PlanningEffective Lessons

Gill Hood9th October 2015

(Wiggins and McTighe )

“To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means you know where

you’re going…so the steps you take are always in the right direction.”

When writing your lesson plans or units consider this…

Task

In tables what have you found easy in lesson planning what have you found difficult?

Traditional DesignTraditional design is like... Traditional design follows…

…setting out on a trip and not knowing where you are going (what skills) and not knowing how you will know when you get there

… schemes of work… textbooks… specifications…reading series...themes

What Is Backward Design?

It’s thinking about assessment before deciding how you teach, planning instruction, what resources you will use and finally and most importantly….

“How will the student prove he/she has learned the target?” (Wiggins and McTighe )

Determine acceptable evidence

Plan learning experiencesand instruction

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Learning/Achievement Objectives/Targets Are….

Statements of what we want students to learn and be able to do.

Learning/Lesson objectives should

Be discussed with students at the beginning of the lesson

Be reviewed with students at the end of the lesson

How do you know students achieved the objective?

(formative & summative assessment)

Hook

• The beginning of the lesson – the place where you draw the student into your lesson. It can provide a sense of direction and purpose for the learning.

What about this for a hook?

Watch video

All teaching decisions can be placed into three categories:

Content – what is to be learnedLearning Behaviours – what the student will

do to learn and to demonstrate learning has occurred

Teaching Behaviours – what the teacher will do to facilitate the acquisition of that learning – how the teacher uses the principles of learning to increase the probability of successful outcomes

Activating Prior Knowledge

Background knowledge is what a person already knows. The relationship between students’ background knowledge and their

achievement is strong; it provides the platform and vocabulary needed for

success.

(Zull, 2002)

WIIFM – Relevancy(What’s In It For Me)

Not only do students need to know what is expected of them to learn from the lesson, they also need to know why they need to learn it or how they will personally benefit form learning the concept or skill. All brains want to know “What’s In It For Me?”

(Jensen and Nickelsen )

Planning• Well-directed “planning perspiration” plus inspiration will

work wonders in increasing learners’ successful achievement.

• Skill in planning is acknowledged to be one of the most influential factors in successful teaching.

• Decisions BEFORE a teacher plans:– Teacher will have determined what students need to know

(specific content)– Teacher will have identified a major target objective and know

students’ achievement in relation to that objective (students’ entry behaviours)

– Specific objective for the total groups or subgroup’s subsequent instruction (target objectives)

Check for Understanding

• Signaled Answers• Choral Responses• Sample Individual Response• Individual Private ResponseWhat have you used that is effective?

Task

On your tables discuss and note down strategies you have used

Reflection What will I do next to ensure that my students reach a higher level of

learning?

How to produce the perfect planPlanning will probably take up lots of your time - but what exactly is it and how do you approach it?

What is planning?• Put simply - planning is the process of deciding what you

will teach and how you will teach it.

Why plan?• Planning is essential for effective teaching - especially

when you are training. Lessons will generally be most effective when you have given thought to the content, learning objectives and activities. You also need to be able to demonstrate you can plan effectively to gain QTS.

What do you plan?

During your teacher training you will be expected to produce individual lesson plans for every lesson you teach. Your tutor will expect to see these when they come to visit you in school and your class teacher/mentor will also expect daily plans. Especially towards the end of your training, make sure you keep on top of your planning and plan as you go along .

What do you need to include?Your mentor/tutor will tell you exactly what they expect to see in your plans, but in daily plans you should as a minimum include:• The Learning Objective(s) - what do you want the children to learn from the

lesson? Try to keep the learning objective small and achievable – this is not the place to state long term goals. As an example a maths lesson may have a primary learning object of “Children will be able to partition three digit numbers”

• The Success Criteria - What are you looking for from the children? Try to be specific; for the example above, it could be “I can partition 478 in Hundreds, Tens and Units”

• Assessment - How are you going to assess the lesson?• Resources - What resources do you need for the lesson? Write them down so you

can make sure you have everything you need.• Organisation – How you will organise equipment/groupings• Session Outline - What is going to happen in the session? You should set out the

activities that will help the children achieve the success criteria you have set out. In a ‘typical’ lesson this will normally include some ‘shared learning’ (i.e. teacher led learning) and either group work and/or independent learning - but plan what will work best for your lesson.

• Additional Adults - What role are any additional adults (Teaching Assistants, Parents etc) going to have in your lesson?

How do you plan?

Planning is personal - it is not something that can be done robotically. Each person plans differently and throughout your teacher training you will develop the planning style that suits you best. When planning make sure you plan the Learning Objective first. This will help ensure that all the activities in your lesson are relevant and will help the children achieve the objectives for the lesson.

How much detail do you need to include?• You plan needs to have enough detail in it to enable YOU to teach the lesson - I know it sounds

simple but you need to make sure you know what is going on in the lesson – make sure there is enough detail in the plan to allow this. You also need enough detail to enable your additional adults to support you. Finally, you also need to make sure your plans show your training provider you can plan - there is no escaping it - sometimes you are going to have to put extra detail in your plan so that your tutor or mentor can clearly see what was planned to happen in a lesson. You also need to make sure that all your plans include all the things your tutor/mentor asks for.

How long will planning take?• Again this is down to the individual - but expect to spend considerable amounts of time planning

each lesson at the start of your training (3 hours for a 1 hour lesson is certainly not unheard of!), but as you gain more experience in teaching, subject knowledge and planning, your planning time will decrease.

How do you teach from a plan?• Try not to teach physically holding the plan - by all means have the plan out so you are able to

refer to it, but you should avoid at all costs using the plan as a ‘script’ - don’t be a slave to your plan. Adapt your plan and even throw the plan out the window if needed - you need to respond to the lesson as it happens. Your plan is a guide - just because you have planned it doesn’t mean it has to happen - being able to adapt your lesson ‘on the go’ is an essential skill.

Subject: Date: Period: Room: Teacher:

Class Information Year: Class: Number of students: M/F:

Numbers in vulnerable groups – details on data register SEN students:

LAC: Pupil Premium: More able:

Other adults and how to be deployed

Context of the Lesson (including links to previous and future lessons):

Learning Objective(s): Learning Outcomes (levelled / graded):

Key Words: Concepts:

Cross-curricular links eg literacy, numeracy, citizenship, enterprise, ICT, SMSC:

PLTS (underline):Independent enquirers Team workersEffective participants Self managersReflective learners Creative thinkers

Content of Lesson (including differentiation, extension and key questions)

Teaching Learning(ie how students will learn)

AsL opportunities(I’m checking learning by)

Timings (mins)

Starter Chunked main activities & mini-plenaries Final plenary

Resources / Materials to support learning:

Homework:

Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan 2015/16

Objectives

Outcomes

Le

sso

n

De

ve

lop

me

nt

Teacher/Student Activity Challenge/Differentiation

Assessment

Five-to-Drive

Homework / Independent

study

Use of

support staff

Subject Teacher Date/Time Class Lesson Context (Big Picture: Prior/New/Future Learning)

Class Context (Background to group e.g. HAP, MAP, LAP, SEN & PP)

SMSC (Indicate where appropriate)

Link to SOW <All lesson plans must include a link to the specific lesson on the corresponding SOW>

Teacher: Date: Period: Group: Room: Context of lesson:

1. Connect the learningConnect new learning to prior learning.Make connections with world outside of classroom.Stimulate thinking about new learning to come.Gauge what students already know.

2. Learning outcomes / success criteriaMake content of lesson explicit.State clearly what knowledge and skills students will have learned by end of lesson.Discuss and share criteria against which learning will be assessed / evaluated.

3. New informationPresent new learning that students are required work with.Utilise techniques which provide for maximum impact.

4. Challenge activity Develop understanding of new knowledge. Practice developing skills. Tackle anticipated errors and those which arise unexpectedly,

5. Demonstrate new understandingAssess / evaluate outcomes of learning. Utilize a variety of assessment techniques, over time, each suitable for context.

6. Review and reflect Consolidate understanding. Pose questions to explore what has been learnt. Pose questions to encourage reflection on the effectiveness of learning. Preview next learning steps.

Equipment: Numeracy, literacy, ICT, cross-curricular : SMSC:

6 part learning cycle proforma

Task

Take one of the planning templates and plan a session

Our success criteria:• Specific lesson objective• Achievable learning outcomes• Planned meaningful differentiation

Task

Feedback to group:

Lesson: What you have planned

Advantages and Disadvantages of the format

Any Questions?