TE 401: Lesson And Unit Plan Template

TE 802: Lesson Plan Guide

Note: Notes in red italics (including this one) are advice on writing the lesson plan that you should erase from the final version.

This Lesson Plan Guide is written for a single lesson, however it can be used to accommodate multiple lessons that pertain to a single unit objective. For multiple lessons, fill in Parts I and II for the appropriate unit objective. Then fill in Part III and IV for each class period.

Part I: Information about the Lesson(s)

Unit: Indicate the name of unit that the lesson(s) is a part of – for example, Metabolism or Newton’s Laws. Topic: Indicate the topic addressed by the lesson(s) and how many lessons this plan covers. For example, “lessons 2 and 3 on cellular respiration” or “lessons 1 – 4 on Newton’s First Law.” Class: Indicate which class this for – for example, “honors chemistry” or “physical science”. This will make this lesson plan more useful for you next year when you are scrambling for things to do in class. If you have several sections of the same class that move at different paces, you made need to indicate alternative routes in the activities section or make entirely separate lesson plans.

Part II: Clarifying Your Goals This section lays out a general understanding of the topic of the lesson(s) at a level that is appropriate for your students. This section should address ONE OBJECTIVE and the Big Ideas and Experiences/Patterns/ Explanations that go with it. Objective for Student Learning Use the table below to list one unit objective and a small number of specific lesson objectives that you will be addressing during this lesson(s). The unit objective should be copied from your unit plan. If this lesson plan does not lay out a complete activity cycle for your objective, use the second column to say which part(s) of the activity cycle you will be addressing during your lesson(s). Checklist for Objectives for Student Learning  Does each lesson objective describe student learning—something that your students will be able to do after the class is over—not just a teaching activity to be completed in class? For example, “understand photosynthesis” does not describe what a student with that understanding will be able to do. Also, “Conduct an experiment on plant growth under different environmental conditions” is a good learning activity, but not a good objective. It doesn’t say what students will learn to do as a result of conducting the experiments.  Does each objective relate to a set of examples, not just a single example? For example, “Explain how plants get their food” is a better objective than “Explain how an oak tree gets its food.”  Are your objectives connected with your Big Ideas and Experiences/Patterns /Explanations? Does each objective describe ways that you would like your students to connect experiences, patterns, and explanations?

Unit Objective(s) 1. Choose one: Using Constructing Reflecting Specific Lesson Objective(s) 1. Choose one or more: Establishing the problem Modeling Coaching Fading Maintenance 2. 3.

Big Ideas Describe the most important patterns, models, and theories for this topic/objective in 300 words or less. Use the language and ideas that you would like students in your class to be able to use. This section should be a more elaborated look at a subset of the Big Ideas in your unit plan. Big ideas are rarely confined to an individual lesson. If you are writing plans for a single lesson, you may need to include ideas from other lessons to write a coherent statement of the big ideas you want your students to understand. Checklist for Big Ideas..  Do you have a coherent, connected summary of the most important patterns, models, and theories for your topic? Big ideas should express the key patterns and explanations, not just name them.  Have you used important ideas from Benchmarks for Science Literacy or the National Science Education Standards?  Is the language (e.g., vocabulary level) appropriate for students in your class? Big ideas don’t include every vocabulary word in the unit (though they should include the most important ones), and they don’t have many specific examples. The language you use in your summary of big ideas should be the language you would like your students to use.  The word “students” does NOT belong in your statement of big ideas. Think of big ideas as what you would like your students to be able to tell you after the unit or lesson is over.

Experiences, Patterns, and Explanations

Copy the row(s) from the EPE table in your unit plan that apply to this objective. If more observations/experiences have occurred to you since you wrote the unit plan, add them in.

Observations or experiences Patterns (laws, Explanations (examples, phenomena, data) generalizations, graphs, (models, theories) tables, categories) Incoming experiences

Target experiences

Application: Model-based Reasoning – using models/theories to explain experiences Inquiry: Finding and Explaining Patterns in Experience

Part III: Classroom Activities for Day 1 This section contains your plans for the activities that you will actually do in the classroom. They should be real plans for real activities, not made-up plans that you will not actually carry out. What follows is a template for a single class period. Repeat the template Parts III and IV for each class period that pertains to the same objective. Materials List materials you will be using. Attach the files of materials that you have in electronic form. Checklist for Materials..  Have you included everything you will need to teach?  Do you have the materials ready before your lesson?  Have you attached files for materials that you have in electronic form? Presentation materials (Overhead transparencies or Powerpoint presentations, etc): (attach files) Copied materials (Handouts, worksheets, tests, lab directions, etc.): (attach files) Pages in textbook: Book:______Pages:______Laboratory materials: For the teacher or the class as a whole: (attach files) For each laboratory station: (attach files) Other materials: (attach files)

Activities Describe the activities that you and your students will be doing at three stages in the lesson: Introduction, one or more Main Activities, and Conclusion. Make sure that your Introduction and Conclusion help to connect this lesson with the lessons before and after. Checklist for Activities.  Are your lesson plans ready in time for your mentor and course instructor to look at them and suggest improvements?  Do the activities address the objectives you listed above? (If not, you should change the activities or the objectives.)  Have you planned lesson introductions that will (a) connect this lesson conceptually with earlier lessons, (b) prepare students for the activities of the day, and (c0 draw students into the lesson?  Management issues: Do you have routines in place for starting your lesson quickly and smoothly? Do you have transitions planned that help students see connections between one activity and the next? Have you planned directions for activities well enough so that students will know what to do? Do you have contingency plans in case the lesson is longer or shorter than you anticipated? Are you using your time wisely, focusing on your most important objectives?  Do your main teaching activities involve all your students in active learning?  Have you planned key questions that you will ask during class discussions, key examples you will use, and key points that you want to be sure to emphasize?  Have you planned lesson conclusions that will (a) review the main ideas for the lesson, (b) prepare materials and lab stations for the next group of students, and (c) connect this lesson to the next one. Introduction (-- minutes) Describe introductory activities that will: • Get the class off to a well-managed start • Make conceptual connections with previous lessons • Help students anticipate problems and activities of the class  Draw students into the lesson

Main Teaching Activities (--minutes) Describe teaching activities, including: • Key examples, patterns, models or theories • Key questions that you will use to start discussions • What the students AND the teacher will be doing • Embedded assessment activities that will indicate students’ understanding • References to materials you or the students are using during this activity • Procedural details, including transitions, materials management, etc. Conclusion (--minutes) Describe concluding activities that will: • Make sure students and materials are in order before students leave • Help students review or summarize what they have learned • Help students anticipate problems and activities of future classes

Part IV: Assessment of Students for Day 1 Include an assessment task that will reveal your students’ progress towards your objective(s) This task might be a single question or a series of questions. It might take many forms, including: (a) embedded assessment tasks such as worksheets, journal questions, or lab reports that are also teaching activities, or (b) formal assessments such as test questions. If your assessment is a teaching activity described in Part III, you can simply indicate it that section. Include the actual task, don’t just describe it. If it requires special materials that cannot be copied into this section, attach them as Appendices or separate files. Checklist for Assessment Task.  Have you included the actual questions that students will answer or prompts they will be able to respond to?  Will you learn from incorrect answers? Can your students respond in ways that show ways of making sense of the topic even if they don’t know the scientific answer?  Is the task relevant to the objective? Does it engage students in the practice described in your focus objective?  Is the task worded in a way that will be clear to the students? Will they understand what you are asking?  Would a good answer to the task require students to relate some of the theories, patterns, and examples from Part II?