Well-Structured Lessons
To demonstrate exemplary well-structured lesson plans, a teacher candidate must "develop well-structured and highly engaging lessons with challenging, measurable objectives and appropriate student engagement strategies, pacing, sequence, activities, materials, resources, technologies, and grouping to attend to every student's needs".
Most importantly, a well-structured lesson consists of a beginning, middle, and end. The beginning of the lesson should have a mini-activity to warmup the students' brains. A perfect example of a beginning of a math lesson would be a couple of problems that students learned how to solve in the previous class. Next, the middle, and major part, of the lesson should be when students are actively learning. This part of the lesson could be a lecture, hands-on activity, student exploration, or a combination of these activities. Finally, the end of the lesson should be a reflection time for students. At the end of the classtime, students should be aware of the purpose of the lesson and they should have a general understanding of what they should've gotten out of the lesson. When planning a well-structured lesson, it is important that the teacher considers the following: measurable objectives, time management, engaging activities, strategic student groupings, and technology in the classroom.
Plan, Plan, Plan
The key to a well-structured lesson is planning out every minute of the lesson. Teachers should always have delibrate plans for each daily lesson and ensure that the students are engaged for the entire class period. Extension activities for those students who may finish tasks early are crucial to guaranteeing that all students are actively learning.
Measurable Objectives
When planning and teaching a lesson, the teacher should start by identifying a goal; what should the students get out of this lesson? Objectives should be measurable in the sense that teachers can tell to what extent their students have reached the goal. It is also very important that these objectives are derived from state standards.
Time Management
The pacing of a lesson is critical to keeping students engaged in the lesson. Teachers need to be aware of how fast their students absorb information and how much time they need to complete their work. The lesson should feel fast-paced to the students so that they feel as though time is going by fast. To do that, the teacher should use a variety of instructional methods during one lesson such as lecture, partner work, hands-on activities, and student explorations.
Engaging Activities
In a single classroom, there are many different learning styles. Some students learn best visually, while others learn best when they're working in groups. It is important to cater the lesson to multiple learning styles so that the majority of the learning styles in the classroom are accounted for and students are engaged for the entire lesson. The variety of engaging activities in the lesson will make students more receptive to new information.
Strategic Student Groupings
A well-structured lesson should flow smoothly and allow students the maximum amount of time to learn. Strategic student groupings are important to both classroom management and well-structured lessons. As mentioned before, some students work better in groups, while others work better by themselves. The entire classtime should not be spent by the teacher talking, students should have time to learn from each other as well. An effective way to make sure that students are getting the most out of group or partner work is to pair them will a peer role model(s).
Technology in the Classroom
Technology is becoming more and more integrated into the classroom. Using technology is a change of the classroom routine, so it provides more excitement to the lesson. If students learn how to use technology in school, they will gain the technical skills they will need in the future. Social learning is also promoted by the use of technology in the classroom because it is much easier for students to collaborate. In addition, with the greater availability of educational websites and applications, education can be personalized to a student's needs and abilities.
Lesson Plans
To the right is an example of a lesson plan from our Tools and Materials unit. In Stage 1 - Desired Results, the main goal of the lesson, addressed standards, understandings, essential questions, and learning objectives are identified. Lessons and activities become more meaningful to the students when these components are focused on at the beginning of lesson planning. In Stage 2 - Assessment Evidence, the performance tasks and key criteria of the lesson are identified. It is important that the assessments correlate with both the learning objectives and the addressed standards of the lesson. Finally, in Stage 3 - Learning Plan, the actual activities of the lesson are planned. It is crucial to be flexible when planning for the week and it is also important to plan more activities than you have the time for. This lesson plan structure allows for the teacher to ensure that the students are always engaged and have an attainable learning goal.
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