Planning and Preparation
The following documents can be taken as examples of the planning, preparation and care that goes into all of my lessons and units. I try my best to differentiate content, process and product to meet the needs of my students and take this into great consideration throughout my planning.
The following is an example of a lesson plan I created that allows for a lot of hands-on learning for students while developing the skill and understanding of a tough topic, estimation.
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The following lesson is a good example of how my planning has changed throughout my practicum experiences. One of the key features I have added is the WWL section. WWL: What We're Learning is the time in the lesson that I take to help my students develop an understanding for what they're actually learning about. I try to translate the learning objectives into student-friendly language and give them the opportunity to self-assess at some point throughout the lesson.
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This is a good example of how I planned a lesson to meet the needs of my students. In this case, my class had been very used to lecture-style classes and sometimes they really craved that structure. It is also important for students to learn basic skills like taking notes, but also adding the critical thinking skills to put them into a different format. This lesson also utilized a lot of Whole Brain Teaching strategies such as "Teach, Okay" and hand actions for fact-based content.
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KSA #1 - Contextual Variables
Question: How can you plan for the variety of contextual variables in your classroom?
This is a problem I really struggle with. It is crucial to think about the contextual variables in your classroom and to me, these variables make it very hard for me to plan in the extreme long-term. I have always really wanted and needed to tailor my teaching and my lessons to the group of students I have in front of me. How are they feeling that day? Did they have breakfast? Did they understand the last unit? Did they miss school last week or month? These and many others affect the every day and the long term. In terms of long-term planning I really like to get the skeleton of things ready even without knowing the students. The order of units, the outcomes in each unit. The basic assessments, perhaps not the assessment type, but the outcomes that will be covered or emphasized. There are some lessons/activities that are easy to change to meet the needs of your students but a lot of others that work for a particular group but not another. My students and my classroom environment are always on my mind as I am planning.
KSA #3 - Program of Studies
Question: Currently the Alberta Program of Studies includes many outcomes. How do you teach every outcome
and/or know which outcomes to prioritize?
We are told in the Faculty of Education and by the Department of Education that we are required to cover all of the outcomes in the Alberta Program of Studies. This being said, covering as opposed to mastering these outcomes provides very different results. I really appreciate the Program of Studies as it gives me a great jumping off point. I find that the best way to teach the curriculum is to really know what it's all about. I try to spend quite a lot of time with the outcomes, dividing them into appropriate units and then choose which ones are the most important for students to really dig into. A great professor I had once made the distinction between 40 Day Learning vs. 40 Year Learning. I often think to myself, are my students going to remember this in 40 Years? Do they need to remember it? I also try to think in broader concepts rather than looking at the specifics. Is it crucial for my students to name and label the different classes of lever? Perhaps not. Is it necessary for them to be able to use a lever to lift something heavy, absolutely! Making the curriculum meaningful for my students is a huge priority for me.
KSA #6 - Planning
Question: Describe what you think constitutes "good planning."
"Good planning" means you've thought through what you need to teach, how you're going to teach it, but most importantly who you are teaching. "Good planning" means having an order and a structure with the flexibility to slow things down, speed things up or throw things out to meet the needs of your students.
Question: What is your approach to instructional design? What factors do you consider in lesson planning and
assessment?
Instruction design has to be based on the group of students you have in your classroom. It is important to have a backbone for your lessons, including a clear timeline and outline of the order in which you will teach things. After this outline is put in place, you need to cater your teaching to match the needs, interests and skill set of the students in your classroom. Planning must include a variety of different types of instruction including opportunities for quiet, personal work, as well as time to work in pairs, groups and as a whole class. It is also important to allow students the opportunity to show what they know in a variety of ways. From acting it out, to verbal responses, to hand actions to drawing pictures, allowing students to use a variety of mediums will increase engagement and allow students more success! One of the most important aspects of planning is being sure to align your lessons and lesson objectives to the Program of Studies outcomes. Each lesson must clearly connect to an outcome. It is important to also look at the skills as outline by the Program of Studies. Often, in attempting to strengthen these skills, your lesson strategies or base is there for you. Assessment must match the needs and abilities of your students. In my experience, elementary education assessment often means more pull-outs and individual testing the requires limited writing or reading comprehension skills.
KSA #13 - Learning Resources for Community Involvement
Question: What resources do you use to allow for community involvement in your classroom?
Community involvement is something that I get so excited about in the classroom. It is really my mission to have tons of community involvement in the classroom! One of the things I'm really excited to do in my classroom is to have Skype guests and connect on a global scale. Virtual Field-trips and video chats also bring the world in. I would love to invite guests into the classroom for specific units/topics. I think that more community involvement allows for more meaningful, experiential, 40-Year learning! I would also really like to get my students involved in a variety of service projects in the community to give back! To the right, I have included a Pinterest Board of some resources to help build more community involvement.
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