Lesson Planning Tips
- Before creating a lesson plan, formulate the
instructional objectives!
- Always begin a lesson with Anticipatory
Set.
- Development of the lesson (see below). The rest of this web
page is devoted to the body of the lesson, or the structure of
what comes between anticipatory set and closure.
- Always end a lesson with
Closure.
Principles for Sequencing and Developing the
Lesson
- Proceed from the familiar to the
unfamiliar, from the known-known to the
known-unknown. Lay a familiar frame of reference before
introducing foreign concepts.
- Proceed from the concrete to the abstract, from
the particular to the universal. Stock the students' minds with
concrete examples (e.g., living things) before emphasizing general
abstractions (e.g., "life").
- Proceed according to a simulated historical episode in which
the problem was paradigmatically resolved.
- Begin with unusual, unexpected, surprising, novel, or complex
situations. Then work backward toward understanding of the
concepts explaining the situation. (See
Anticipatory Set.)
- Proceed according to a logical or conceptual outline, from the
simple to the complex. However, remember that what seems "simple"
to one initiated in the field may seem "unfamiliar" or "abstract"
to a novice.
- Remember that few students will be capable of formal
operational thought at the beginning; teach in such a way as to
lift them from concrete operational to formal levels of cognition.
- Avoid introducing abstract, formal, and unfamiliar words,
terms, or phrases until you have made them concrete, familiar, and
intelligible!
Delivery of the Body of the Lesson
- Establish a positive learning climate: Let your enthusiasm be
infectious! Let your energy be contagious!
- Enjoy both the content of the lesson and the teaching of it.
Let your personality come through.
- Constantly check student learning; adjust the delivery of the
lesson; create student alertness and engagement with the lesson;
and head straight toward your point.
- Avoid vocal punctuation as filler space between sentences:
um, uh, but uh, 'kay, alright, um 'kay, and, etc. (Allow
students to fill your silences with their own reflections or
questions.)
- Be organized! Orderly classroom routines will prevent a myriad
of distractions to instruction.
- Don't just "tell" when you can get students to learn in an
active, particpatory way. Frequent student input is imperative.
Minimize teacher talk. Use a variety of instructional
methods to deliver the body of the lesson:
- Read (quietly, aloud by taking turns)
- Demonstrate
- Model (to make remote ideas concrete)
- Role-play or act out
- Chart
- Audio-visual Media
- Guest speaker
- Socratic inquiry and other questioning
strategies (for instruction, not merely recall)
- Small group inquiry
- Lab
- Field
- Computer
- Library
- Guided practice with checks for understanding
- Independent practice
- Group practice monitored by teacher
- Individual practice monitored by teacher
To vary your approach, always involve more than one sense. Be sure
to include oral, visual, and kinesthetic elements in
every lesson!
"I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I know."
Generating Active Learning
Teaching is not copying a recipe for students so much
as inviting them to become taste testers! The question is not how
much the teacher can teach, but how will the students' best learning
occur. Generating activities for learning requires your best
professional judgment in view of your knowledge of the learners'
situation.
- The textbook is not the curriculum! Textbooks do not drive
learning. Never fear to depart from the text!
- Paper blizzards do not equal student learning. Give them
concrete, familiar, tangible experience doing
science, not just passive learning about science!
- Mere doing does not equal learning: "hands-on" is not enough;
activities must also be "minds on."
- A high interest activity does not equal learning if it does
not closely match the objective.
- Learning does not equal recipe cooking or mechanical activity.
What will the students do that they will understand? Make doing
meaningful.
- Learning is significant doing.
Responding to Students
Responses should...
- be relevant to learning.
- be immediate (i.e., with continuity; after
the second wait time, of course!).
- be specific.
- be positive; encouraging student expectations
of their own learning.
- be sincere but not platitudinous (e.g.,
"After this review game today I think you'll be surprised to see
how much you have learned" rather than "I'm sure you will all do
extremely well on the test tomorrow.")
- Emphasize progress and effort; e.g., the process of thinking.
Set realistic goals that avoid being trite but do not dismay.
- Elaborate without parroting. To parrot a student's answer
teaches other students not to listen to each other, that only
teacher-talk matters. Instead of repeating what the student said,
if there are some who did not hear it, ask the student to repeat
his or her answer.
Giving an Effective Explanation
Is the explanation...
- Directly related to an objective that makes it meaningful
learning?
- Clear?
- Concise?
- Complete? Including all crucial information? Avoid partial
explanations, and speak in complete sentences. Clearly identify
the information needed for understanding.
- Sequenced into its component parts?
- Comprehensible given existing frame of reference?
- Illustrated with concrete or familiar references?
- Modeled?
- Applied to other contexts or problems?
- Flexible?
- Do you vary your approach?
- Do you have a Plan B? Are you prepared to explain in more than
one way?
- Incessant? Or are you monitoring student learning in order to
know whether to resort to Plan B? Do you stop to check for
understanding? Do you obtain frequent student input and feedback?
Do you pause for breath?
Other web pages pertaining to the body of a
lesson include:
For great ideas and more exciting lesson plans be
sure to:
- Subscribe to professional magazines such as The Science
Teacher or American Biology Teacher!
- Observe other science teachers in your building and exchange
ideas!
- Go to professional conferences! (Esp. of the NSTA.)
- Invest in resource materials and supplementary books!
- Keep organized files, so that the great ideas you come upon do
not get misplaced!
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