Your lesson plan provides you with a structure for your objectives and instruction activities; your plan states what you intend to assess your students on and how you have deteremined you will assess them. As you write your plan you will contemplate what skills, concepts, and language the students need to possess to be successful. You will consider and detail any accommodations you need to make for your students, the safety concerns the lesson may present, and the materials and tools you need to make sure you have on hand. During the lesson, you will refer to your plan to make sure you are staying on track - are you working towards your objective and are you working within your alloted time? If your class gets sidetracked, by for example a goose laying an egg, you will have your plan in front of you to allow you to bring the class back to where you were. Or the plan will help you to determine you do not have enough time left to complete the lesson that day. As you complete your lesson, your plan will remind you if you have a means of extending the lesson, is there something that could go home to continue the lesson?
Perhaps most important, having a lesson plan in place will give you confidence. When you are standing in front of your class you will have the knowledge that you have an objective in place, you know how you are going to teach your objective and how you are going to determine your kids have achieved the objective. Having a lesson plan doesn’t guarantee your lesson is going to be a success but it improves your chances!
Although each section is crucial to having a thorough lesson plan, I think two very important components of the plan are the materials section and the scripting of how you are going to carry out your lesson Writing your intended dialouge will allow you to anticipate issues that may arise with the lesson as well as foresee questions your students may pose. Scripting out your lesson will also provide you insight as to how much time you should allot for each portion of the activity. Another important part is the materials section. As simple as it sounds, it is incredibly beneficial to have a checklist of materials you will need. You can ensure before the lesson starts you have everything you will need at hand. Your lesson will be derailed if ten minutes in you realize you need to find twenty eye droppers. You can have the most engaging lesson in the school planned but if you do not have what you need to carry it out, you have nothing!
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that lesson plans do not guarantee a successful lesson, but they do minimize the changes of having it fail. Distractions will always occur in an elementary classrooms; I believe lesson plans are a helpful guide for teachers to know where they left off, in order to get the class back on track.
I also like your statement that lesson plans give teachers confidence. I never thought of it from that angle, but your point is valid. Having a well-organized lesson plan will allow teachers to estimate the time and flow of the activity, and what directions it might take, before it is even instructed. Lesson plans allow teachers to be able to narrow in on what they want to teach and accomplish in a lesson, and allot the correct amount of time for it.
Terrific job, Sarah. You brought up some great points. I wonder if your ideas will change or be tweaked when you start teaching your own lessons.
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI like your comparison of the lesson plan to a road map. It is definitely a necessary tool when charting your way through a science class. You made some good points when you wrote that the lesson plan provides you with directions and keeps you on track. I also think that having a well-developed lesson plan enables you to replicate the lesson for future use- assuming that the lesson was a success! Which is another good point you mentioned, the fact that a lesson plan does not guarantee a successful science lesson. In that light, things that did not work out in the class can also be noted on the lesson plan- again helpful for future use. I also agree that simply having a solid lesson plan offers confidence to the teacher- another aspect that can influence the success of a lesson! Thanks for sharing your ideas!
Hi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you in regards to thinking about the skills, concepts, and language the students will need to be successful. I think teachers need to plan accordingly and not get off track becasue they want to do a cool experiment(for example) that really isn't appropriate for the class. I think teachers might get too ambitious because there are so many fun interesting tools available to teach science.