objectives must be quantifiable. Measurable objectives state the outcomes that can be assessed in definite and specific ways; the quality or level of performance that will be considered acceptable (mastery level). The criterion can be expressed by describing the performance standard to be met, such as, “Write a descriptive paragraph that includes a topic sentence, three supporting detail sentences, and a closing sentence.” When writing mastery level, you often begin with the word “with”, then add description, such as “90% accuracy”, “no errors”, “appropriate punctuation” or “accurate vocabulary”. A-Attainable: Learning objectives should be written at the appropriate developmental level for student success. It is essential that students have the prerequisite knowledge and skills and that the lesson’s time frame supports achievement of the objective. You can determine the appropriate level of challenge by referring to pre assessment results. Learning activities should be challenging, yet offer students a realistic chance to master the objective. R-Relevant: The skills or knowledge described must be appropriate for the grade level and subject area or an individual’s IEP goals. The process of setting learning objectives begins with knowing the specific standards, benchmarks, and supporting knowledge students in your school or district are required to learn. Common Core State Standards and curriculum documents are the source for this information. This is essential to ensure students receive the same important content from teacher to teacher. T-Time-bound: Time-bound – State when students should be able to demonstrate the skill. In this course the learning objective will be:“by the end of the lesson”. Start with behavioral verbs (action verbs) that can be observed (either informally or formally) and measured. Using concrete verbs will help keep your objectives clear and concise. Bloom’s Taxonomy provides a list of such verbs and these are categorized according to the level of achievement at which students should be performing. While verbs above clearly distinguish the action that should be performed, there are verbs to avoid when writing a learning objective. The following verbs are too vague or difficult to measure: appreciate, cover, realize, be aware of, familiarize, study, become acquainted with, gain knowledge of, comprehend, know, learn, understand, learn. Read more about . Bloom’s Taxonomy Adapted from Northern Illinois University Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. (2020). Writing goals and objectives. In Instructional guide for university faculty and teaching assistants. Retrieved from https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/guides/instructional-guide/writing-goals-and-objectives.shtml this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
For ExampleAlternative format-download (Paula Lombardi) (Paula Lombardi) The objective should be one sentence long and include ‘The student will…” or “The learner will…” The objective contains one action verb (e.g Bloom’s Taxonomy). The objective should have one content area topic or learning target. This will ensure accurate data collection on the target skill, vs. a multi layered learning objective. The objective needs to be tied to a Common Core State Standard in either Mathematics or English Language Arts Paula Lombardi Behavioral Verbs- Must be observable and measurable.The key to writing learning objectives is using an action verb to describe the behavior you intend for students to perform. You can use action verbs such as calculate, read, identify, match, explain, translate, and prepare to describe the behavior further. On the other hand, words such as understand, appreciate, internalize, and value are not appropriate when writing learning objectives because they are not measurable or observable. Use these words in your big picture goals/ enduring understandings, but not when writing learning objectives. Overt behavior: If the behavior is covert or not typically visible when observed, such as the word discriminate, include an indicator behavior to clarify to the student what she or he must be able to do to meet your expectations. For example, if you want your learners to be able to discriminate between good and bad apples, add the observable behavior “sort” to the objective: Be able to discriminate (sort) the good apples from the bad apples. Some teachers tend to forget to write learning objectives from the students’ perspective. Mager (1997) contends that when you write objectives, you should indicate what the learner is supposed to be able to do and not what you, the teacher, want to accomplish. Also, avoid using fuzzy phrases such as “to understand,” “to appreciate,” “to internalize,” and “to know,” which are not measurable or observable. These types of words can lead to student misinterpretation and misunderstanding of what you want them to do. Measurable Learning Objectives and Alignment with Content Standards/ IEP Goals and ObjectivesIt is assumed you have already selected ELA/ or math content standards and your MLOs align with content standards. These can be found on the New Hampshire Department of Education website. Your case study student will likely have an IEP goal or objective related to your lesson objective. Include this in the lesson plan. As of 2015, 42 states have adopted the Common Core Standards in ELA/literacy and mathematics. *Teacher Candidates in ECE/ ECE/SPED, who are working with preschool or younger children will align their objectives with their schools birth to 5 years standards. What is an Essential Question?What are “Essential Questions”? Life of an Educator by Dr. Justin Tarte is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Based on a work at justintarte.com. The best questions serve not only to promote understanding of the content of a unit on a particular topic; they also spark connections and promote transfer of ideas from one setting to others. We call these such questions “essential.” Tips for using essential questions:
This work by UAF eCampus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Wiggins and McTighe identify big ideas, essential questions and enduring understandings as critical elements, of course design in Understanding by Design. If a big idea is like a point on the horizon you are steering toward, and enduring understandings are the highlights that you will always remember, essential questions are the engines of inquiry that propel students through your learning experience. They should prompt exploration and open discovery. All content should contribute toward or inform learners as to the evolving complexity of potential responses to these questions. Grant Wiggins characterizes them as “well, essential: important, vital, at the heart of the matter – the essence of the issue.” Essential questions are important because they identify the point of inquiry from which you create actual instructional material and experiences for your students. As a big idea will unpack into multiple essential questions (usually), so an essential question will itself unpack into multiple smaller questions. The smaller questions are not unimportant, but it is crucial to understand how the smaller questions relate to the Big Idea. For instance:
It may well be the case that non-essential questions can be used to bring about understanding of the essential questions, but they are not the essential thing. Consider another pair:
Now comes the challenging part, where you, the novice teacher must develop these essential questions related to your instruction. Know that developing essential questions are part of the work, school teams do when mapping their curriculum using the Understanding by Design module. Many schools post their work online. Look at models of that have been developed to gain an understanding of how essential questions align with curriculum standards. Ultimately, you will need to be the judge of the quality of material you find online. Check with your supervising practitioner to see if your school has done grade level curriculum mapping. What you find may not find exactly what you are looking for, but you will find models to help you begin developing your own essential questions for your lesson plan. Essential Questions…for example.Take a look at the essential questions in curriculum map for Kindergarten Mathematics. The essential questions are found on the left side column in the document associated with the common core standards. Here is another example of a curriculum mapping and 4th grade mathematics. It is aligned to the CCSS for mathematics and includes enduring understandings, essential questions, and learning targets. Early Childhood Education resources- Framing and Connecting Learning: Essential Questions in Early Childhood. Rules of thumb:
Pulling it all togetherYou will begin developing your lesson plan by completing the top sections of the lesson plan template.
The beginning stage of lesson plan development: You have collaborated with your supervising practitioner (SP), completed a case study student profile which will include *learning targets for a “case study student” with a disability or learning challenge, and discussed the needs of the other students who will be included in your lesson. Based on this information you will develop a measurable learning objective for your lesson. *In EDU 606 701, the content area focus will be either mathematics or English Language Arts. Next, you will identify Common Core State Standards (CCSS) or Early Learning Standards (ECE) that align with the developmental level of your students. You may need to add a modified measurable learning objective(s) to meet the needs of mixed ability students. This is a standards based education curriculum approach to enable students with disabilities access to the general education classroom (curricula). Include any related goals/objectives from your student’s IEP. Include behavior related goals/objectives if appropriate. Develop one or two essential questions, in question format and in student friendly language that speaks to the core concept/theme of the lesson. Examples of the beginning section of the lesson plan that
includesThe next step will be to preassess your students to determine their current level of performance related to the measurable learning objective(s) and CCSS or Early Learning Standards. Based on the data from your preassessment, you may need to revise your original measurable learning objectives. Go to the next chapter, Assessment, to learn more about preassessment. References Instructional Planning. Authored by: Nicole Arduini-Van Hoose. Provided by: Hudson Valley Community College. Located at: . License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright [Kaizen Teaching], (2017, Oct. 27). Teach Like a Champion-How do you plan for class? [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/Wb6JCyQ_A8c License: All Rights Reserved SMART image citation: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SMART-goals.png Download image- from Pixabay Measurable learning objectives tables were designed by Paula Lombardi Lesson Plan template sections- Granite State College School of Education Ch. 1 Key Practices in Instruction and Student Learning by Teacher Education through School based Support (TESS)-India, 2015 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted How do you write aims and objectives in a lesson plan?2 Writing an Aim
Write your aim, or end goal of your lesson, at the top of the lesson plan. Avoid vague and difficult-to-assess words such as "understand" or "appreciate." Use SMART words like "design," "formulate," "practice" and "analyze." Describe your aim using active verbs to help track student progress.
What is an aim and objective for teaching?An aim is a general statement of intent. It describes the direction in which the learner will go in terms of what they might learn or what the teacher/training will deliver. An objective is a more specific statement about what the learner should or will be able to do after the training experience.
Why must a lesson plan have clear aims and objectives?Having a clear learning objective assists the facilitator or teacher in the basic course design. It helps with the creation of assessment, which in return showcases the student's ability to achieve the objectives through collecting data.
What are the objectives of the lesson?What is a Lesson Objective? Lesson Objective: The lesson objective states what students will know or be able to do at the end of the lesson. The strategies, materials, assignments, and assessments used in a lesson are determined by, and must align with, the lesson objective.
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