Tamara Griffith
Lesson Planning
"Great teachers engineer learning experiences that put students in the driver's seat and then get out of the way."
~Ben Johnson
After completing long-term and unit plans, I flesh out the daily objectives developed in the unit plan into a lesson plan that is meaningful and engaging for students. Each lesson plan is the result of planning using the backwards design model and data gleaned from prior diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment. As a result, each lesson is connected to and plays a role in meeting the long-term rigorous academic goals of the class.
Characterization Lesson Plan:
When creating specific lesson plans, I again utilize the backwards design process. I first decide what the daily learning target is -- that is what will students do in order to demonstrate their understanding of the content and skills? Once the lesson's demonstration of learning has been articulated, I develop the scaffolds necessary to ensure students will be able to effectively demonstrate their knowledge of key concepts and skills by the culmination of the lesson.
Within this lesson, I follow this backwards planning design. Opportunities for formative assessment are frequently and strategically placed throughout the lesson to check students' progress toward mastery of this skill. Proactively determining points of misconceptions or misunderstandings is also crucial in whether or not a lesson is successful. Addressing misconceptions and misunderstandings before they occur allows me to clarify these potential roadblocks proactively to ensure that students will master this skill. Based upon the feedback that I receive through my formative assessments, I determine how to best make on-the-spot instructional adjustments to support students learning. These adjustments are not haphazardly employed, but are pre-determined based on considerations of the different roads a lesson may take based upon students' demonstrated understandings and skills and data gleaned from the previous day's exit tickets and or formative assessments.
A sample lesson plan from my identity unit is included below.
Substitute Lesson Plan:
Another key component of planning for instruction includes planning for instruction on days that I cannot be in school. When situations arise that pull me out of the classroom, such as for professional development or sick days, it is important that my students are still engaging with rigorous content that will enable them to meet their rigorous learning goals. If the lesson plans left with the substitute are not detailed or feasible for students to accomplish in my absence, then the instructional day is wasted. Having previously discussed the importance of attaining our long-term goals, it is clear that every instructional day matters. As a result, I leave detailed lesson plans any time that I am absent so that I can have confidence that instructional time is being utilized productively in my absence. An example of the lesson plan that I leave for substitutes is included below.
Student photos are used with parent permission on file.
Student photos are used with parent permission on file.
Student photos are used with parent permission on file.
Student photos are used with parent permission on file.
Click the navigation arrows to view some of my students working collaboratively on their characterization charts.
This image shows the STEAL characterization exemplar I created at the behest of my students.
Scroll through this PDF to explore my characterization lesson plan.
While I am still working to improve the pacing of my lessons as I still occasionally over-plan, I am improving my ability to gather specific artifacts and demonstrations of students' learning so that I can effectively adapt instruction to meet the needs of my learners for the following day. For this lesson, students did not have enough time to finish their STEAL graphic organizers, so I gave them time to finish them the following day. After the lesson, I realized that the majority of students were unable to adequately cite text evidence and explain the subtle effects that one character had on another in the novel. As a result, I adjusted my lesson plan for the subsequent day to include a think-aloud specifically geared to analyze the subtle effects that characters can have on each other.
Characterization Lesson Evidence:
Typically, I use PowerPoint to visually relay content information to students. In addition to articulating my expectations orally, I project them as well. Moreover, my PowerPoints contain instructions for assignments, key concepts, examples, and guided practice. By using PowerPoints, I can also share this information on our shared drive in Google classroom. Thus, students can access the material at home if they were absent or if they want to review their notes.
The PowerPoint I created for this lesson is included below for your perusal.
Scroll through this PDF to explore my characterization PowerPoint.
In addition to relaying content knowledge and skills, PowerPoints are one of the ways that I utilize predictable routines in my classroom. Each day, as students walk in the door, our do now is projected so that students can begin working immediately.
I post the daily objective at the top of each slide so that students can ensure that all of the work we do is meaningful to achieve our learning target. I begin by connecting this objective to our larger unit and long-term goals to build student investment.
Scroll through this PDF to explore a sample substitute plan.
In addition to leaving step-by-step guidance illustrating the tasks that students need to complete for the day, I also include my rules, schedule, and sample routines for the substitute to follow in my absence. For example, everyday I greet students at the door to ensure that every student feels seen and knows they are visible in my class. By relaying this message to my substitute, this routine says consistent for my students. I leave a space for the substitute to give me feedback on how the day went as well. This allows me to make informed instructional decisions for the following day such as whether or not students need more time, whether or not they were struggling, etc.
I usually present new and reviewed material on the PowerPoint slide in the form of an outline. This helps keep students' learning focused on obtaining the key content knowledge they are responsible for within the lesson. In addition, this facilitates students' note-taking abilities. Whether students are taking Cornell notes, completing guided notes, or making a foldable, bullet points help ensure that new content knowledge is accessible to all students -- especially my special education students and ELLs. Often, formative assessments are built within the lesson on the PowerPoint. This allows me to check for understanding prior to releasing students to independent or partner activities; doing so allows me to determine who I need to check in with and/or pull into a small group for remedial instruction.
Click the navigation arrows to view samples of my students' KWL reflections.
After students had spent some time initially constructing their posters in first period, I observed that many of the groups were struggling with how to organize their posters or were not citing text evidence to back up their claims for each component of STEAL. Some of my students even asked if I had an example that they could follow. While I was not able to share an exemplar with first period until the following day, I was able to make an exemplar during my planning period to share with my subsequent classes. With the addition of the exemplar, many of my later classes did not struggle to the extent that first period had. Providing students with exemplars is beneficial because it helps visually convey the expectations required of the assignment.
At the beginning of this lesson, I had students complete the know and want to know portions of their KWL chart. After the allotted time had elapsed, I had students share at their table groups for a minute before calling on one student to summarize what their table knew and wanted to know about this topic. As a result, I was able to formatively assess what my class already knew about characterization. This allowed me to make more informed instructional decisions as to where and how I wanted to proceed with my planned lesson. For example, my fifth period class did not have a whole lot of background knowledge with this skill. As a result, I showed them the characterization video on Flocabulary to deepen their understandings of this topic prior to applying the new material.
At the culmination of the lesson, students completed the learned section, rated their confidence level with this new material, and wrote a question they still had regarding characterization. As a result, I am able to more effectively tailor future lessons to students' needs. If students write down incorrect information in the learned portion, for example, I know that I will need to remediate this skill with those students the following day. Having students generate a question with regard to the content or skill forces students to think about the content and allows me to plan lessons that feed into the pathways of students' interests. As evidenced by these examples, my students posed very thoughtful, genuine questions which I will utilize when developing future learning experiences.
When students are learning a new skill or applying it for the first time, I try to give them the option of working collaboratively. Working collaboratively is beneficial because it not only allows students to share ideas and clarify content knowledge, but it also allows students to improve their social and communication skills. Additionally, when students are working with collaborative groups, I can more frequently check in on student progress and provide timely feedback on student work.
In analyzing students' collaborative STEAL posters, it is clear that there are certain pockets of each students in each class that are confusing the two main characters, Max and Freak. As a result, some of the components of their posters have evidence compiled from both characters. Since this is our first novel/ long text that we have read in class, having these students maintain a character list graphic organizer may improve their comprehension of the novel.
Additionally, there were pockets of students in each class that need to extend their analyses to truly hit the subtle nuances of the standard in order to adequately analyze indirect characterization. For example, samples 5 and 7 in the PDF above demonstrate this. Students' explanations parrot the quotes they chose (some of which were particularly insightful, I might add), rather than convey a deeper analysis. To challenge these students to greater depths of critical thinking, I will work with them on analysis and elaboration in small groups utilizing the say, mean, matter strategy.
This lesson was successful in implementation, but I did not allot enough time for students to adequately complete their STEAL characterization posters. As a result, I gave students time to finish their work in groups the following day. Students articulated that the most difficult component of this lesson was finding and citing text evidence; however, after grading students' work, it is clear that students' biggest struggle was with analyzing their evidence. I did notice that some groups were composing their explanations prior to having concrete evidence, which lends their explanations to be more akin to summary. Moving forward, I will need to work specifically with students on how to more efficiently integrate text evidence and build analyses that extend beyond summary, a skill students will need master if they are to meet the rigorous learning goals outlined in their text-based writing performance assessment.
Scroll through this PDF to view samples of students' characterization posters.
In an effort to differentiate for my struggling readers, I pulled some of my lower-performers into small groups and had them set up their posters to mimic the Frayer model graphic organizers we use for vocabulary. Doing so helps create consistency and alleviated some of the pressure of designing a poster. In addition, I broke their task into smaller chunks; instead of analyzing five types of indirect characterization, they had to analyze four. In addition, I gave these students the following sentence frames to facilitate their analysis:
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This shows ______ is _______ because ______.
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In the text, it says "_______" (pg. #).
While these frames are evident in this group's sample, it is clear that I will need to work with these students on adding proper citations and including effective elaboration.
This is sample of the Think F.A.S.T. activity I had some of my lower-performing students complete instead of STEAL.
This image depicts how I organize my desk in preparation for a substitute.
In sum, creating effective lessons is crucial to achieving dramatic academic growth. However, developing an amazing lesson on paper alone is futile if it is not adjusted in real time to meet the needs of students. Thus, I plan frequent formative assessments and checks for understanding throughout the lesson so I know when to deviate from the plan in order to tailor instruction to meet learner needs and to correct student misunderstandings.
Not only do substitutes need detailed plans to facilitate my class for the day, but they also need materials to be organized and accessible. So, when planning for a substitute, I ensure that my desk is cleared off except for the materials the substitute will need to execute the lesson plan effectively. These materials are clearly labeled to ensure that the substitute can effectively and efficiently run the class. In addition, I assign two trustworthy students from each class to be the substitute's helpers; in this capacity, they can help pass out papers, run errands, answer the phone, and take attendance. Planning for this in advance allows me to ensure that my class runs smoothly in my absence and that students' productivity is maximized.