Tag Archives: Lesson Design

Lesson Planning Suggestions, Sims Inquiry Questions & an Intro to UBD Unit Planning: Update for Monday, 7 November 2011

Leave a reply

After a reminder about the Microteaching Analysis task due today and the Classroom Observation Task due next week, we got down to business.

Lesson Planning Suggestions

Dave and I require the you include both a Teacher Activity and Student Activity column in your lesson plans.  This will allow you to imagine what you will do as you teach and – perhaps more importantly – what the students will be doing as they learn.

We also urged you to include all of the Lesson Design components – mental set, stating the objective, input, modeling, checking for understanding, practice, and closure – whenever possible.  I made reference to the fact that 62 % of my non-management related comments to last year’s TCs on their 2-Week Prac referenced issues related to lesson design.  The better the design, the better the implementation and the better the learning.

You might be interested to see what my “What To Work On” comments were for last year’s TCs during their 2-Week Prac.  The first file is the comments I showed in class – the ones missing the management comments.  The second files contains all the suggestions.  Take a look and see if you can notice what themes emerge:

Sims Article Discussion


As a means of processing the Sims reading, Dave asked you to sort all of the questions she asks in the article into categories that made sense to you.  We then wrote those categories on the board and looked for some common threads.  The goal here was:

  • to consider the types of topics inquiry questions can deal with
  • to examine how questions can evolve
  • to consider the messy nature of inquiry.

Here’s a photo of the categories you came up with courtesy of Lovey’s writing and Eric Man’s camera (with a dash of Jan the ham mixed in):

Introduction to UBD

We started our look at unit planning today.  To that end, I shared a PPT slideshow that touched on some key ideas related to the Understanding by Design model.  Here’s that PPT presentation:

Also, here are the vignettes we played with in my session:

I will take a peek through your exit slips and comment on them at the start of next class.  Also, in that class we will take a deeper look at Stage 1: Desired Results.

Reading Entrance & Exit Slips


Here’s what’s due and when:

  • Monday, 7 November 2011 = Sims Exit Slip
  • Saturday, 12 November 2011 = Aoki (Reading #5) Entrance Slip
  • Monday, 14 November 2011 = Aoki Exit Slip

’til next time.

– LH

Lesson Design Jigsaw & Yeti and Introduction to POT: Update for Wednesday, 12 October 2011

Leave a reply

Dave and I spoke quickly so we could wedge all this goodness into today’s class.  Here’s the recap:

Administrivia

Class Calendar:  We’ve rolled Wednesday’s one hour of class time into Monday’s session on October 17th and 24th.  That means you get Wednesday off (giddyup!) and that the schedule for those Mondays will be as follows:

  • 10:00 am – 12:00 pm = Class in Room 204
  • 12:00 pm – 12:30 pm = Lunch
  • 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm = Class in Room 204

Lesson Design Jigsaw & the Yeti of the Classroom

As per the images above, we played with Jigsaw as a means to process the important content around the Lesson Design.  We moved from expert groups to base groups and, in the end, grew your knowledge about each of the seven components of LD. We wrapped by revisiting the Anticipation Guide I presented as an intro to the topic.

Did you see what I did there boys and girls?  Closure.  Honest to goodness.  The only thing more rare is one of these:

You’ll get a chance to work with these components as you prepare and implement your Microteaching lesson in POT/COM class.  Speaking of which…

Intro to Principles of Teaching (POT)

After spending half an hour or so watching Cheech and Chong clips on YouTube, we got down to the real business of POT at UBC.  Here’s the course overview PPT that I presented in class:

Then, Dave showed the EDUC 310 Vista site and asked you to do the following:

1. Read the Paulo Freire piece in the EDUC 310 Reading Package – “Teachers as cultural workers: Letters to those who dare to teach”

2. Visit the EDUC 310 Vista site in the Entrance Slip: Conceptions of Teaching area in the Discussion tab.  Here’s an image to help you find the proper place to post:

3. Respond to the piece in writing in any way that suits you.  You may create an original piece of writing – the discussion questions drafted by the course overseer, Anne Phelan, and posted below might help – or you may choose to react to someone else’s response and post that reaction.

The due date for your Freire-themed piece is Friday, 14 October 2011.

Hierarchy of Beliefs

Seeing as we’re asking you to consider Freire’s conception of teaching, we thought we’d give you time to consider what you think is important in education.  To that end, we asked you to complete a “hierarchy of beliefs”, a task that involved organizing a variety of teaching and learning-related statements.  We ran out of time to process your efforts so we will revisit this task next class.

Sayonara,

– Lawrence

Debriefing the 1st School Visit, Mind Map Assessment, Microteaching Topic Selection, Ukuleles, & Lesson Design: Update for Wednesday, 5 October 2011

Leave a reply

It was  a fast and full lesson today.  Here’s what went down:

EDUC 315 School Visit Debrief

We used a value lines strategy as a means to have you consider your experience in the field.  To wrap up, I noted that we will all meet in the Hillcrest Middle School Library at 1:30 pm on Tuesday, 11 October.  At that time, we’ll discuss the morning’s school visit and get some feedback from you on placement preferences.

Field Trip Fair Mind Map Assessment

For this part of the lesson, we asked you to connect with another TC that had chosen a similarly themed field trip to explore in their mind map.  Then, a discussion ensued that focused on the degree to which the MM meet the criteria.   The MM rubric is here:

Here are a couple sample MMs.  T’he first is John’s and the second is Dave’s:

We wrapped by asking you to give a 20-30 second “elevator pitch” on your chosen field trip.  Hopefully, by the end of today’s lesson you have a good sense of what sorts of outings you might want to pursue while on prac.

Microteaching Topics

Seeing as we have an extra long class on Monday, 24 October, Dave and I reckon we can get all the micro lessons delivered in one day.  Here are the topics that will be presented in a series of 15-20 minute lessons:

Lesson Design:

After a few minutes to review your particular LD component in Expert Groups, Dave presented a mini-lesson on playing the ukulele.  Jerin and Jess were his eager students.  J and J were definitely quick studies but they still have a way to go to catch up to this ukulele virtuoso, Jake Shimabukoro (Whoa!  This clip has over 8 million views!):

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puSkP3uym5k&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

When the lesson was over, each of the 7 groups analyzed his lesson through the lens of their particular LD component.  We wrapped by letting you know that we’ll Jigsaw all of the components in a future lesson.

Au revoir,

– Lawrence

EDUC 315 Info, S.S.C., Instructor Think Aloud, Henderson Discussion, and Unit Planning Preview: Update for Wednesday, 10 November 2010

Leave a reply

EDUC 315 Info

– Lesson Plan and Reflection: Please provide a copy of a lesson plan you formally teach and your reflection on the lesson to me, your SA, and your FA (if I’m not your FA).  For lessons taught in weeks 5 or 6 of the Tuesdays prac, the plan should be delivered a minimum of 24 hours in advance of its implementation.  The reflection should follow shortly after the teaching and, again,  should be delivered to me, your SA and your FA (if I’m not your FA).  If you’v already taught a formal lesson and won’t be doing another one, please send the plan you taught from and your reflection on how it went.

– Teacher Timetable Hand In: Thanks to those who delivered me a hard copy or emailed an electronic copy of your timetable.  If you’ve yet to do so, please send it to me by Wednesday, 17 November.  Thanks.

– 2-Week Prac Unit Planning Topic: Be sure to sort out with your SA what topic you will be teaching during the Short Practicum in January.  The sooner you know, the sooner you can get started on considering your desired results and gathering resources.

Stop. Start. Continue.

In an effort to make EDUC 310/316 classes as beneficial for you as possible, I’ve created a survey to get your input on what is working and what’s not thus far.

Here’s a link to the survey:

It will probably take you about five minutes to answer the three questions (anonymously).  When the results are in, I will report out the findings… and take action!

I appreciate your support in my efforts to improve my teaching practice.

Instructor Think Aloud

I expressed my frustration at what I perceive as having too much to do and too little time to do it.  I noted that this was a feeling common to all the instructors/FAs in my office, as we were all struggling with how to address all the material we want to explore with you in rich and meaningful ways given the time constraints we’re working under.  For instance, the irony of presenting you a unit planning structure promoting deep engagement with ideas in a rushed and superficial way isn’t lost on me.

I aim to make all my decisions with respect to what happens in class based on what you need.  Then, after asking for your input on what topic you would like to explore in class today – microteaching or unit planning – and getting your input, we promptly ran out of time to get to the unit planing piece in any meaningful way.  The tension between breadth and depth continues.

(Not Paul) Henderson [Foster Hewitt’s “Henderson” Goal Call] Articles Discussion


– Mental Set: What questions about teaching and learning have you been thinking about while on practicum?

– Objective:

  1. To play with a discussion strategy – Socratic Seminar – that you can use in your classroom
  2. Studying these articles will lay the theoretical framework to help you understand the practice of teacher inquiry so you can thoughtfully engage with an inquiry question during Term 2 in POT/COM class.  The EDUC 310 Course outline describes the intentions, rationale, and evaluation of this task in some detail.  Here’s the outline:

– Input/Modeling: I mentioned that we would be using Socratic Seminar to discuss the ideas in the Henderson articles.  I showed you a video clip on SS and asked a few TCs who had done it about how SS worked.  The video showed an SS in action and that was the (brief) modeling piece.  Here’s the video:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCpBTf7ib0o[/youtube]

– C4U: With a quick show of thumbs, I sought information about the degree to which everyone knew what to do in the SS.  I supervised the conversations as they went on to make sure they were working.

– Practice: You broke into two groups and, with exit slips in hand, shared your thoughts on the articles with the help of our facilitators – Sarah and Miguel.  Each groups process was overseen by two observers in an outside circle.  In fact, I blended SS with Fishbowl, to some degree.

– Closure:  As the time ran out, I asked the groups to end the discussion.  Observers were asked to share what they heard in the discussion and to mention what they noticed about the group dynamic.  Jennifer noted that the conversation would likely have had more active participation by all if seated in a circle, a more inclusive arrangement that the boardroom table set up we used.  Aaron noted that the conversation started with one word answers and then picked up as time went on.  A cautionary tale for all teachers about the need for wait time to let student thoughts develop and conversations deepen before intervening.

Finally, I asked you to write down on your entrance slip one take away idea from today’s SS discussion.  You handed me your entrance/exit slip at the end of class.  Thanks.

If you’re interested in Socratic Seminar as a teaching strategy, there is lots of info about it on the interwebs,  Check out these sites:

Also, here’s a PPT slideshow that breaks down the basics for you:

Unit Planning Preview

If you can, please bring one or two of the really important PLOs that you will be building your 2-week practicum unit around.  In Wednesday, 17 November’s class we will be unpacking those PLOs and looking at what understandings, essential questions, knowledge, and skills flow from those outcomes.  Also, we may consider what assessment evidence will allow to to determine the degree to which the students are developing understanding of your desired results.

Here’s the template we’ll use to unpack the outcomes:

Microteaching

Please check the schedule (on the blog) to see when you present.  Also, review the rubric and bring your flash drive to class so you’re fully ready to go.  I’m looking forward to seeing some engaging lessons on Monday.

Phew!  That’s a long post for a short class.

Take care,

– Lawrence

Magic Lessons, Conceptions of Teaching, and a Few Bits and Pieces: Update for Monday, 1 November 2010

Leave a reply

Delivery of the Magic Lessons

After considering how an ability to do magic tricks might be useful for a classroom teacher and reviewing the goal of this task – to comprehend and apply the Lesson Design components through the planning and delivery of a lesson, each group taught what they had planned.

The post-conference was structured around answering the questions:

  • What worked? Why?
  • What didn’t work? Why?
  • What next? Why?

When all lessons were delivered and debriefed, we revisited the Lesson Design Anticipation Guide that I used to introduce the topic.  Also, I urged you to use the Lesson Design structure when planning lessons of your own during prac.  It is tried, true and allows for a great deal of flexibility in the way learning experiences are structured.

Here’s a LD lesson planning template for you to use:

In addition, here are a few sample lessons from previous TCs that show you what a completed LD lesson plan might look like:

By the way, here’s an advanced version of Cups and Balls performed by Penn & Teller in Vegas.  Enjoy… but don’t try these tricks on your waterbed!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPyvAtQYVok[/youtube]

Inquiry Article Processing

We used the Carousel Brainstorming strategy to process the 2 articles – Freire & Danylewycz and Prentice – read for a prior class.  At the end, of this activity, I asked you to complete an exit slip that was a reflection on any new ideas that emerged during your thinking on and talking about the articles.  Overall, the goal was to examine conceptions of teaching – past, present, and yours (… for the moment, at least.)

Here are the three questions that guided our examination of the articles:

  1. What are some present day understandings of teaching and teachers?
  2. What are some historically significant understandings of teaching and teachers?
  3. What understandings do you hold about teaching and teachers?

Instructions for Carousel Brainstorming (Lipton, L., & Wellman, B. (1998).  Patterns and practices in the learning-focused classroom.  Guilford, Vermont: Pathways Publishing.) are below:

Revised EDUC 310/316 Calendar

I wrote the updated calendar on the board.  Here’s an electronic copy:

Permission to Capture Video / Still Images While on Practicum

We will be asking you to videotape at least one lesson on your long practicum and, to do that, you will need permission from the parents of your students.  Most students will have signed some form of consent for photography at the start of the year.  You need to find out who has consented and if the permission given extends to you taking video and still images for your educational purposes, namely for use in your ePortfolio and for the analysis of a videotaped lesson.

Here is a form you should use to get the required permissions, if need be.  Be sure to add in the details where prompted and, before you copy the letter to send home, to proofread the file to make sure it reads in a way you’re comfortable with.  While the gist of the letter should remain the same, you can feel free to make subtle tweaks to the style:

[NOTE:  This is a different form from the one I first posted.  There were some significant concerns with a lack of clarity in the original letter. – LH on 3 Nov 2010]

Print out one, copy as many as you need for the students in your home room, and hand them out.  Set a due date and over the Tuesday visits collect them in.  You have a lot of time on your hands now so you can chase those who have late forms.  Also, this will give you another opportunity to connect with the students in your class.

Looking Ahead to Unit Planning

As per the revised calendar, we will be starting to look at unit planning on Wednesday.  In preparation, I’ve asked you to read the article linked to below and to design an entrance slip – using the same process as the entrance slips you followed for the Inquiry Articles – for use in Wednesday’s lesson. Use this link to the article if you didn’t receive a copy in class.

See you on Wednesday.

– Lawrence

PRO-D Ideas, POT Reading, & Lesson Design: Update for Monday, 18 October 2010

Leave a reply

After fielding a few questions about the first day of the Tuesdays Practicum we got down to new business.  Here’s what happened;

PRO-D Day on Friday, 22 October

This provincial PRO-D day is a great opportunity for you to participate in some outstanding professional learning conferences. Most Provincial Specialist Associations (PSAs) organize a conference on this day and they offer reduced rates for teacher candidates.

You can access a list of PSAs and their websites (with conference info and registration) here.  Please note that there are general-subject conferences that may be of wider interest at the middle years level. PITA puts on one:

The advantage of attending a PSA day, apart from lots of learning, access to resources and networking, is the annual membership that is included, thus opening up many other professional learning opportunities during the year and beyond.

EDUC 310 Reading Schedule

We are transitioning from EDUC 316 – Communications to EDUC 310 – Principles of Teaching in our sessions.  As such, we will begin a series of POT-related readings and discussions.  Full details on the readings and the reading schedule can be found in the EDUC 310 Course Outline.  This was handed out earlier in the term but I’ve re-posted it here for easy reference:

For class on Monday, 25 October please read the following pieces from the EDUC 310 Reading Package (available for purchase at the bookstore):

  • Friere, P. (1998). Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters To Those Who Dare Teach. Westview Press, pp. 39-46.
  • Danylewycz, M. & Prentice, A. (1991). Teachers’ work: Changing patterns and perceptions in the emerging school systems of 19th– and early 20th-century central Canada.  In Prentice, A. & Theobald, M. R. (Eds.). Women Who Taught. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 136-159.

During- or post-reading, please complete an Entrance Slip that will serve as your “Ticket In The Door” to Monday’s class.  This response – that may be done in any format you wish (writing, drawing, collage, painting, interpretive dance, and the like), as long as it covers the content – is intended to help you to prepare for class discussion by focusing your attention on ideas, questions, and issues provoked by the readings.

The following questions may guide you as you prepare each week:

  • What does this text say that struck you?  Why?
  • What questions does the text provoke?  Why?
  • What ideas, events, or images does the text illuminate or challenge?
  • What dilemmas, tensions, or contradictions are evident?
  • How does the text intersect with (inform, challenge) your own understanding (of teaching, learning, knowing)?

Your Entrance Slip need not be lenghty.  For instance, if you choose to write your thoughts, a paragraph or so will suffice.

At the end of each class we will devote 5 to 10 minutes for writing Exit Slips.  These slips will allow you to return to your initial questions (in the Entrance Slip) and to reflect on them in light of class discussion.  Of course, something new may emerge in the context of class discussion and you may wish to focus your exit slip on that new idea.

Lesson Design: A Framework for Lesson Planning

In preparation for the lesson you’ll teach in your practicum classroom and for the microteaching task you’ll be completing as a part of this class, we turned our focus to Lesson Design, a model for planing instruction.  I followed this steps to introduce the topic:

  • Destinations Revisited (Sharing the Objective)

I showed a slide from the PPT presentation I used at the start of the year to set the context for the class.  I would be focusing on content today and weaving in teaching strategies and skills.

  • Introduction to Microteaching (Sharing the Objective)

I handed out the task sheet – Microteaching Task & Rubric 10-11 – and gave you time to find a group to work with.  In the end, we have 9 groups – 7 triads and 2 partnerships.  They are as follows:

  • Alice & Amber
  • Farisha, Kat K., & Sarah
  • Melanie, Tyrel, & Aaron
  • Amanda, Caitlin, & Kat M.
  • Sally, Ian, & Miguel
  • Jennifer & Lou
  • Lars, Jeremy, & Ross
  • Christian, Shaun, & Devin
  • Leanne, Jenna, & Maria

I asked you to consider topics of interest and noted that, seeing as you only have 20 minutes maximum in which to teach, you should keep your topic narrow; the (sexist, in hindsight) advice I give to my students when they are choosing a topic is as follows: Focus on a man, not man.  Teaching a simple skill works best, generally, although some TCs have had success with knowledge-centred presentations.  Here are few examples of presentations done in previous years:

  • How to perform the basic salsa step
  • How to perform CPR safely and effectively
  • How to make conversations work
  • How to make a drink tag
  • How to tie 4 knots: the bowline, the half hitch, loop knot, and the truckers hitch.
  • How to taste wine like a snob
  • 3 tips for taking better photographs

For next Monday’s class, please have your topic confirmed.  On that day we’ll pick the presentation order.  Lessons will be delivered in class on Monday, 15 November and Monday, 22 November.

  • Lesson Design – Anticipation Guide (Mental Set)

In preparation for our examination of the components of an effective lesson, I asked you to consider some statements related to lesson planning in an Anticipation Guide.  This is a very effecitve pre-reading strategy and it generated some interesing conversations in class.  Here are the statements you responded to:

Here are some details on one way to implement the Anticipation Guide strategy – Anticipation Guide Directions – and a link to a page on Anticipation Guides from the very good and very Canadian (it’s out of Saskatchewan) Instructional Strategies Online website.

  • Lesson Design Components Jigsaw (Input / Information & Check for Understanding)

I organized a Jigsaw as a means to process the content information related to the 7 components of Lesson Design.  You started in a home (or base) group, moved to an expert group to discuss one portion of the material, and then returned to home group to share your findings.  To aid info gathering process, I provided you with a graphic organizer designed around the organization of the reading from Bennett and Rolheiser’s Beyond Monet: The Artful Science of Instructional Ingegration. Here’s the chart:

After returning to home groups, each group member taught the others what they had learned.  In the end, all group members should know all of the content.  I tested this using a version of the Numbered Heads Together strategy to check for understanding.  NHT is a powerful strategy for building knowledge and randomizing participation.  The PDF below has details on how to use NHT in your classroom:

  • Lesson Plan Analysis (Modelling)

In an effort to model the LD process, I took a moment to break down my lesson plan into its component parts.  I aimed to include all 7 compoenents but, at this point had only done 5.  See the headings above for the breakdown.

  • This Is Where the Magic Happens (Practice)

With a nod to the wonderfully funny animated film Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, I introduced the magic tricks that would provide the content for the lesson’s guided practice piece.  Here’s the trailer for this little gem that was one of my favourite films of 2009:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP9wtdwgeok&feature=&p=CE0999AA7FAD93C5&index=0&playnext=1[/youtube]

The goal was to work with a partner to learn one magic trick, either Cups and Balls or Spell-a-Card. In the end, you will work together to create a lesson using the 7 components of Lesson Design to teach your magic trick to a partnership that learned a different trick.  It was a bit confusing at first – my bad! – but, eventually, we got things sorted.

We’ll pick up the lesson planning piece in next Monday’s session.  Don’t worry, you’ll have time to review the tricks on the DVD and practice before you have to perform it for your audience.

Cheers,

– Lawrence