I thought that this chapter had a lot of good advice and practical steps for creating lesson plans. I enjoyed the advice the novice teacher was given to just "vomit" all your ideas on paper and go from there. That is essentially what I have done for my lesson plan assignment so far. I would like for my lesson to be Inquiry-Based with an essential question. With such a lesson, though, how do I judge what students have learned? Do I still spell out student goals and objectives or do I allow students to explore and come to their own conclusions of what is important to learn? And finally, what does it look like when "students can be naturally involved in choosing how they will evidence their knowledge" (p. 438)? I am very interested in this type of lesson, but I guess I am still confused as to how much and what type of planning I put into it and how much I let students be involved in. Any ideas?

I thought that this chapter had a lot of good advice and practical steps for creating lesson plans. I enjoyed the advice the novice teacher was given to just "vomit" all your ideas on paper and go from there. That is essentially what I have done for my lesson plan assignment so far. I would like for my lesson to be Inquiry-Based with an essential question. With such a lesson, though, how do I judge what students have learned? Do I still spell out student goals and objectives or do I allow students to explore and come to their own conclusions of what is important to learn? And finally, what does it look like when "students can be naturally involved in choosing how they will evidence their knowledge" (p. 438)? I am very interested in this type of lesson, but I guess I am still confused as to how much and what type of planning I put into it and how much I let students be involved in. Any ideas?

This chapter was a gold mine to me of information on developing lesson plans. I have always been intimidated by the development of these plans, and even this particular unit plan. I suppose the hardest part for me is putting the ideas out in a way that allows for easy execution. I suppose I should view these plans as a guided timeline of what I want to accomplish, and prepare myself to make on-the-spot modifications as needed.
Like Jean I too grapple with the spelling out of learning objectives. Should I lay it out for them, or design the lesson in such a way that my students are led to the conclusion like rats in a maze looking for the cheese. Great post!

Good job Shelbi on your Planning Blog.

I think that a lot of teachers know a lot of the information but when we have to put it into a plan it can be extremely difficult for us to do.

I think that all of the models are important it really just depends on what you are teaching. My two favorite models would be the Creative Process Model and the Conversation Based Model. With every lesson plan that I do I always have an outline. It makes things very easy especially when you are first in the classroom. It is easy to get sidetracked and forget what the point of the lesson was. I also do agree that their is a lot of planning that has to go into each lesson. Experienced teachers often do not use lesson plans but that is because it has become a second nature to them.

I like the conversation based model because that gets students talking. It is difficult for high schoolers to stay quiet for a long period of time. If they are not engaged in the discussion or in class then they might have checked out. When conversation is occurring throughout the class it keeps things interesting. Students do not just want to hear the teacher talk the entire time. I do agree that it needs to be a lesson of quality versus quantity. With lessons that involve engagement there does need to be some independent time that allows for students to get their thoughts together first.

I hate boring lesson plans. I understand that all material is not exciting but it is important for teachers to make an attempt to make the lesson exciting. This involves incorporating media, technology, discussion, etc into your lesson. I try to name my lesson plans something interesting as opposed to just calling it what it is. The name might excite students to want to learn.

All teachers need lesson plans on a daily basis to provide them with a guideline to the day’s activities, thoughts and the direction classroom instruction should take during the day or class period. Most schools expect lesson plans to be available first thing in the morning so that an administrator can walk into the classroom and know what SOL’s are being taught, what teaching strand you are working on and where in the nine week curriculum guide your lesson plan falls. Lesson planning allows a teacher to create a plan, use engaging activities to teach those plans and then evaluate the plans to decide how to improve them the next time you use the lesson plan. You take out what didn’t work and replace the activities with new ideas. Not all lesson plans work out as you thought they would, so you need to review and decide what to keep, shift, or throw out altogether.

As a teacher you have to come up with ideas to create activities that keep the students engaged and learning. It takes a lot of effort and time to create lesson plans. Veteran teachers will often help you with ideas to get started. We as teachers collaborate and brainstorm ideas together within our grade levels and field of expertise. Eventually teachers have to come up with engaging activities and ideas to interest their students into enjoying/pursuing a lifetime of learning.

I like the backward design process of lesson planning coupled with the content-based model that is suggested for the English curriculum. It suggests that topic or thematic organization allows students to learn from the power of graphic, connective memory that will produce greater learning results (pg. 435).

Shelbi you provided a good overview of Chapter 14. It helped cement the main ideas that we read and led me to think a lot about lesson plans and all the work that is ahead for us as teachers.

Shelbi,

The way in which you organized your blog post was really effective for the content of this chapter. The dissection of the three planning styles you chose made sifting through this information very easy. I agree with you when you said, “As a future teacher the question is not, which model am I going to use to create my lesson plans, but which models can I tie together to create an effective lesson plan.” I think it is extremely important that, as future teachers, we understand that no one planning method or lesson plan technique is mutually exclusive from another. Incorporating the best features of each model is a guaranteed way to create versatile lesson plans that all students will benefit from.

Because it is the style that I am most familiar with, the content-based model seems an automatic method for unit/lesson planning. The text notes also that this method is used most commonly because of the way that English classrooms are structured. However, I think that content-based planning, especially that by genre, severely limits what a teacher can do in a classroom because it “distances literature as whole works and carries the false implication that particular works primarily encompass one element” (pg. 434). This particular statement resonated strongly with me because I feel that planning is often defaulted to this method. The further I get in my education curriculum, the more apparent it has become to incorporate outside texts and media to expand classroom content.

Homework seems as natural to me as content-based panning does in the classroom, so I am always surprised to hear the arguments against homework. Homework should always have a purpose; it should build upon or enhance what is happening in the classroom and be necessary. The text outlines some important components of homework and emphasizes content and purpose. When lesson planning, how do you decide what homework (if any) you will assign?

What I found interesting about this chapter is that it provides multiple frameworks to teaching. The text was extremely unbiased toward which methods would work best in certain situations. So for me, this chapter seemed to be more focused on the individual teacher than the students. As future teachers, we are taught a lot about how to adhere to different learning styles, the diversity of students, and just reaching the students in general. Now I think that all of these factors are important when creating lesson plans, but in order to look at all of the factors you need to look at the teacher (yourself) as well. So when pulling ideas from all of these different models, you need to understand how it is going to be implemented.

To me, it is important to understand all of the methods that are used and what are the factors that make them work in the classroom. Although I think that it is important to use these ideas I am not sure that I would follow them by the book. Since there are all of these different variables in play it wouldn't be that bad of an idea to mix and match some methods in order to gain optimal results. So it is the teacher's job when creating these lesson plans to understand the implications of the factors and incorporate them into the lesson plan.

Shelbi, lesson plans worry me, but not like most (I think). My worry isn't the how...it is the how darn long will it take. I tend to over do things and could spend a week on a one hour plan. I like the Conversation Based Model the best. I am one of the sufferers of ADHD and with that in mind, I can not imagine not engaging my students often. I know that one of the best ways to learn is to teach so I will try and have a lot of the students explaining new concepts to their peers. I love small groups and will use them as much as possible.
What I would love to know is how to do this faster. I love using internet sources and youtube videos, I love adding activities but these things seem to take so long and it honestly makes me worry that I will not have time to sleep when I am up all night planning. What do I do?

Jean,

Like i stated in class I feel like it is very essential to have key objectives to follow. You may not have to actually list them on the board everyday to the students, but you can list certain discussion questions on the board. These questions can bring the objectives out of the students.

Thanks Christina, Brandy, and Barbara for your feedback!!!

I definitely agree with you both that it is VERY important to have lesson plans as your guide, while teaching a lesson. it is beneficial for both the students and the teachers. I really love the conversation based model as well, because I am a talker. I honestly can not understand a lesson unless I am communicating to others and be very interactive.

I also agree with Brandy when you say, "homework should be meaningful." I am happy we touched on the subject of homework today in class, because it gave me an understanding on how to consider how much or what kind of homework to assign. Christina really brought it home when she said, "When you teach, remember how it was for you when you were in high school." That statement really stuck out to me, because homework was one of my biggest challenges. I was taking all honor classes, was a cheerleader, and had a job. I remember when I broke down, because I had too much homework. I can't believe that I almost forgot to take that in account.

Hey Gary,

I am not exactly sure what is your question. Are you asking what should you do to write your lesson plan in a timely manner?

To answer that question, I would re visit the certain strategies that help you stay focused. Vomit on the paper!!!!!! All of your ideas, hopes, and aspirations for the students should be poured out on the paper. Take your time and organize them to be structured to fit your teaching style.

I agree with you, this chapter seemed more like a small book. It was quite informative, though. I really appreciated the various teaching and learning activities it included. I can see myself using several of these in the classroom. My favorites were Wheatston’s Literature Circle Guidelines, the chart for critical web evaluation, and the technology activities associated with The Great Gatsby.

I have a question as to whether you agree as strongly as the writers do with the idea that collaboration is crucial to learning for every student. I do not question that this is a highly studied topic, or that the research supports it as being essential. My question comes from my personal experiences with collaboration and learning, and that of my children. While I will not go as far as to say that some of us learn best “in a bubble,” I question whether, as Wong and Wong said, that collaboration truly “leads to higher achievement for all students” (as cited in Milner, et al., p. 43). I think that as a very general statement this is true. Most students will learn better through collaborative teaching and learning activities. However, I believe there are many exceptions to this idea. Some highly motivated students may be held back from higher achievement when working in collaborative learning environment. Some students, particularly those with special needs, may have less or differently developed social instincts and may be greatly hindered in a collaborative learning environment. For these reasons I think it’s important to really try to get to know students as individuals, and to make allowances for their strengths, challenges, and preferred learning styles when we plan learning activities. This leads us back to the importance of differentiation of instruction. I think that I was left with the idea that the authors feel that collaborative learning is the most noble type of learning available to be used in a “democracy,” and the most effective for all students; And I am not so sure that this is so.

Glory,
To be completely honest, I am one of those students who prefers to learn "in a bubble." Too often I have had "group work" where I just want to get it over with as soon as possible and get something (anything!) turned in. More often than not, I have felt like it was a waste of time. However, I can attest that there have been times when I have been pushed out of my comfort zone and into effective collaborative learning. Though I cannot really say if it is indeed the "best" or most democratic form of teaching, it is definitely the lessons that stick with me the most. You are of course right that we need to get to know each of our students' interests, preferences, and learning styles. But I would argue that even students who prefer to work alone can benefit from being pushed a little bit. And this is where layering instructional design comes back into play: schedule time for collaborative work, but also individual work and mini-lectures. Collaborative group work is something that I feel unprepared to implement in my own future classroom, and something I would like to explore more.

Calling the chapter a small book is actually pretty descriptive. I have actually had a whole textbook talking just about what was covered in this chapter. As students who have gotten this far in our education, I would find it hard to believe that any of us would find this information new. Unless we have taken different tracks to get where we are now, I think this chapter has nothing new to offer. It is nice as a review I suppose.
I really enjoyed your blog post. It was very well laid out and I liked the way you linked to the information you were discussing. By just summarizing your point and offering links to further information, you did a great job of maintaining the flow of the post and not overwhelming us with minutia. - Gary

This chapter was a good read, and yet it seemed to drag on without end. Your post cuts through some of the filler and provides us with an easy glance of what could be deemed a summary of all we have learned in our preservice teaching program thus far.

The topic of contention seems to be the role of collaboration in the classroom. I find its use more effective when implemented and described as a collaborative process than a singular event. The purpose of collaboration should be to promote team building, cooperative learning, and positive social growth.

While not ideal for all learning assignments, promoting social growth is important to prepare our students for the collaborative world they will enter. Achievers must learn the importance of the team, as must our underachievers understand the importance of responsibility to the group. Getting to know our students is vital to making collaborative efforts bear fruit. By doing so we can look to engage their strengths while promoting improvement in areas of opportunity.

Jean, my “go to” mode is lecture and small group discussions. I mentioned writing to learn on Tuesday. This chapter gives us an opportunity to think about talking to learn. When I think about my favorite teachers, I’d have to say they lectured (probably because group work wasn’t touted then as it is now). I am envious of the teachers who lectured with a flair for storytelling. They always demanded my attention.

Jean,

I thought the way that you introduced Whole-Class Discussion by first listing the things that it is not was very effective. Though the text does this as well, presenting these characteristics places some boundaries on a component of classroom interaction and is important for further investigation into just what Whole-Class Discussion can mean.

The text offers many directives on creating engaging and educational class discussions, and I would like to integrate this with the question that was posed the other day in class of “How do we (as teachers) allow class discussions concerned social justice issues to occur in the classroom?” The text says that “realistic assessment[s] of actual student participation” and a thorough understanding of class dynamics is crucial for instructive and successful Whole-Class Discussions (pg. 29). I believe that the teacher is a critical control point in social justice discussions even when they may be student directed/text motivated. However, that being said, the text also advocates that teachers release some of the control they exert over classroom discussions by, amongst other things, not having previously prepared outlines or questions.

My question is: How can we balance these two roles to include social justice in the classroom? What can we do (and the text provides many strategies, but I am interested in different answers) to both act as a controlling force and a bystander to allow students to reach their own conclusions?

Brandy,
Great questions! I think it would be great to ask this to the entire class. How can we make sure discussions are social justice oriented while relinquishing some of that control and allowing students to direct discussion? I think that if a teacher is in tune with her students and what matters to them, he or she will be able to introduce a relevant social justice topic and let the students take it from there. One effective strategy I have observed is playing devil's advocate. If students are not exploring the topic as thoroughly as you had hoped, why not ask them questions to direct them there? I think this is possible to do without having pre-planned questions or outlines.

I believe that Chapter 2 is one of the most important things that we as educators do, design instruction. We must come up with lesson plans that inspire our student’s imagination so they learn. By understanding our student’s learning styles, multiple intelligences, and if they are a left or right brain learner we can use different approaches to create our lesson plans. We often only teach to one or two types of learners leaving everyone else out and usually bored. While we cannot teach every lesson in all learning styles we can certainly mix up our approach to creating lesson plans that will interest all of our students.

The teachers I found to be my favorite usually deployed multiple ideas and choices for the students as we learned our various subjects. They kept me interested and allowed the students to choose different ways to validate what we learned. They motivated me and I found learning to be interesting. I wanted to prove to myself and my teacher what I learned. My favorite teachers layered their approaches in creating interesting lesson plans.

We also must not forget our gifted learners. Often gifted learners are left out and need a differentiated lesson plan designed for them because “it is tempting to leave them on their own” (p. 21). Gifted learners will also benefit from lessons designed for them and their specific needs. We need to develop critical thinkers of all our students and the gifted student is no exception.

I believe group work does have its place in learning, but it needs to be monitored so that students feel like everyone in the group is contributing to the project. There need to be sheets that document what the students are doing, a teacher rubric to evaluate what work the students are doing, and logs and timelines of the work that is completed or needs to be completed.

We can also use technology within the Language Arts classroom to enhance our lesson plans and make them more interesting for our students. We can use blogs, discussion boards, wikis, and video clips to enhance our teaching. Our students are digital natives and use technology on a daily basis so it is critical to include this in our lesson plans.

Your blog dealt with the chapters important ideas and you covered them clearly and concisely. It highlighted nicely the most important parts. It was a well written piece and I enjoyed reading it.

Do you know what type of learner you are? Do you think knowing what type of learner you are benefits you when you are learning new material? Did this chapter motivate you to create better lesson plans?

This was a great summary of the chapter. I definitely agree that the chapter does cover a lot, although it does seem to be rehashing many familiar ideas. When I see these broad overviews I always think of the teachers I have learned most from over my life and try to figure out exactly what category they fall in to. It's also interesting to see what sort of student category I most identify with.

I also have to say that I'm not sure if I completely agree with the authors total praise of collaborative learning. I'm all for working together and learning through discourse and debate but I'm not sure it's as universally beneficial as the author would have us believe. Personally I kind of like working in a bubble. I've found some of my most enlightening learning experiences have come while sitting quietly listening to someone more knowledgable than myself. I understand that's not for everyone but I still believe it has it's merit.

I think that the most important part of this chapter, is that it focused on how versatile teachers need to be. When I was in high school, a lot of teachers would teach according to how they wanted to do it and not necessarily the best possible method for teaching a particular group of students. But since I have been learning about pedagogy, a recurring theme is using that there is never a straight-forward answer to teaching. As a teacher, it is your duty to understand your students and their learning styles so that they may learn as efficiently as possible.

I would also agree with what most people are saying about chapter 2. There is a lot of repetition and the chapter (although it is quite lengthy) does briefly cover topics that could fill an entire textbook. I also think that being able to layer is another way to keep your students interested. If you are able to shift between activities every 15- 20 minutes while staying on topic, then you are allowed to engage your students that much more. I would also like to think that you could implement a scaffolding technique with this as well. Going from a short lecture, to a class-discussion, to group work, to individual activity can help ease the student into comprehending the teacher's objective.

Barbara, you made some great points about groups work. I think the things you listed (roles, monitoring, logs, evaluation) are precisely things that make collaborative learning stand out from typical "group work." To answer you question, though this chapter did not exactly motivate me, it definitely made lesson planning less intimidating to me. I love the idea of layering. The fact that I don't have to plan a huge group activity or an hour long lecture is comforting to me. Breaking down the class into chunks of different learning designs sounds much more doable.

 We definitely agree with Dustin's point. "Mixing it up" allows both the teacher and student to stay engaged with the subject being taught. Moving around topically and even physically helps avoid "classroom hypnosis". Lecturing for 90 minutes and listening to a lecture for 90 minutes might not be the most mentally stimulating way to engage with students.

In response to William's comment:

As a group, we agree that collaborative learning is an essential part of any classroom. However, we also recognize that students also require time for independent work and learning. Well-rounded instruction would include a mix of both of these styles. The text says that collaborative learning "'is the most direct means of initiating [students] into participation in the active shaping of knowledge and meaning for themselves,'" and though we agree, we also think that this can be achieved with both independent and collaborative learning.

We (Jean, Adam, and I) agree with Barbara, that collaborative work needs to have an evaluation element to it, that each person involved needs to have a defined role, and that there is evidence of their participation documented. We think that Barbara’s examples of rubrics, logs, and timelines are some valid examples of how do accomplish these goals. However, we also can think of some other examples that could work well, too. Some of these are student self- evaluation and peer evaluation.

Brandy, this is a tough question! Being as opinionated as I am, it can be difficult to simply step back and let the students work through their ideas. Especially with social justice teaching, some of these discussions can get a little heated, so I think it is important to monitor your students' discussions and make sure everything said is appropriate for the classroom. It is important to include everyone in discussions, as well, and to make sure that all students feel comfortable speaking up in your classroom.

My original comment did not post 
Jean you did a really good job on your post. You were very thorough in your explanations of the different Instructional Approaches.
I think that lecture is still a very important instructional strategy. I think that it is very important for the teacher to still be presenting knowledge to the students. Some students learn new information best from the professor. I know I am one of those students where I prefer lecture especially when the topic is new. When professors lecture I think it is a beneficial tool to have a visual aid such as a powerpoint but it is not useful to have everything a person is going to say on the powerpoint. It is also good to embed discussion questions throughout the lecture on the powerpoint.
I love whole class discussion. I think that a good segway would be the small group discussion and then the whole class discussion. This allows for the students to get their thoughts together in a more intimate setting.
Individual work is imperative for students. I am a supporter for group work but I also believe that students should have the opportunity to think on their own. If we always put students in groups they will never have the opportunity to think on their own and form their own opinions. In the past when I am always in groups if I did not have my own opinion on the topic then I automatically think the way someone else does.

Hi, Kaa.

I have wanted to teach the story since I found it ten years ago. I cried and howled like Geraldine Moore's teacher. I did.

This fall I will be teaching story for the first time. I have some ideas to share with you.

Would you post the story on your blog? Yes?

Bookjoy and hugs,

Joseph



R. Joseph Rodriguez, Ph.D.

Center for Teaching and Learning | The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station, G9600 | Austin, TX 78713-7246

512-232-5847 (direct) | 512-232-5859 (facsimile)

E-mail: [email protected]

Online: http://ctl.utexas.edu

I wish I knew how to attach it. I am going to try to attach it using Scribd but I'm having trouble. I had an emotional reaction, too. Thanks for sharing.

Did it! Just hope I'm not breaking copyright laws. Please tell me if I am, and I will remove immediately. Let's work together to create a strategy for sharing this with our students.

I don't think the poet doesn't recognize the value of an education, do you?

As I listen, I hear someone who is questioning how we "do school."

Is the poet agreeing with teacher turned author Richard Peck?
“In regard to standardized testing Peck believes that ‘schools teaching to the test have cost us
readers. The whole standardized test business will fade away like all other educational initiatives because the standardized tests
cannot reflect the home lives of the students.’” (p. 23 Esther Keller, “40 Years, 40 Books:
An Interview with Richard Peck,” Library Media Connection, November/December 2011)

I think I loved this book so much because it was beautifully written and the setting and historical period resonated with me, giving me a break from cell phones, 500 TV channels, and high speed internet.

I'm also a fan of the book. Such a good story.
And your quotes about history and young people are excellent. I may have to borrow them!

Please borrow away, Augusta.

I don't EVER respond to reviews of my book, but this time I had to make an exception. When you mentioned Lois Lenski, I swooned. I'm not familiar with Sheila P. Moses, but I want to be. I'm off to check her out. Thanks again for a stellar review. I'm so happy you connected with the manuscript.

Thanks for making an exception, Shannon! Sheila P. Moses is a North Carolinian, too. I think you’ll like her books that are set around Rich Square. She might be best known for I, Dred Scott, a great read about the Dred Scott decision.