Planning Lessons

Presented byFrank H. Osborne, Ph. D.

© 2015

EMSE 3123Math and Science in Education

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Planning Lessons

You can never do enough planning.

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Long-Range Planning

• Long-range planning is designed for the development of a year-long course. A full-year course will consist of a series of units, each consisting of lessons.

• It is important to keep in mind the objectives of the course as well as the desired outcomes. These will determine the ways in which you assess the various components of the course.

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Long-Range Planning

• District Requirements– In New Jersey, your local School District

Curriculum is the ultimate source of guidance for your class. You should be sure to follow it at all times.

• Local School Requirements– Local requirements which may involve

purchasing, scheduling or safety considerations.

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State Guidelines (NJCCCS)

• The New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for Mathematics were replaced in 2010 with national standards called Common Core Curriculum Standards.

• The New Jersey standards for Science were replaced in 2014 with the Next Generation Science Standards.

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State Guidelines• Both sets of Standards present details about what to

teach in math and science in each grade level.

• The State of New Jersey uses tests that are required at various grade levels to show where the students stand in the development of their education.

• As a successful classroom teacher, you will need to show that children are learning and improving their knowledge during the time they are with you.

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Organization of the Textbook

• Many teachers use the organization of the textbook as the organizational outline of the course. Generally, this decision is made by your school.

• This is acceptable provided that they are constantly aligning the textbook with the NJCCCS and the local district standards.

• Remember that it is the district curriculum and the teacher and not the textbook company that determines what is taught in a classroom.

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Inquiry• Children are naturally curious. Use this property to help

in your teaching. Science teachers relate course content and lesson delivery to the inquiry process. Inquiry is how scientists find new truths and learn new things.

• In the classroom, our students will be little scientists and will learn new material and information using the processes of science.

• Have them do things “hands-on” so as to ‘discover’ science knowledge themselves.

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Inquiry• A similar process can be used in teaching mathematics.

Have them investigate all the things they can learn with manipulatives.

• Convince the children that they really want to learn how to do math and reinforce their behaviors when they achieve your goals.

• Convince them that they really want to do this. They have to learn how to take control of their own education. It really helps if they begin to do this at an early age.

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Middle-Range Planning

• The product of middle-range planning is the unit plan. There will be several units in a year-long course.

• Generally, a unit will take several weeks to teach. The titles of the units will constitute the major divisions of the course material.

• Your units will probably be worked out for you already by the school district.

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Middle-Range Planning• The Teacher Work Sample Portfolio (TWS)

provides evidence that you can develop an appropriate unit plan.

• The Teacher Work Sample has seven sections. We will do a portion of the TWS known as the Mini-TWS as part of this course.

• You should be preparing and working on your Teacher Work Sample on frequent, regular basis.

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Unit Planning

In a regular unit plan, each unit will have a plan that follows the outline below.

1. Title– This is the title of the unit as it is taken from the

list of unit titles in the course outline.

2. Purpose statement– The reason that the unit is included in the

course. Include the broad goals of the unit.

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Unit Planning

3. Objectives– The objectives should be clearly stated and should

be student-centered objectives. The best are the kind that state the expected terminal behavior as part of the objective.

– Use Bloom’s Taxonomy for vocabulary as you develop your objectives. For sure, school districts are looking for vocabulary and expectations from levels 4 (Analysis), 5 (Synthesis) and 6 (Evaluation).

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Unit Planning4. Content Standards

– This will be a list of the national standards that are covered in the unit.

– Best is to actually write out each of the standards so as not to use confusing abbreviations such as "III.A.1.c." Your purpose is to state the standards explicitly to the reader.

– The reader (supervisor or principal) should not be expected to have to go and look up the standards themselves to see what you are doing.

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Unit Planning

5. Methods

– Explicitly give details of what methods will be used in the teaching of the unit.

– This can be done in the form of a daily schedule.

– For example, a week worth of a unit on the cell from biology class is given below.

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Unit Planning

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Unit Planning

6. Materials

– Planning is important to make certain that the materials are available when you need them.

– This would include videotapes, laboratory apparatus, the computer projector, and whatever duplicated materials you will be distributing to the class.

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Unit Planning

6. Materials

– Once you get established, you will find that many things can be prepared in advance to avoid rushing around on the day of the presentation or having the copier break down just before you want to run off your quiz.

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Unit Planning7. Assessment

– The assessment is how you will evaluate that the students have learned what you have taught them.

– Try to avoid using test and quiz, test and quiz, test and quiz.

– You can evaluate student projects, writing assignments, poster displays, and other alternative methods of assessment presentation.

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Alternative MethodologiesChalkboard/Markerboard Lecture

Debate Oral Report

Demonstration Problem Solving

Discussion Projects

Educational Software/Computers Multimedia Projects

Field Trips Questioning

Video/CD-Rom Reading

Games Simulations

Inquiry/Design Computer-based Learning

Internet Probeware

Lab Report Thematic Unit Project

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Unit Planning7. Assessment

– Rubrics are ideal for assessment. – You should learn how to write rubrics for oral

presentations, class discussions, student group work, poster presentations, and other methods of non-test-and-quiz evaluation.

– Remember that you are not doing this alone. You may be able to get appropriate rubrics from other teachers, education websites, state websites from other states and other ways.

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Unit Planning8. Assignment/Homework/Closure

– You need to have a way to reinforce the learning that took place in the classroom.

– Frequent homework helps to reinforce in the child’s mind what they learned in class.

– You might give them worksheets to take home that supplement each lesson.

– Your school or supervisor will be able to provide guidance on the frequency of homework.

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Planning the Science Lesson

8. Assignment/Homework/Closure– All assignments, worksheets, problem sets and

so forth should be explicitly listed either in your unit plans or your lesson plans.

– From there it is easy to copy them into your daily plan book so that it is up to date whenever your supervisor or principal asks for it.

– Keep copies of everything for use next time.

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Short-Range Planning

• The basic building block of short-range planning is the Lesson Plan.

• For each lesson plan you need to ask yourself what your goals are and how you will achieve them.

• The series of sections is similar to the series found in the unit plan.

• Keep them in your binder of file box.

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Lesson PlanningThe steps in Lesson Planning are similar to those we

have learned for Unit Planning.

1. Title– The title of the lesson. This should correspond

easily with the list of titles found in the unit plan.

2. Identification Information– Identification information includes the course title,

grade level and unit to which the lesson belongs.

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Lesson Planning

3. Objectives– As with the unit plan, the objectives should be

explicitly and clearly stated. – These should be student-centered objectives. The

best are the kind that state the expected terminal behavior as part of the objective.

– Remember that you are seeking that the children perform at levels 4-6 of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

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Lesson Planning

4. Content Standards– This will be a list of the national

standards that are covered in the lesson.

– Once again, it is best to actually write out each of the standards so as not to use confusing abbreviations such as “III.A.1.c.”

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Lesson Planning

4. Content Standards– This is not a good time to get lazy or to let bad

habits creep into your otherwise stellar career. – Your purpose is to state the standards

explicitly to the reader. – The reader should not be expected to have to

go and look up the standards themselves to see what you are doing.

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Lesson Planning

5. Materials– Make a complete list of all the apparatus,

equipment and materials that are needed for the lesson.

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Lesson Planning

6. Methods– Write out a list of steps necessary to carry out the

lesson. – Separate out the steps that the students will be

doing. State what they will be able to do.– This list can be used to make up instructions for

them to use when performing hands-on activities with manipulatives or with science investigations.

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Lesson Planning

7. Assignment– Write the assignment as it appears in the

unit plan.

– List the components separately for easy reference.

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Lesson Planning8. Assessment

– Include the actual assessment (if the assessment instrument is a rubric) or refer to the assessment (if it is a test or quiz).

– Remember that every time you write a unit or lesson plan it contains objectives.

– You should have already figured out how you will assess every one of the objectives you have listed.

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Lesson Planning• For every lesson you give you need to develop a

way to assess if the students have learned anything from it. 

• Generally this is done with tests or quizzes.• A good teacher develops other means of

assessment using Rubrics (scoring guides).  • National agencies frown on teaching strategies

that incorporate only tests and quizzes. • Do what is generally done in your district.

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Lesson Planning

Assembling your plans for the course • You need to save all of your plans and

materials. Get yourself a large binder to put all of your materials in. Also get a set of numbered index tabs.

• Another idea is to get a file case with hanging folders. In each hanging folder put all of what you need for each lesson or unit.

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Lesson PlanningAssembling your plans for the course

• Yet another idea, is to organize what you plan to teach in weekly units. For a 40-week school year, you would want to have 40 folders, one for each week of the year.

• What to put in each folder can be guided by your district curriculum.

• As an elementary teacher, you will be teaching math, science, social studies, language arts and other subjects. Maybe you want a case for each one.

• Prepare a binder for each course you are assigned to teach. All your materials will be in there. When you are asked to teach it again, you will be ready and will not have to repeat the entire planning process over again.

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Lesson PlanningPlans are available all over the place.•Do a webquest of the Internet to seek plans for the topics you plan to teach.

•Many school districts place their district curriculum and unit plans on the Internet.

•Always remember that you are not alone as you make your plans. You will have support from your supervisor, other teachers of the same grade, state education websites from various states and other Internet locations.

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The End

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