WHY DO LESSON PLANS?

Lesson plans are a great project if you are going to be a teacher and you would like to come out of this class with something that you can actually use in your classroom. To produce good lesson plans is not easy, especially if you have never written them before. But it is rewarding and you will have gained some great experience toward all the other lesson plans you will be writing in other classes down the road. For now your instructor will be here to help you, so don't worry. You should have access to the National Geography Standards if you plan to do something in geography. If you plan on producing something in history, there are history standards available as well. In other areas of the social studies you should have access to appropriate learning objectives for he state or a district.

WHAT ARE LESSON PLANS?
Lesson plans are simply a means of instructional design that allow teachers to prepare for and maintain control of a unit, lesson or series of lessons that will be delivered to students. They usually use a behavioral objective type format and are written in outline form. They are very complete and detailed!

Lesson plans provide a means for the teacher to test the development, delivery, and evaluation of the instructional content of a lesson to insure that it will flow smoothly and obtained the desired results. In once sense they are a self-contained package that allows the teacher to consider all the controllable variables (or as many as possible) that will make the lesson meaningful (and fun) for the student.

HOW DO I MAKE ONE?
Lesson plans start on a very metaphysical plane. First you must come up with an idea of what you want to teach. Of course if you are in the classroom, many of the ideas will already be set out for you in a standard curriculum. In this class you will be developing lesson plans for your grade level in an area of geography or social studies. After you get your idea you start exploring ways to teach the lesson. Using a standard behavioral format you list all the objectives of the lesson and how you are going to achieve these. You gather all your materials together, write your hand-outs, prepare your classroom materials and activities and put it all together in an orderly form. Then the fun part.....teach it! For this class, if you have students you can try your lessons out on, go for it! but it is not necessary.

HOW DO I KNOW WHAT MY GRADE LEVEL CAN UNDERSTAND AND IS SUPPOSE TO LEARN?
Each grade level has various student learning objectives for each grade (SLOs). These are set by the state and district and recently new state level Essential Elements (EEs) have been written specifically for geography and other subjects. Some of this material is on file with your instructors social studies resource page. You can use the EEs as a guide to develop your lessons around since these are set at various grade levels. Before you start your project however, be sure to read through the EE's for your grade level. Also....if you look over a geography or other social studies text for the grade level you will be teaching, or ask a teacher you might know, you should have a good idea of what is being taught at the grade level at which you want to develop the lesson. As far as comprehension of the material for the student......this comes with experience and knowing your classes requirements, age, development and behavioral characteristics....and since you may not have much experience in this area you should keep this rule of thumb in mind. Think....If I was this age, could I figure it out? If you are doing a plan for second graders THINK LIKE A SECOND GRADER!

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE EXAMPLES OF LESSON PLANS THAT STUDENTS HAVE COMPLETED IN THE PAST?
I am very interested in children's books and have worked considerably with these. Finding the geography or social studies in these books should not be hard for you to do. Many of my students have developed plans around children's books. Others have developed plans for field trips to special places, but these kinds of plans are very complicated. Other students have used map based activities.

WHICH HAVE BEEN THE BEST PLANS AND HOW DO YOU GRADE THESE?
The best lesson plans include some kind of activity that has the student doing something. In geography that might be...measuring, observing, mapping, DOING something...colouring or sketching the landscape, taking pictures of it......this is the difference between doing science and reading about it. At any level activities can be developed so that children are actively involved in the processes of learning and that the various learning styles are approached within the content of the course. Also the plan should incorporate higher level reasoning. Try to stay away from strict rote memorization which very well may serve a short term learning response in children. However, comprehension and the ability to assimilate, synthesize, and apply information are the real outcomes we are reaching for. Make sure your lesson includes activities that reach these goals. It just takes a little creativity on the part of the teacher, and really knowing what the subject is all about.

CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE VARIOUS COMPONENTS OF A LESSON PLAN PROJECT?
Sure, they are very simple and here they are!

1. In this project the students will develop a minimum of three individual lesson plans using a behavioral design format described below.

2. The plans will have an ultimate goal of teaching in the content field of social studies or geography in either physical or cultural geography or in some other social science.

FOR LECTURE CLASS STUDENTS ONLY
3. The student is encouraged to visit the school supply stores to supplement the lessons with materials. BUT only materials that cannot conceivably be produced by the students will be accepted within the core of the project. Do not stack your lessons with commercially produced lesson plans and activity sheets. The idea behind this project is to get you to think creatively ..........MAKE IT YOURSELF! As soon as I see commercially produced lesson plan materials....I start wondering. Another aspect of this lesson is practical, trying to get you to get by as inexpensively as possible, remember your going to be a teacher:-)).

FOR ON LINE CLASS STUDENTS ONLY
3. Since I will not be able to kinesthetically take part in reviewing your plans, all I am asking you to do is send in the three outlines for the lessons. Normally my students line the halls with Tupperware boxes full of great stuff they have designed for their classes. On line we can't do that , BUT YOU CAN if you want. After all, the idea here is to develop plans you can adapt further and actually work with in your classroom. So, if you do put together a nice lesson with lots of material and manipulatives....that's great, bring it by my office and let me look at it. For the on line component of this class, send in any ancillaries you might have on "paper" that might be over head materials you have developed, handouts, game sheets or anything like that. DO NOT DEVELOP YOUR LESSONS AROUND WORK SHEETS!

4. A finished lesson plan is one that can be taught! All the materials required to teach the lesson needs to be with the project when you hand it in if you are in the lecture portion, not if you are taking the course on line. What about globes and projectors? Not things like that. These are things you will have in your classroom. BUT if you are going to have handouts, the masters need to be there. A rule of thumb to follow is if the students need to interact with it.......it needs to be there! Also!!! If you are working with children's literature and say you are going to read Sarah Plain and Tall to your students...THEN...my policy...is YOU NEED TO OWN THE BOOK. This project is not intended to get costly but....one thing you need to learn...don't count on a library having Sarah Plain and Tall on the day you want to teach it! If it is part of your project you need to own it! Now for the on-line students, who do something with children's literature, I can't check to see if you own the book or not....but let me suggest, if you want to do something with Children's Lit. BUY THE BOOK.

5. How I grade...... In all cases on line and lecture classes, I should be able to look at your project from the outline you provide and understand fully what you are trying to teach, know how your going to teach it and know how YOU KNOW your students will have learned something. I should come away from reading your project excited and wishing I had YOU for my teacher!

6. LECTURE CLASS ONLY Hand in your lesson plan project preferably in a Tupperware box or in a folder. NEATNESS COUNTS!

7. If you have questions..........Talk to me! Talk to me! Talk to me!

8. LECTURE AND ON LINE If you work in Children's Literature you need to talk to me.

9. WHAT NOT TO WRITE LESSON PLANS ABOUT:
a. Memorizing: the state capitals, states, flowers, birds, rocks, flags.
LOOK AT THE STANDARDS....this is about process oriented learning.....that is.......understanding information with reason and this is at all levels:

b. Field trips. Field trips are pre-arranged and very, very hard to write well because of the logistics. Talk to me about this one but generally no.

c. Games. You can include simple evaluative games (for example a game for a test) in your plans that you develop...but please....do not develop games for the bulk of your lesson. Games generally are rote based activities...try to get away from this and do more with activities that require the student to process information at higher levels.

d. DO NOT SET YOUR LESSON PLAN GOALS AND OBJECTIVES TO ANYTHING BUT THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHY STANDARDS. DO NOT USE ANY STATE OR DISTRICT CURRICULAR GOALS OR STANDARDS. (CITE THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHY STANDARD(S) AND ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS WHEN YOU DEVELOP YOUR LESSONS.)

e. Finally, if it has to be about Oregon...well....ok.......but please see letter "a" above.


10. ONE MORE TIME.........USE YOUR OWN WORK AND PRODUCE YOUR OWN MATERIALS, DO NOT BUY PLANS OR MATERIALS AT TEACHER'S STORES. "But I can't draw, or paint!" This isn't art class. Your third graders won't know the difference....but I will...and your pocket book will......the later, if you choose to be a teacher, will no doubt be limited in resources anyway. Unless there is some kind of technical data..photographs...etc....use and develop your own work. Fun, homemade materials get better grades from me than professionally made lesson plan materials and outlines you bought at the store.

DISCLAIMER: There are reasons for all the above. One is, that you get a good grade in this class. You are taking this course from an instructor who collects teddy bears. I love to have fun...but in education the fun has to produce a product: learning. Ask yourself the question....."by having my students do what I want them to do in this lesson, how are they learning what I want them to learn? How am I reaching my goals and objectives by through the activities I am having them participate in?"
Consider the idea of making sugar cube igloos so that you can teach about Eskimo, Inuit Culture. So you have your kids making sugar cube igloos, they do a great job at it. NOW ask yourself the question, "Did I just finish teaching the CRAFT of making sugar cube igloos OR did I teach something about Inuit culture?" Sugar cube igloos might be fun to make but are they really teaching anything about Eskimos. DON'T GET YOURSELF TRAPPED teaching crafts when you need to be teaching content! DO you understand what I am saying here. Cute lessons are cute, but they have to be based on substance as well.

IF YOU ARE DOING A GEOGRAPHY BASED LESSON, YOU MUST USE THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHY STANDARDS FOR YOUR GOALS AND OBJECTIVES When you look at the examples of lesson plans you will notice that they do vary somewhat. This is OK as long as as the teacher and all those involved understand where the lesson is going and how it is going to get there and how it is understood that it has arrived. However, for your lesson plans, in this class, I would like you to keep to the following format described below as much as possible. Use the bold face terms to outline your plan and use as much detail as possible in describing what you are doing. Remember I am the one involved with reading and trying to understand your lessons. BE COMPLETE! Make sure all of your materials are in your package, include anything students need to interact with. Remember, the bottom line is YOUR PROJECT NEEDS TO BE TEACHABLE!

Each plan should include the following outline:

Lesson Plan Title
Grade Level
Overall Goals
Methodology
Student Objectives
Student Activities
Materials
Evaluation

REGARDING ACTIVITIES AND STARTING OUT
Now consider these questions before you start. Are you thinking about what you will have students doing right now? Do you have all kinds of activities in your mind that sound good. Stop for just a minute and consider that this plan that you are making is really not about an activity. In fact it is really about an educational outcome that an activity generates. By having your students make a flour and salt map, can they really learn any thing about the state flower, bird, crops etc.? Can students learn about the Eskimo culture by making a sugar cube igloo? Generally, if an activity is not directly related to some semblance of teacher-prepared lesson goals and objectives, the teacher runs a high risk of only facilitating an activity and not any substantive learning. In an outward sense the making of a flour and salt map does not require any background in state bird knowledge and neither (going the other way) does making a map like this generate a knowledge in state birds......UNLESS....by instructional design....the activity of making the map relates somehow to state bird information. The above are good examples of extreme cases, but this problem comes up consistently in developing lesson plans. Teachers need to make sure that the benefit of the activities they are developing for their students can (will) achieve the goals and objectives you have set for your lessons. OK! Lets look at the rest of how the plan is constructed. When you are developing your lesson plans consider these questions:

1. With respect to Goals:
Look at the Essential Elements (EE) of the National Geography Standards for your grade level. These EE are your overall goals and must be stated in your lesson plan. These might be the overall goals derived from district objects as well. What do I want my students to learn in a general broad sense? What areas across the curriculum (reading, arithmetic, writing, art) might my students be interacting with? As for Geography: How am I making the lesson SPATIAL in nature? How am I incorporating the human-land tradition? Am I dealing with a sub-group of geography physical, cultural, climate, etc.?
You can make simple goal statements simply by starting each item with: Students will be able to....or Students will understand......

2. With respect to Methodology:
This is a place for you to reflect on the reasons you are approaching your lesson the way you are.
Where is the rationale for my lessons coming from?
Why are these methods suitable?
Are the goals I have set for this lesson reasonable for my students to learn?
Am I developing my lesson to the grade level I am teaching?
What do my students need to know before they approach this lesson?
How might I need to I scaffold and prepare my students for the lesson or learning more?
Will the lesson be best facilitated as an individual or group learning activity?
What might I need to consider regarding special needs children?
Why do I think this is the best (or a good) way to teach these learning objectives?
What have I found in the literature or learned from other teachers that imply this method is affective?
What can I do to help model the concepts I want my students to learn?

3. With respect to Objectives:
Look at the Standard within the Essential Element in the National Geography Standards with which you are working The standard is a part of the objectives of the lesson and must be stated here. For other social studies fields, look at the essential elements or learning objects and break them down to specifics. What do I want my students to learn specifically? State these like your goal statements. Ultimately, what will my students learn using my methods and the activities I am having them complete? The general student learning objectives within a district do not dictate specifically what your students will learn. They can't go into that much detail. However in the process of your lesson you may scaffold information in more specific form so that your lesson ultimately reaches the district or school's curricular goals and objectives. This category deals with a more defined understanding of what your educational learning outcomes will be.
After developing the lesson, can I find things outside of my original lesson objectives that my students might learn as a result of the lesson, perhaps even transferable skills, that I could reconsider with respect to my learning objectives for them?

4. With respect to Activities:
Look at the five skills for your grade level in the National Geography Standards. Plan your activities to fit these skills and state the skills that activities you have planned will address.
What will my students be doing...step by step?
Is there a step that might be better for some students and not others?
How will I time the lesson out?
How will I close the lesson?

5. With respect to Materials:
What materials will I need to bring?
What materials will my students need to bring?
What safety precautions might I need to consider?
What must I develop?
What can I buy?
How can I save money, yet do a good job with what I have?
For this project you only need to include materials you would not be able to obtain in the classroom. Large globes, seats, and chalkboards are there....however, that children's book you are going to use....has to be in your box.

6. With respect to Evaluation:
How might I evaluate whether my goals were accomplished?
Should I use an oral test?
Should I use a written test?
Should I evaluate at all?

Suggested Reading on learning objectives in the curriculum:
Curriculum Development A Guide to Practice, Jon Wiles and Joseph. Bondi
Reading in the Content Field, Richard Vacca and Joanne Vacca
Multiple Intelligence the Theory in Practice, Howard Gardener, Basic Publishers
Activities as Instructional Tools, Jere Brophy and Janet Alleman, Educational Researcher Vol. 20 #4, pp 9-23

IN CLOSING
My Dear Students,
What you will accomplish through the process of building a lesson plan will be one of the most important skills you will gain through your academic career. Keep in mind that good instructional design is the root to good pedagogy. Making a lesson fun, exciting, and substantive provides for a stimulating learning environment. And learning environments, by definition, is where learning should be taking place. But all of this requires a great deal of planning and creative energy. The bottom line with teachers should be, "what am I doing to facilitate learning in my classroom, who am I teaching, and what is the best strategy to use to get through to my students." This is what lesson planning is all about. In a naturalistic way you plan like this all the time. However, now you have some time to create, produce, develop, and play with ideas, goals, and objectives, and ultimately through an effective procedure, pass the information on to another human.

Philosophically Speaking
Don't take this notion of passing information on to other human beings lightly. Dear students please do not take this lightly. Indeed, it is the ability to teach that is a characteristic component of your humanity, which separates you even from animals that depend on instinctual responses. Granted as a teacher you may make peanuts, but monkeys, elephants, chickens, turtles, dogs, and kitty cats, have a long way to go before they can catch up to your ability to impart knowledge to other people. Now there may be times when you may think that those who you are teaching are just a bunch of monkeys, elephants, chickens, turtles, dogs, and kitty cats, and in fact your classroom may sound like a zoo on occasion. But you are not a zoo keeper. You are a teacher. You are not feeding food, you are feeding knowledge that, who knows, may be received by a child in your class that someday will assimilate this knowledge you feed them into a concept or idea that might be able to feed a starving country. Idealistic as it may seem, this is the potential of your clientele, and what you design and what you feed them can be nothing less than the absolute best there is to offer.

Dr. M. Mustoe

©1994 M Mustoe