I want to share the fun and hard work that has gone into organizing my first lesson plan. EDUC-534, Integrating Social Studies and English into Secondary Classrooms, calls for the planning and implementation of three lessons as a mini-unit. Somehow, the process of putting together my first lessons has been more complicated, yet at the same time, easier than I had intuited.
The MAT@USC program has prepared me to differentiate between excellent and subpar instruction. I know that effectual lesson plans are inherently multi-dimensional because of the number of goals they must achieve. An effectual lesson does more than simply relay information to students through teacher-centered instruction. It does more than require students to simply echo the information in class discussions, tests, and papers. It does more than identify a positive performance evaluation as an end goal.
What does an effectual lesson plan do? It begins with a 360° view of students that takes into consideration backgrounds, developmental levels, and learner requirements. Then, it is designed around the end goal: developing each student into a happy, fulfilled individual who is a valuable, contributing participant in the global community. From here, it must be determined which state standards the lesson will address, which instructional method and texts will be utilized to develop the skills identified in the State Standards and the skills required by 21st Century global citizens. In addition, the plan needs to incorporate a formative assessment, in order to determine exactly what the students need to learn, and a summative assessment to determine if the lesson has achieved its goal. Don’t forget about engaging students, activating their prior knowledge, and boosting their self-efficacy so that they will be motivated to learn.
As I’ve indicated, an effectual lesson is multidimensional—much different than the flat instruction I received as a student and took for granted as the only way to teach. As a result, my lesson planning has been more complicated, but not more difficult than I had imagined. The reason is because the MAT@USC has taught me how to start planning with the student in mind. Then, it’s just a matter of selecting the best methods for determining where they are, where they need to be next, and how to get them there.
I’ll teach my lessons to a sophomore English II class. They’ve been discussing the theme of friendship in Of Mice and Men. I plan to build upon this discussion by introducing additional texts: a radio show and a current, multicultural novel. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Fight on!
