Teaching Portfolio
Traditional (Teacher-Centered) Lesson Plan
A lesson is a planned set of learning activities designed to achieve a specific learning outcome. Most lessons are relatively brief (minutes to hours) and are usually based on a limited number of related objectives.
A lesson plan is a teacher’s road map. It describes what the instructor will be teaching (content) and how the material will be taught (methods). Ideally, it provides a framework by which the teacher prepares for, delivers and assesses instruction.
Level of Detail. Lesson plans can be written for different audiences and at different levels of detail. Lesson plans written by teachers for themselves usually contain less detail than if written for someone else to follow. As a general guideline, a written lesson plan should contain a clear enough set of directions that a person knowledgeable in the subject matter could effectively deliver the lesson.
Inexperienced teachers often produce very detailed plans – outlining exactly what is to be done at every step in the lesson. However, in the real-world teaching environment, this level of detail may be impractical, especially on a daily basis. Moreover, as teachers gain experience, they usually can plan their lessons more efficiently. Indeed, very experienced teachers may be able to go into class with just a short “to do” list or even have a well-designed plan in their heads.
Where the Lesson Plan Fits. A lesson plan represents one of the key planning activities in the instructional design cycle (plan -> implement -> evaluate -> revise). As the smallest discrete planning element, it is equivalent to a building block upon which course units, courses and the overall foundation we call the curriculum is constructed.
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Lesson Plan |
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In terms of the portfolio process, your lesson plan should serve as the basis for developing other key documentation, including (a) your supplementary instructional materials, (b) your classroom assessment strategy; (c) your videotaped microteach presentation, and (d) your microteach evaluation and self-assessment.
A lesson plan is not a topical outline, student handout or Powerpoint presentation (although all these may be addressed in a lesson plan). Moreover, a lesson plan is not a guarantor of quality teaching or effective learning.
A traditional or teacher-centered lesson plan focuses mainly on what the instructor does. Student activities – when provided – are prescribed and orchestrated by the instructor, usually as a supplement to the planned delivery of content. Teacher-centered lesson planning relies heavily on the behavioral and cognitive learning models, especially that espoused by Gagne (see Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction).
This is in contrast to a student-centered lesson plan, which focuses mainly on what the students do. In this approach, student activities, although they may be planned by the instructor, are the primary means for achieving the learning goals. Student-centered lesson planning relies heavily on the constructivist learning models. The remainder of this activity focuses on traditional or teacher-centered lesson planning.
Lesson planning is important because it:
Michael Toney (1991) lists six additional reasons to prepare lesson plans:
According to Toney (1991), a good traditional lesson plan should include at least the following key components:
A typical lesson plan has several key elements. Using the PIE model (Plan – Implement – Evaluate), these elements include the basic plan or overview (who, what, why, etc), the actual lesson implementation (what you will do) and the lesson evaluation. These elements are all covered in the UMDNJ Certificate in Health Professions Teaching Lesson Planning Form [Word version] [HTML version]
Overview
Typically, the lesson overview addresses the following basic questions:
Lesson Implementation
Once you have addressed these basic questions, it’s time to plot out what your will do in the allotted time (implementation). Most lesson plans break lesson implementation down into three major components: Introduction, Body and Closure.
Introduction. A good introduction should prepare learners for what’s to come and motivate them to pay attention and learn during the session. Typically, your lesson introduction should address the first three of Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction:
Providing a means to gain learners’ attention (also called advance organizers, anticipatory set or set induction) helps motivate them to learn. It addresses the “what’s in it for me?” question. A good Introduction also reviews what’s to come, i.e., the goals and objectives of the lesson. This helps learners focus on what’s important and what’s not. Ideally, the Introduction should also specify what special materials or methods the learners will be using during the lesson (particularly important for a laboratory experience) and how they will be assessed or evaluated.
Body of the Lesson. The body of your lesson plan consists of a general or detailed outline of what is to be taught and how. Typically, your outline your main points in sequence, either according to the order of the learning objectives or some other logical sequence. This portion of the body is equivalent to your ‘lecture notes.’
But a good lesson plan goes beyond simple lecture notes. Lesson plan forms typically provide three or more columns for organizing the body of your lesson. All provide a column for your lesson Outline. Most provide a Time column for you allocate approximate times for each main topic or point you plan to cover. An Activities column specifies how you will cover each major topic or point, i.e., what you will do to provide the content or facilitate learning. Typically, for teacher-centered instruction, activities include such methods as lecturing, showing (slides, models, etc), demonstrating (procedures/techniques, etc), and questioning. Some lesson plans provide a fourth column that lists the corresponding equipment or materials needed for each major topic or point (e.g., a handout or an overhead transparency, etc). The UMDNJ Certificate in Health Professions Teaching Lesson Planning Form uses a three column format: Time, General Lesson Outline, and Activities/ Methods/ Questioning [Word version] [HTML version].
Closure. The closure or summary component of the lesson plan should tie all pieces together and create the desire or provide opportunities for further study. At a minimum, you should restate the main ideas of the lesson (as specified in the objectives) and reinforce its relevance, e.g., why should learners remember this? how will learners use the information? This may also be a good time to ask questions to assess student understanding of the material. Avoid simply asking if there are any questions, since participants usually say no. Instead, ask if you need to clarify any specific points or ask a few summary-type review questions on what you presented. Last, use the closure component to specify any follow-up activities or assignments and (where applicable), provide a link to any subsequent sessions.
Lesson plans should be flexible and individually tailored to the specific needs of the learners, the presentation style of the teacher, the instructional strategies used, and the nature of the topical content. Nonetheless, there are a few basic tips that apply to most teacher-centered lesson plans:
Although your lesson plan is just one piece of your teaching portfolio, it will also serve as the basis for developing other key documentation, including (a) your supplementary instructional materials, (b) your classroom assessment strategy; (c) your videotaped microteach presentation, and (d) your microteach evaluation and self-assessment. For this reason, you should invest the time needed to create a quality plan upon which you can build as we progress onto other related assignments.
In terms of topic and scope – the topic or content is up to you. However, because your lesson plan will provide the basis for your videotaped microteach activity, you will need to limit the duration of your lesson to a maximum of 15 minutes. So be sure to choose a topic that can be adequately addressed (Introduction, Body and Closure) in that time frame.
1. Download the MS-Word version of the UMDNJ Certificate in Health Professions Teaching Lesson Planning Form at:
www.umdnj.edu/idsweb/certificate/lesson_plan_form.doc
2. After completing all the required fields, save your lesson plan as a Word document file with your last name and assignment number in the filename. Then return to the course's online Assignments page and upload and submit it for grading. Click here for instructions on how upload and submit your assignments to WebCT for grading
3. Now save your lesson plan again as a Web page (simple or filtered HTML format) with the filename mylesson.htm (be precise in naming the file - use all lower case, no spaces). Click here for instructions on how to properly save your word processor documents as simple or filtered HTML
4. After properly saving your lesson plan as HTML, upload it as a Web page to the Student Presentations area of your WebCT course. Click here for instructions on how to upload Web pages to the Student Presentations area of your WebCT course.
5. To view your lesson plan and confirm its upload, go to the Student Presentations area, click on the My Portfolio link next to your name and then select the Traditional (Teacher-Centered) Lesson Plan link.
6. If you have difficulty with any of these steps, please post your problem in your course’s User Support Forum discussion topic.
Gagne, R.M. (1985). The Conditions of Learning and the Theory of Instruction, (4th ed.), New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
Toney, M.R. (1991) Lesson plans-Strategies for learning. Training & Development. (June), 15-18.