Curriculum, Planning, and Assessment
Before educators can begin to plan for an upcoming lesson/unit, we must consider the following questions from Rick DuFour's research on professional learning communities.
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What is it we want our students to know and be able to do?
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How will we know if each student has learned it?
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How will we respond when some students do not learn it?
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How will we extend the learning for students who have demonstrated proficiency?
In practice, strong PLC teams engage in regular collaborative meetings to discuss these questions, analyze student data, share instructional strategies, and plan interventions and enrichment activities to support all students' learning needs. The focus is on using data-driven decision-making and collective expertise to continuously improve teaching and learning outcomes.
..Lesson Planning
Lesson Launch
The start of a lesson, or launch, is the most important component of the lesson. This provides students with the Why, How, and What of the lesson. It
connects today’s lesson objective with both previous and future learning.
The lesson launch has a huge impact on student engagement and should be used as the “spark” to get students excited about the lesson. One way that this could be accomplished is by having students complete an activator (Do Now) in which students have to make inferences, interpret, and/or form opinions based on prior knowledge. This leads to curiosity around learning outcomes, which therefore increases engagement.
Another essential part of a successful lesson launch is framing the learning at the start of the lesson. Framing the learning as defined by The Skilful Teacher as first, communicating the “big picture”, the Why, How, and What. Secondly, when a teacher frames the learning for students, they are also assessing students’ readiness when gathering data through activator discussions and students asking clarifying questions. Lastly, when framing the learning is present the educator can anticipate any misconceptions, correcting these before deeper learning has been established.
Framing the learning is also an opportunity for students to be introduced to, and/or review, essential vocabulary. This allows students to make connections between new vocabulary and previously taught terms, while the educator can assist students in understanding contextual variation with terms.
The Learning
The largest segment of a lesson is the “learning”. This is the portion of the lesson where engagement can easily be lost unless we are purposeful with the
activities that we choose. The most important thing to consider is the developmental level of the students in the class. More specifically, when providing direct instruction on new content with students, consider the research done by Eric Jensen in the early 2000s resulting in the table to the right.
The chart reflects the amount of time that is appropriate for direct instruction at each grade level, assuming that all students are available and ready to learn. As we know, students enter the classroom at various points on the readiness continuum, sometimes changing throughout the day. Therefore, as educators, we must stay aware of timing during direct instruction. This table can serve as a quick reference.
Knowing that this is the case, we must plan for opportunities for students to pause, reflect, and test ideas. Using the Think, Pair, Share strategy and Turn and Talks can be an effective ways to allow students to pause, reflect upon, and/or attempt a question, culminating in sharing their ideas in small groups, before bringing it back to the whole group. This strategy provides opportunities for discourse that will allow for connections to be made, deepening learning. Below are some resources that you may find helpful.
There are many learning activities out there that can keep students engaged, such as simply referring back to the lesson objective. The important aspect of the “Learn” segment of the lesson is opportunities to pause and check for understanding. This allows students to re-engage in the learning process, allowing for more equitable experiences for all.
The Landing
Closing out the lesson or “Land” is something that needs to be strategically planned during the lesson design process. This is the last chance for students and educators to assess progress toward the lesson objective. It provides critical feedback for educators, needed to plan for the next day’s lesson. As a student, the closing allows for an opportunity to assess what they have learned, and what aspects they may need to seek assistance with or practice independently. Students who know where they stand tend to come to class prepared and more engaged.
An exit ticket is one way to gather data for both students and educators. It assesses the WHY, HOW, and WHAT of the lesson, instead of assuming that “it” was taught, so it was learned. When planning for exit tickets educators should keep it simple. This is a quick check for understanding and should be completed with 3-5 minutes left in the class period, and collected by the educator as students exit the classroom. A few resources are listed below, but an exit ticket could simply ask students to list 3 things that they learned today, or phrase the objective as a question and have students answer it on a scrap piece of paper.