Lesson Planning
OUR STORY
My Personal Lesson Planning Process
When I plan a lesson I start with the unit plan. I plan when each lesson should be given, when the assessments should occur, and where to add some skill builder practice.
Then I work on the lesson as if I am a student. I complete all the problems, copy the toolkit notes, etc. In my opinion this is the most important step for me in the lesson planning process. It allows me to have an exemplar for the problems to refer to and helps me determine pacing of the lesson.
The last step is to create google slides. This is where I add the engagement strategies, determine what technology is needed, the order of the lesson, brain breaks, etc.
Starting a Lesson
Essential Questions and Objectives
Being clear about the learning goal for the lesson is a huge priority for me. I make sure my objectives are student centered, for example, "Today we can..." I go over the objective in the beginning of the lesson. I also have students write the essential question at the top of their workbooks. Then, at the end of the lesson they return to the essential question and answer it. By doing this it creates a true cycle of learning.
Student Workbooks
Helping students stay organized with their work is always a challenge. This year I adopted a Cornell notes inspired method. The left column of their workbooks is dedicated to creating 5-word problem summaries. We spent a lot of time during Fall Semester learning how to figure out what a problem is asking for in order to create a problem summary.
Lecture Notes
Toolkits
Math classes in college still rely heavily on the ability to take accurate notes. In order to help prepare students for taking notes, I helped to create Toolkit Notes for each chapter. This is a packet that includes the most important elements, definitions, and examples needed to be successful in the chapter. It combines fill-in the blanks, diagrams and graphs to label, and space to write down examples and steps for more algebraic examples.
Engagement Strategies
I use lots of different strategies to help keep students engaged. Below are a handful of ones I use most often. A lot of these strategies came from the College Preparatory Mathematics (CPM) curriculum.
Traffic Light Work time
Team Races
Swaps
Traveling Salesperson
Gallery Walk
A great strategy when the lesson has a lot of problems students need to work through. Green Light means go, students are working. Yellow Light means students are stuck and need help. Right Light means students have finished a problem and need the answer checked before moving on. Resource Managers are in charge of calling teacher over for yellow light. Ambassadors are in charge of calling teacher over for Red Light.
A great strategy to add some motivation to a lesson full of problems students need to work through. I project a race track and each team gets a car, horse, etc (depending on race theme) to represent their team. Once a team has completed a problem, they call the teacher over to check it and then move their car to the next place. The team that gets the farthest or to the end first wins a prize. I've also done an obstacle course version where between the problems the team has to do active challenges, for example shoot a paper ball into the trashcan 10 times.
I use this strategy for student presentations often. Teams make posters and then Ambassadors prepare a short 1-2 minute presentation. The rest of the team rotates around the room listening to presentations and taking notes. At the end, the team must present their notes to the ambassador. I usually have guiding questions to be answered at the end of presentations as well.
This is a modified version of a Gallery Walk strategy. The biggest difference between the two methods is in the Traveling Salesperson strategy there are no posters. Teams help Ambassadors prepare a 30 second to 1 minute speech that argues a point. Often they are arguing that their strategy or answer is the correct one and why. Then the Ambassadors go to the other teams and sell their answer or strategy.
This is my favorite strategy when teams are stuck on a problem. I have 2 members from one team switch places with 2 members from another team. Teams then share strategies and work on the problem so far. I often have teams swap a few times with different groups to get lots of perspectives.
Scavenger Hunt
This is my favorite strategy for skill builder lessons. A bunch of problems are posted around the room with answers at the bottom of the cards. However the answer on the card does not match the problem above it, it matches a different problem in the room. Therefore students choose 1 problem to begin with and then must go searching around the room for their answer. Once found, they begin the next problem on that card until they arrive back at their original problem.
Stations
I usually use this strategy for review days. I have an activity for each table. Students do a pre-assessment or reflection and then choose 3-4 stations for the day. At the end of each round, students do a reflection and I stamp their reflection sheet. This is a great way to individualize students learning. Stations are often based on standards needing review, or lessons they missed. I usually include a challenge station for more advanced students as well.
Notice and Wonder
I have found this is a great strategy to get participation in whole class discussions. I put a graph, table, diagram, quote, etc on the board. Then ask the students to write down 2 things they notice and 2 things they wonder. I give 2-3 minutes to write stuff down, they then share in their teams, and have each team share out at least 1 notice and wonder. This is my favorite way to start new topics or chapters.
Brain Breaks
For most of my career I have taught on a block schedule with a block that is about 2 hours. Even as the teacher, a brain break was a must for lessons. Brain breaks in my class tended to be between 5 and 7 minutes long. This year I did a different themed brain break each month.
Monthly Themes
August: Find Random Facts
September: Puzzles
October: Play with Toys
November: Learn to Draw
December: Dance Party
January: Learn a New Language
February: Competition Games
March: Coloring
April: Origami
May: Magic Tricks
June: Karaoke