The Exploration of a REAL Lesson Plan!

Exploring A Real Lesson Plan!

 

The lesson that I looked at for a Lesson plan Evaluation I did this week was about Earth Day! If you want to see the lesson for yourself, you can find it here!

I found the Lesson Plan Evaluation activity very insightful! I didn't realize how difficult it would be to spot the different models in practice. It was great practice to see how actual lessons that could be used relate to the theories that we learn in class. This showed me what I should be keeping in mind when I have a classroom of my own. This activity also showed me some great resources that I can use in my classroom to keep students engaged with the material! The lesson I evaluated, which was Lesson 6 on Earth Day, had the students go on a virtual scavenger hunt of sorts, where they had to watch videos, read short articles, and pull out the information that was asked of them. I really liked this format and I'll be sure to incorporate something like this in my own classroom, especially by using kids.nationalgeographic.com. If you want to see how I evaluated and reflected on the lesson, you can find the link it my responses here!

Got Mail? Here's An Open Letter to Parents & Guardians!

This week, I was also asked to write an open letter to parents and guardians about the importance of planning lessons and objectives. You can watch a video I created that goes over this letter, which is shown below! Just past the video, you can read the letter I wrote!

Dear Parents & Guardians,

    Today, I want to inform you of some of the important steps I take to ensure that your children are getting the most out of my lessons. 

    First, I plan out all of my lessons before I teach them to your children. This is important because it ensures that I will teach a topic in a logical progression. When a topic is presented in this way, it allows children to build upon the knowledge they've already gathered. This gives the children plenty of knowledge about the topic before they are ready to practice the new skills on their own. In addition, planning allows me to prepare my instruction so that it fits the needs of all the students in my class. For example, if I were to teach a lesson on US History, I would want to start with the events that led up to the discovery of America and go on from there. This provides students with background so that when we get to other events in US History, such as the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the students will understand how we got to that point.

    The next item I'd like to inform you about is the objectives I create for each lesson. These objectives let the students know what we will be doing in the lesson and what is expected for them to know and/or do by the end of the lesson. This promotes learning that's meaningful for the students because it gives them a purpose as to why we're learning the topic at hand. By giving students an objective, it also promotes engaged learning because they have a goal to focus on. Objectives give students clear expectations of the lesson so that they can focus their learning and get excited about the new information that they're going to learn each lesson. For example, if I tell students that the objective of our lesson is to create a comic strip that reflects any event that led up to the American Revolution, the students are informed what they'll be doing by the end of the lesson, along with what knowledge they'll need to complete the task. Students can start thinking about how they can use the events of US History for the creative project that they'll work on by the end of the lesson. 

    If you have any questions or would like to discuss anything further, please feel free to email me and we can set up a time to discuss! Your child is a valued part of my classroom and I appreciate your dedication to their education!

Best wishes,

Miss Valerie

That's All Folks!

Thank you for reading my blog post! I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did making it. Stay tuned for the next post! See you soon!