Into the Classroom: A Practical Guide for Starting Student Teaching

Chapter 4: Ready, Aim, Teach: Writing Objective and Lesson Plans

Chapter 4 Ready, Aim, Teach: Writing Objectives and Lesson Plans Sometimes teaching is like serving a plate of spaghetti. We teachers offer a tangle of concepts, principles, facts, analogies, illustrations, and theories. From this confusing assemblage, we hope that the students sort out and remember the most important parts. But, how can a student, who does not know the topic, judge what part is important? By writing objectives and organizing our thoughts into lesson plans, we can focus our teaching efforts to “serve” lessconfusing lessons. Four questions formthebasisofgood teaching.Theanswerstothesequestions will shape any lesson, class, or course. As you answer these questions, you begin the road to good teaching (see sidebar 4.1). Who Is My Audience? In all teaching situations, you must consider your audience. When I receive a telephone call asking me to be a teacher or a guest lecturer, the first question I ask is, “Who is my audience?” Any information I can get about the audience helps me shape my talk. What age level will I be teaching? Do they have any background knowledge on the topic? Why is this topic of interest to the caller and the students? What type of lesson or presentation has been effective or ineffective with the group before? What is their attention span? Do I need to consider adapting my presentation for students with disabilities? Is there any other information that will help me communicate effectively? Sidebar 4.1 Four Questions—The Basis for Teaching (1) Who is my audience? (2) What do I want to teach? (3) How should I teach it? (4) How do I know if the students learned what I intended to teach? 34 Classroom Instruction What Do I Want to Teach? Let us look at the second question, “What do I want to teach?” In most cases, the curriculum is mandated by a state or provincial department of education, and the question becomes, “What do I need to teach?” Answer the question briefly. You should be able to define what you would like to teach in a few key words or a sentence. If your answer is lengthy or you are tempted to say “you know” and wave your hands, then chances are you do not have a clear idea of what you want to convey. In this case, you should rethink the core concepts of your lesson. If you, the teacher/expert, cannot describe clearly what you are going to teach, your lesson will probably lack clarity, and your students will be confused. See examples of teaching objectives in table 4.1. The statements in the left column are teaching objectives. The teaching objective becomes the core for the remainder of your lesson. The learning objective is explained later in this chapter in the section “How Do I Know if the Students Learned What I Intended to Teach?” How Should I Teach It? The third question, “How should I teach it?” refers to the teaching strategy or method you select to teach your objective. You have many possible strategies and methods to choose from, such as reading, lecture, interactive discussion, worksheet, laboratory activity, simulation, film/video, discovery, or field trip. Unfortunately, many teachers get in a rut; they repeatedly use one or two methods of teaching. At the university level, teachers usually select lecture, lecture, and lecture. If you are in a natural-science course, the pattern is lecture , lecture, and laboratory. In high school, the pattern is often read, discuss, answer questions, read, discuss, and answer questions. In kindergarten, the pattern is varied—listen, do, discover, talk, and rejoices (see sidebar 4.2.)! As you develop your teaching skills, you will develop a repertoire of teaching methods and strategies. I like to think of this repertoire as a toolbox. When Sidebar 4.2 Rejoice Rejoice!? Since when is rejoice an instructional method? Well, it is not, but I use it to make apoint.Educationshould bewonderful,fun,exciting,andrewarding . As learners, we should celebrate successfully learning something new to us; as teachers, we need to recognize the efforts of our students. And let us not allow the kindergarteners to have all the fun in learning. Ready, Aim, Teach 35 you have to answer the question “How should I teach it?” you can reach into your toolbox and pull out the appropriate method. Some lessons can be taught best by lecture, demonstration, and practice—for example, manual techniques such as making an icing...