Designing Effective Lesson Plans
Backwards Mapping Approach
Elements of Effective Lesson Design
- Adequate Research- this allows you to gather the most knowledge possible to incorporate into your own design.
- Develop clear learning objectives- the easier your material is to cognitively understand the better the chance of retention of the material learned. Be cognizant of your state's core standards. This is what you should base your lesson plans around.
- Clarity, completeness, and specificity are needed to drive the rest of the lesson plan design. (Newman, 2013).
Learning Objectives
Example of a good learning objective: Florida
Craft and Design in a kindergarten grade level course.
Task: With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
Common Pitfalls in Planning Effective Lessons and How to Avoid
There are two common missteps in planning effective lessons: accidental learning and breadth of coverage.
To avoid these pitfalls teachers should tell their students what they expect of them and set goals around these expectations. Then teachers will back track and formulate lesson plans to reach these goals. Thus leading into backwards design.
Backwards Design
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Reference
Newman, R. (2013). Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century: Connecting the Dots. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.