Teach 1

Lesson Hooks

Using accessible content to introduce a new concept

If the main goal of your lesson is introducing students to a new concept (e.g. Trophic levels in Biology, bias in social studies, or various types/definitions of love in an ELA class that is reading Romeo and Juliet) consider using accessible content like images, short scenarios or quotes, or videos about current life to prompt students to begin engaging with this the new idea and to activate prior knowledge.

Here are some examples from different types of classes:

• Small scenarios with questions

• Engaging videos 

• Anticipation Guides/4 Corners: Anticipation guides are a great way to get students thinking about the essential questions they will be answering in a lesson or unit. In this activity, the teacher provides students with a  series of agree/disagree questions This strategy can be implemented as a partner discussion or four corners activity in which students walk around the room capturing their own and their classmates’ answers to the anticipation guide questions.

• KWL: A KWL activity is a great way to check what students already know about a topic and gauge their level of interest or curiosity about a topic. This activity often follows a see-think-wonder or similar warm-up/do now and can be followed by explicit vocabulary instruction that begins to answer the questions students generate during the activity.

• See Think Wonder: See - Think - Wonder is a strategy in which students look at an image and use it to create a list of inferences and questions that then can become a jumping-off point. 

Framing the Learning

When a teacher frames a lesson students lnow what, how, and why they are learning. They can articulate how its connected to what they have learned in the past and what the goals of the activities are. In order to frame the learning the teacher should

• Post and explain student friendly learning objectives and an agenda for that day

• Have students use past materials and learnings to facilitate connections to help build a framework for the learning. 

• Remind students what, how, and why they are learning during the class. This can be teacher to whole group or one-to-one. 

  • If you have a lesson hook or anchor, refer back to it constantly

• Close the lesson by summarizing (or having the students summarize) their learning