PLN

"3 Questions When Lesson Planning" 

This is a blog post from Christopher Lehman, education consultant and author. It consists of three questions and gets straight to the point, perfect for me. As a novice teacher I felt like he described me exactly as he described the dilemma of novice teachers: "who plan with themselves in mind (Did I follow the template my school has designed? Do I have an objective? Do I have all of my materials together? Do I even know what I’m going to say?!?)"

Something that I got from my Dominican class on UbD (Understanding by Design) was a suggestion from the instructor of the class to give students: "low-hanging fruit with high expectations," something that all the students are able to do combined with enough examples that can motivate them to keep practicing and to continue to improve. I was thinking about this after Technology class' recap of UbD Wednesday night: what can I take with me that I can remember on the fly standing in front of a class? I know, planning ahead is the thing, which is another reason why I found Lehman's post to be really helpful. Instead of giving lesson guidelines and templates to follow, he gives questions to ask myself of the outcomes and quality of lessons:

"1. Will this lesson lead to a large volume of work that is rigorous for the students?
 2. Is this a strategy that students can come back to/that will live beyond today?
 3. How does this lesson connect to the end goal/standards/essential questions of the unit?"

Lehman fleshes out the questions by giving examples of where lessons can fall short and how these particular questions to ask of our lessons can help us to plan more enduring activities that can help students learn strategies that serve them longer than just fulfilling the assignment requirements. These are things for me to be thinking about as a novice teacher and in going into student teaching this coming fall. I am definitely guilty of some of the examples he gives, such as spending a long time explaining and describing something only to have students pull it off in less that two minutes..

Question #1 is an important question for me to ask of any lessons I plan. As an art teacher instilling the motivation to keep practicing using tools and techniques is one of the things that I find very important at this time. I recognize what Lehman describes in the beginning of his post as the novice teacher's focus on her own performance and the shift to becoming more experienced and more aware of how well her teaching suites her students to aid them in continuing to learn and grow beyond her classroom. I feel that my ability to speak in front of students has improved with practice. And I feel confident in describing practical aspects of art making such as using tools and techniques and procedures. But creating motivation and building enduring learning that keeps students going forward in their lives after school - those are deep thoughts - and important questions.

With UbD we learned to "begin with the end in mind.. goals, objectives, standards.. " The question Lehman asks of us is "what are your own questions that support you in planning with students in mind?" I like the humanistic quality of what he's suggesting: to plan with the students in mind as opposed to, or in addition to, the State Goals and what legislation has decided students should know, understand, and be able to do, for the moment. I think it's important to teach students a way to keep learning, growing, and expanding beyond school. Christopher Lehman's blog post as well as his other online presence are resources for me as I move forward in my teaching career. And perhaps I'll even read his books too.

Tweet by: Steven W. Anderson @web20classroom http://zite.to/1128ghb