I have viewed your cognitivist lesson plans. I feel that some students are still struggling with how to write a lesson overview/description. This blog entry is devoted to this issue.
In general, a lesson overview/description includes two essential elements: (1) topic, and (2) student learning activities. Additional elements can be added such as specific concepts covered by the lesson and student learning products. Let’s use examples to illustrate the process about how to write a lesson overview/description.
I. Topic
You must clearly state the topic covered by your lesson. The topic is what you are going to teach in your lesson. There are various ways for you to state your topic, as the examples below demonstrate.
(1) You can be very straightforward:
This lesson teaches importance of math accuracy.
(2) You can use a question:
Is math accuracy important in life?
(3) Here is another way to state this topic:
Students will learn the importance of math accuracy.
II. Then you add a brief description of student learning activities. Student learning activities refer to what students will do to learn the lesson.
To help students come to this understanding, they will be assigned to a profession that uses fractions on the job. Their task will be to research, summarize, draw conclusions and then report back on how important knowing fractions is in that profession and in their own life either now or in the future.
That completes the lesson overview/description. The complete lesson overview looks like this:
Students will learn the importance of math accuracy. To help students come to this understanding, they will be assigned to a profession that uses fractions on the job. Their task will be to research, summarize, draw conclusions and then report back on how important knowing fractions is in that profession and in their own life either now or in the future.
Let’s dissect another lesson overview/description.
What is rhyme? Where can we find it? We will embark on a knowledge journey into this aspect of phonemic awareness through song, nursery rhymes, and many wonderful books, as well as in our own writing. We will use this knowledge to create wanted posters searching for words that rhyme and even work with technology assistants to create a class slideshow featuring our selections of words that rhyme. We will end the unit by adding our newfound knowledge to our class Web site (with the help of our teacher, aide, and parent volunteers).
What is the topic of this lesson overview/description?
The topic of this lesson overview is rhyme - What is rhyme?
We can also be straightforward in stating the topic of the lesson – This lesson teaches rhyme or - Students will learng rhyme in this lesson.
What are student learning activities? Student learning activities are as follows:
We will embark on a knowledge journey into this aspect of phonemic awareness through song, nursery rhymes, and many wonderful books, as well as in our own writing.
This overview also includes student learning products:
We will use this knowledge to create wanted posters searching for words that rhyme and even work with technology assistants to create a class slideshow featuring our selections of words that rhyme.
Here is a lesson overview/description. Can you identify the topic and student learning activities? I encourage you to give it a try.
Is a picture worth a thousand words? That is the question students will be able to answer after they have completed this unit on photography/graphic design. As students work through the unit’s activities they will learn what an important form of communication photography is and how to recognize and convey content in images as well as interpret the photos of others. Students will practice critique skills and learn about the elements and principles of design. Finally, students will put into practice all that they have learned as they take on the role of a photographer/designer hired by a fictitious client to shoot the cover image for a soon-to-be-released album or book.
