Aspects of lesson plans

Julia Andrews sings "let's start at the very beginning..." but what is the best place to start when you want to design a lesson plan?

• Start with how you will capture the students' interest

• Start with what you want the students to learn

• Start by identifying the next page in the textbook

• Start by identifying resources that you will use in the lesson

When Roy Killen says that lesson planning is "iterative" he means that

• It is linear

• It is hard and takes time

• It involves revisiting different aspects to make sure that they all align and work together

• You shouldn't worry about it too much, because teachers should always be flexible

Deciding in advance what will be the student learning outcomes is an important aspect of lesson planning. Select all true statements:

• A lesson should relate to a big idea within the subject curriculum

• It is important to identify the intended learning outcome of the lesson itself

• Students need to know the learning intention

• A lesson's learning intention should always relate to knowledge

One big constraint that teachers have to learn to work within is a lack of ______________.

Answer explanation

Time and resources - there are two biggies! But they are ones that teachers must learn to manage, because budgets and classtime minutes are both limited.

Making decisions about lesson content includes which of these?

• Deciding content that will help students achieve the learning outcomes

• Planning examples that will help the students understand

• Thinking about content that your students can relate to

• Being aware of common difficulties associated with learning your chosen content

Which of these statements best reflects the role of students' prior knowledge in your lesson planning?

• The topics of previous lessons

• What I know about student understanding of concepts from previous lessons

• Ideas, experiences, knowledge and misconceptions that students bring from lifeworld experience

• all the above

Direct instruction and expository teaching are examples of a ________-centered approach to teaching and learning.

Answer explanation

Teacher-centered, because they have a focus on presentation of information, so students take a passive role.... very risky to do this beyond short bursts!

Learner-centered approaches to teaching and learning differ from teacher-centered ones in that the ________ has a much greater and more active role.

Which teaching strategy is best? Choose the statements that are correct.

• Learner-centered strategies are always better

• A variety of teaching strategies is important

• It depends on the circumstances

• Teachers should use their preferred teaching style, because this is what they are good at and comfortable with.

Which of these are functions of the lesson opening?

• So that students see the lesson as relevant to them

• To make links to what students already know

• To raise students' curiosity and interest

• To give a lecture of the key ideas