1. Effective Lesson Plan Brent Peters EDU650: Teaching, Learning in the 21 st century Professor Naughton September 2, 2013

2. Effective Lesson Planning Teachers should begin developing lesson plans by first identifying what students should understand after or at the completion of a lesson or unit. From there they can work backward to plan the lessons. (Newman, R. 2013, pg. 7.1) It is easier to figure out what information a child will need if you first know what they will know after a lesson. When getting directions you must first know what your destination is.

3. Backwards Design

4. Backwards Mapping Backwards mapping starts from the end. A teacher figures out what they want their students to know at the end of the lesson. Once the end is known, the teacher can work backwards and figure out the lessons the students need to learn in order to get to the end result. Once a teacher knows what lessons they need to present to a student, they can then figure how exactly how to present those materials so that they will learn to their fullest potential.

5. Traditional Model Traditional model of teaching is like getting in a car and driving without having directions. You figure out how to get there on the way. In the traditional model, the primary focus is on the inputs, or the activities and textbooks that will be used in class, rather than the outputs, or the desired learning and goals that students are to achieve. (Newman, R. 2013. pg. 9.3) Teachers focus more on how they need to teach than how to get a child to learn.

6. Traditional Model Newman, R. 2013. pg. 9.3

7. Good Instructional Objectives Instructional objectives are clear, concise statements regarding the skills that students are expected to perform after a unit of instruction. (Newman, R. 2013, pg. 7.1) Every teacher should have good instructional objectives before they start every lesson. A teachers goals for each lesson is to have each student learn everything from that lesson. If a teacher doesn’t know what their students are going to learn there is no way they can actually set up good instructional objectives for that lesson.

8. Common core state standards were create to make standards for students to meet so that there would be a consistency across the state that children are being taught the same information. A good example would be common core standards are used to assess students across the state with a standardize test. Teachers must have their students pass that test. So a good learning objective for a teacher is to know what type of information will be on the test and use that information to figure out a plan on what information a student will learn. The problem with this is a teacher is handcuffed from teaching anything other than this test learning objective. Common Core State Standards make it easy for teachers to figure out a learning objective but those common core standards don’t make it a good learning objective. We have to stop teaching for a test and start teaching so I students can survive and succeed in life.

9. Pitfalls to lesson planning One of the main pitfalls in coming up with a productive lesson plan is not having a clear understanding in what the educational objective is. With standardize test this has created an unknown in the classroom. What is on the test? In what way is it going o be asked? Studies have “shown that teachers are doing the best they could to prepare students for state exams, found that they were trying to cram their students with too much content in too short of a time” (Jones, K. 2011, pg. 849). Another pitfall is teachers don’t know how to start a lesson. They might know what they want to accomplish but don’t know how to start in order to get their students attention. If a child starts off bored it will be hard to gain their attention later on.

10. Example of a Lesson Plan Teaching how the state of Texas gained its independence from Mexico.

11. End Result Students should know how Texas gained it’s independence from Mexico by learning about the battles that were fought and who fought in those battles.

12. Acceptable Evidence Battles fought: Battle of the Alamo, Battle at Goliad and resulting massacre of Texas soldiers at the hands of Santa Anna, and the Battle of San Jacinto. Leaders involved: Mexico was led by Santa Anna and Texas was led by Sam Houston

13. Learning Experiences Battle of the Alamo: People came from all over the country to fight along side Texans. Cincinnati donated two cannons to Texas troops that were used in the Battle of the Alamo and became a main battle cry for troop after. Texans troops even made a flag with a picture of a cannon on it with the words “come and get it”. The Battle of San Jacinto was won in 13 minutes because Sam Houston attacked in the heat of the day while the Mexican troops were taking a siesta Texan soldiers yelled “remember the Alamo and remember Goliad” during the battle of San Jacinto Emily Morgan who was known as the Yellow Rose of Texas was in Santa Anna’s tent when Sam Houston attacked. Santa Anna was literally caught with his pants down.

14. Not Just Core Stands It is important to teach to the core standards of your state. However, you don’t have to stop there. My lesson plan on the independence of Texas meets all Core Standards in Texas. I am sure that any question on the state assessment STAAR test will be covered. However, fun facts need to be told in order to keep the information fun and interesting. We must keep our students attention if we expect them to learn.

15. References JONES, K., JONES, J., & VERMETTE, P. J. (2011). SIX COMMON LESSON PLANNING PITFALLS - RECOMMENDATIONS FOR NOVICE EDUCATORS. Education, 131(4), 845-864. Newman, R. (2013). Teaching and learning in the 21st century: Connecting the dots. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.