Field Experience Handbook

Sample Planning Guide for a Directed Teaching Activity*

I. Focusing Student Attention or "Warm Up:" How will an anticipatory set be established to focus studentsí learning and to ensure on-task-behavior by all students?

What will be done to help students develop positive attitudes and perceptions about the learning climate and the learning task?
What brief task (up to 5 minutes) can I use to get the students' attention focused and prepared to think critically?
What brief task can I use to give students meaningful opportunities for practice of a key skill (i.e., procedural knowledge) or application of essential declarative knowledge?

II. Statement of Objective: How will essential learner outcomes for the lesson be stated and communicated to students?

What do I want students to know and be able to do as a result of the lesson?
How will I share the lesson objective(s) with my students?
What is the primary instructional focus of my lesson?

mastery of essential declarative and procedural knowledge?
extension and refinement of essential knowledge?
meaningful use of knowledge?
demonstration of productive habits of mind?

III. Introductory and Developmental Activities (Teacher Directed): How will the lesson be organized in order to ensure student mastery of essential learner outcomes? How will assessment of student progress be integrated into instruction?

A. Declarative Knowledge: What are the general topics and specifics of the lesson?

What are the essential facts, concepts, generalizations, and principles that I wish to emphasize in the lesson?
How will students be aided in constructing meaning, organizing information, and storing it in long-term memory?
How will students experience the information presented in the lesson?
How will students be assisted to understand the value and relevance of the content and activities presented in the lesson?
Which habits of mind will be introduced, emphasized, and/or reinforced?

B. Procedural Knowledge: What skills, processes, competencies, and procedures do students really need to master in this lesson?

How will I model the skills and processes in the lesson? How will students be aided to comprehend and use the skill or competency?
How will students be aided in shaping the skills and processes in the lesson?
How will students be aided in internalizing the skills and processes in the lesson?
What habits of mind will be introduced, emphasized, and/or reinforced?

IV. Guided Practice Activities (Teacher Monitored): How will students be assisted to extend and refine the declarative and procedural knowledge they are acquiring?

What information will be extended and refined?
What activities will be used to help students extend and refine their knowledge? To what extent will student-centered activities be used? To what extent will cooperative learning structures be used?
Which extending and refining thinking processes are most appropriate for this particular lesson: i.e., comparison, classification, induction, deduction, error analysis, analysis of perspectives, abstraction, and/or constructing support?

V. Independent Activities/Meaningful-Use Tasks (Student Alone or in Cooperative Learning Cohorts): To what extent does this lesson contribute to students' ability to demonstrate self-regulated, critical, and creative thinking? To what extent does this lesson contribute to students' ability to respond successfully to long-term, performance-based, meaningful-use tasks?

What independent activities and tasks are to be part of this lesson?
How do these activities and tasks reinforce students' mastery of essential learning outcomes?
To what extent, if any, do these activities and tasks contribute to studentís independent or group-centered response to an ongoing meaningful-use task involving one or more of the following processes: decision-making, problem solving, investigation, experimental inquiry, and/or invention?

VI. Assessment Activities: Throughout the course of the lesson, how will I monitor student progress?

What strategies will I use to monitor the extent of students' mastery of identified learner outcomes?
What formative assessment strategies will I use to ensure that student progress is monitored from the beginning to the end of the lesson?
What summative assessment strategy or strategies will I use to ensure that all students have mastered the essential learner outcomes?
How will I integrate metacognitive strategies into my assessment process so that students can express and monitor their own comprehension and assess themselves as learners?
How will I balance my assessment strategies to include both oral and written communication skills?

VII. Closure Activity (Teacher Guided): Such an activity is designed to foster a sense of completion among students. It may be an essential part of the assessment process or it can function as a stand-alone activity.

What did we do?
How far will we go tomorrow? For our next lesson, think about...
In your opinion, what are the most significant or interesting parts of the lesson?
How does the lesson relate to you and the world you inhabit?

*Standards for Excellence in Teaching, Prince George's County Public Schools.

SAMPLE LESSON PLAN FORMAT*

Name ________________________________________________

Subject ____________________________________________ Date ______________

Title of Lesson __________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Warm Up

_______________________________________________________________________________________
Statement of Objective

_______________________________________________________________________________________
Introductory and Developmental Activities

_______________________________________________________________________________________
Guided Practice Activities

_______________________________________________________________________________________
Independent Activities/Meaningful-Use Tasks

_______________________________________________________________________________________
Assessment Activities

_______________________________________________________________________________________
Closure

from Standards in Excellence in Teaching, Prince George's County Public Schools

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Sample Lesson Plan Format

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Last updated on November 20, 2002