Dean Said:

ideas to format a lesson plan to teach an introductory session for a mixed ability adult group?

We Answered:

As I don't know that subject you teach or how far you've got on your course with them, I can only tell you what I do with my students, using my 1st lesson with them as an example.

1. I started with an initial assessment-in my case, a health questionnaire, learning styles questionaire (VAK) and an individual learning plan (this plan contains the course outcomes/aims, room for teacher and student feedback and career/course progression advice and a questionnaire-what they know about Psychology, what they want to get out of the course etc). By the way, this is an individual, student centred activity.

2. We then had a class discussion about the results of the questionnaire and I talked them through the structure and content of the course. These are whole class, teacher centred activities. At the end of the lesson, I also speak privately to students who have identified particular issues. E.g. One of my students is visually impaired, so I photocopy my worksheets etc onto yellow paper for her, so that she can read them more easily.

3. We then had an icebreaker task-my favourite one is a variation on the child's game, I went to the shop and bought some....? I.e. Each student has to give his/her name and something that they want to do (it doesn't have to be real), the person next to them then has to say who the person is, what they want to do and then give their name & what they want to do, this carries on until I have to remember everyone's names and ambitions (the students are allowed to write the info down). This is a whole class teacher centred activity.

4. To introduce a new topic (e.g. definition of Psychology), I ask students to get into pairs and spend a couple of minutes coming up with ideas which they will feed back to the whole class. This is a student centred learning Activity (pair discussion). While this is happening, I draw a spidergram on the whiteboard.

5. I ask each pair to give me their ideas which I then write on the board and the rest of the class writes all this down. This is a teacher centred whole class activity (class discussion).

6. I then spend 15/20 minutes explaing what the students need to know about the topic (e.g. areas and applications of Psychology). This is a teacher-cented activity (teacher talk).

7. I then give students a worksheet (e.g. gap fill) and ask them to complete it in groups. While the students complete this activity, I go round the class and offer individual student support, if necessary or offer an extension task (e.g. strengths and weaknesses of different areas of Psychology). This is a student centred learning activity (group discussion).

8. We discuss the answers to the activities as a class. After that, the lesson is finished. This is a teacher centred, whole class activity.

This is only a rough outline of how I structure my lesson plans (in table format also including my aims, objectives, students' current knowledge, resources I will need and how I will meet each student's needs as previously described, as well as I how I will assess the students, e.g. through written homework), but I hope that it answers your question. By the way, you can also make sure that you've catered for evryone by putting everything the students need to know on a handout. Also, wherever possible get the more able students to explain things to the rest of the class and if possible get them to work with less able/less confident students. I've found that these approaches can work wonders. Finally, always structure your handouts etc at all levels. i.e. start simply (e.g. what does...mean?) and finish with an extension task, even if you don't discuss it as a group. This allows the keener or more able students to take things a bit further without putting pressure on the other students to keep up with them.

For further ideas, you could also read the following textbook:

Teaching Today-Geoff Petty

Good luck!

Carole Said:

What is the purpose of the "Plenary" section of a lesson plan?

We Answered:

Its like a summary of what has been covered in the whole lesson. Its basically a 10min activity done at the end of a lesson to sum it all up.

Christina Said:

create a brochure with two sections delineating the advantages of SIOP and EEI lesson plan formats.?

We Answered:

I have to complete the same assignment in my college class. Here are the steps that I am going to take:
1. Google the advantages of using ans SIOP and EEI lesson plan.
2. Use the information gathered to create a brochure from Microsoft Publisher.
3. Be sure to be creative and use eye catching colors and pictures to influence others
Good luck!

Floyd Said:

How do I teach childcare staff how to create a lesson plan for school-age?

We Answered:

Being a teacher, here is the simple method used by most in the field. it has 4 parts. Goal: what are they learning, Objectives:little steps to prove they are learning what you want, Activity:how you teach the lesson, Follow-up: a little area on the lesson plan where you write down how it went and what needs to be changed. There are more elaborate, but I think this works nuts to bolts!

Joel Said:

Looking for a lesson plan format for a PK/K Predictable Pattern Book to introduce concepts of print, etc.?

We Answered:

www.pammshouse.com, www.abclearning.com, www.perpetualpreschool.com, etc.

Ruben Said:

Does anyone have a Japanese Math Lesson Plan Format?

We Answered:

i reccomend not using japanase
for one, they dont use normal numbers
they use KANJI which are complicated characters that
severly challenge 9th grade japanese students..
their system of adding is also different,
due to the different numbers
unless you class actually knows japanese
using japanese numbers would be very bad