In my previous post I discussed creating effective student objectives. Here, I'm going to explain how to use those objectives to form a substantial lesson.
As previously stated, your student objective should include a what and a how, or an obtainable and a measurable. I always start planning my lessons with my student objectives. From here, I can decided if the actives in my lesson correlate to the objective. It is very important to be sure you are setting your students up for success. This is done by ensuring all parts of your lesson are related to the objective.
Once I have a set student objective, I then decide on the best resources to obtain the objective. For example my student objective is "We will analyze two versions of the same fairy tale by using a graphic organizer to compare" therefore, my end goal is the students will be able to identify differences and similarities across cultural texts with similar themes.
I then will create a list of guiding questions. These questions can take the form of an anchor chart, checklist for student use, or guiding questions for you to use. The method of questions will depend on your students' ability, age appropriateness, and if this is new material or material they have been exposed to before. Using the example student objective some guiding questions could be, "How is the point of view of the main characters different from text 1 to text 2?" or "Are the themes similar even though the main characters display different character traits?" or "How do the cultures differ from text 1 to text 2?" and always, always, always with the common core, expect your students to use text evidence to support their answers.
I'll then locate the lesson's resources. For my particular student objective, I want to use two versions of the same story that have enough in common and enough differences and are at the appropriate text complexity for my students to make my lesson successful.
From there, I use a skeleton of the I do, we do, you do teaching method. I personally like to make bullet notes on post-its for my lessons. It keeps me on track and allows me to "prethink" my lesson. You will need to find a system that works for you.
My "I do" section will again depend on where my students are with this particular skill. This is where I will execute my think alouds and modeling. Its important to be sure you are modeling the skill from your student objective. It is really easy, especially, in reading lessons to get off track and onto a whole other reading skill. Try to stay focused.
From here, we move into the "We do" section. This is where my guiding questions will come into play. For this lesson, we might begin to read the text together, using post-it notes to identify key themes, main idea, and character traits. Or the "We do" could just be an in-depth preview where we orally discuss some of the guiding questions as a group. Again, this will determine on where your students are with the skill. By using the guiding questions you will stay on track with your student objective.
Next, I let my students go out on their own in the "You do" part of my lesson. Since my example is of a reading lesson, I will monitor students' reading one-on-one, asking them to discuss the text when appropriate for their reading. If I notice a student is struggling with the skill, I might then start them with a think aloud. Example: "Hmmmm, this kind of reminds me of (text 1) can you help me figure out why this is familiar?" Again encourage your students to use text evidence for support.
Now so far my whole lesson has been the obtainable, or the what. The last part of my lesson will be the measurable, or the how. It might be in the form of an Exit Ticket, it depends on how you want to use it in your classroom. This should be completed independently, as it will be used to measure your students' progress. In this lesson, it's in the form of a graphic organizer. Once the students have competed the graphic organizer, you can now measure their progress. While you are reviewing the completed, measurable ask yourself, Did they grow? Have the mastered the skill? Do they need more scaffolding?
From there you can differentiate your instruction further to meet each students' needs.
Somethings to consider:
- A lesson does not have to be completed in one day. Often times lessons span over several days, and that's OK just be sure you are staying on track with your student objective.
- Students should know their objective. It's what they are working towards. Remind them of their objective several times throughout the lesson to keep them on track.
- You can and should measure student progress throughout your lesson, not just at the end. By informally monitoring how they are working within that objective, you can adjust your pacing, scaffolding and differentiated instruction. Use the formal measurement in the "I do" section for the next day's pacing.
I hope you've found this informative. Good Luck and Happy Educating!
No comments:
Post a Comment