Secrets for Secondary School Teachers (10 page)

D
AILY
L
ESSON
P
LANS AND
A
SSESSMENTS

Writing lesson plans serves several functions. The process helps you to organize your thinking about a course, in the short term, for a particular day or week, or in the long term, with a longer unit of study throughout the semester. Developing lesson plans also gives you the opportunity to consider the needs of the particular students in your course as you focus on their prior knowledge, abilities, cultural backgrounds, and levels of English language development in deciding how you will present new material and the forms of assessment you will use to determine if the objectives have been met. Having a set of lesson plans also has the benefit of giving you a sense of confidence as you start the day. It provides an agenda for you and your students to follow. And if the unexpected situation arises and you are not able to meet your class, such as a last-minute opportunity to attend a professional development activity, an unscheduled meeting, or you become ill, a prepared lesson plan will give the substitute a solid frame of reference.

Figure 6.1
   Lesson Plan Format

Basic Information

Begin with the class reference information. Indicate the name of the course, the period, the date, the starting and ending times of the period, and the topic of study. Complete the sections on Methods and Materials/Resources after you have completed the rest of the lesson.

Select the Standard(s)

As most states have adopted content standards or state frameworks, the state standards will be your first reference point. There are also national standards developed for discipline areas that you can access as well. Your district may also have a curriculum in place that incorporates the state standards. These standards identify what students must know and be able to do. Districts may also have a set of benchmarks that identify timelines for meeting the objectives, which you will need to follow.

As the classroom teacher, you will have to do some preliminary inquiry with your students to determine whether they are ready to be introduced to grade-level standards. If not, you may have to incorporate activities based on lower level standards as a preview to the content you want to present.

Formulate Essential Questions

See section above under Unit Plans. If you have not done so earlier, you may want to develop essential questions at this point in your planning.

Goals

Some lesson plan formats include the identification of goals or statements of broad direction that facilitate the designing of curriculum. Goals use such terms as “understand,” “appreciate,” and “learn.” For example: “Students will appreciate the contributions of the impressionist painters.” “Students will understand Japanese poetry.” They are used for long-term, general planning.

Instructional Objectives

An instructional objective is a statement that defines the outcome or product of instruction in a way that can be measured and observed. It is a subset of a goal. For each content standard, you will need to identify one or more instructional objectives.

Whether you are writing for a daily lesson or a unit of study, the objectives will fall into three categories: cognitive or content; affective or feelings and attitudes; and psychomotor or skills. The emphasis will depend on the course. For example, keyboarding, physical education, band, and art will include many skill objectives; geography and economics will include more cognitive objectives.

In some cases, the objectives will follow a sequence such as in mathematics or language development; in other cases, they may follow a theme such as in social studies. Using Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy of Thinking Skills as a reference in content areas will ensure that you are including the high-level thinking skills of application, synthesis, and evaluation, as well as the basic skills of knowledge, comprehension, and application.

It is easiest to write objectives using sentences that begin with “The student will . . .” and follow with a verb that indicates performance, such as “define,” “identify,” “compare,” or “solve.” You will want to identify something that students can do that you can readily observe, so you can follow their progress. For example: “The student will describe the technique
of the impressionist painters.” “The student will write a Japanese haiku.” Instructional objectives focus on what students will
do.

At the start of each period, you can then share (orally and by posting on the board or an overhead) the day’s objective(s) with students. This not only allows students to know what is expected of them, but also helps them to measure their progress and prepare for tests or other forms of assessment.

Assessment

Now that you have written the objectives, the next step is to decide how you will determine the degree to which students have mastered the objectives. There are two categories of assessment: formative and summative.

Formative assessment
takes place during instruction to see if students are progressing. Examples of formative assessment include checking for understanding by monitoring student work as it is completed in class or as homework. You may wish to ask questions as you present new material or demonstrate a new skill to make sure students comprehend what you are talking about or showing. Student responses might also be in the form of showing you answers on individual whiteboards, writing a summary at the end of a period for you to read, completing a graphic organizer that they submit for your review, or taking a quiz.

Summative assessment
takes place at the end of a unit. Examples of summative assessment include a unit test or an alternative assessment such as a product (the “proof is in the pudding” in family and consumer sciences) or performance (debating a piece of legislation in government, or playing an instrument in band). You will not be able to use all the various types of assessments for any given unit, but over the course of a semester or year, you can offer students a variety of assessment experiences. Remember, the more different methods you employ, the more different opportunities you give the students to demonstrate their achievements.

Alignment

Assessments need to align with the standards and objectives. They should cover the skills, vocabulary, and content you present. Some teachers also include an item or two from previous units of learning to encourage students to keep reviewing past topics.

Students’ responses vary based on the type of assessment they are given. Some students do well on essay tests, but poorly on multiple choice. Since they vary in their ability to perform well on a given type of test item, you will want to provide multiple ways for them to show you what they have learned.

Written Tests

Written objective, “paper and pencil” tests include true/false, multiple choice, and matching items. Remember, while these types of tests are quick to administer and easy to score, they tend to cover basic information only and depend on students being able to read and comprehend English. They do not measure performance skills or show problem-solving skills.

Tips for creating written test items include the following:

•   Using a 12-point font with a type face that is familiar to the students

•   Printing on a solid background

•   Including all relevant text and graphics on a single page

•   Providing clear space for responses

•   Listing multiple-choice items vertically

•   Avoiding negative words such as “not” or “never”

•   Emphasizing words that are significant, such as “never” or “always” by putting them in italics or boldface type

•   When using fill-in-the-blank questions, placing blanks at the end of the sentence (“The capital of the United States is ______________.”)

•   Selecting choice items that are the same length, shorter than the introductory stem, and include plausible answers

•   Having only one right answer

•   Using the same vocabulary as used during instruction

Make sure as much of your content as possible is included in the items. Students expect to be tested on all the content presented. If you use publisher-created tests, check to see that the above guidelines have been followed. Many schools have scantron forms available to score such tests electronically. This type of testing will also give students practice for standardized testing.

Fill-in-the-blank and open-ended, short-answer questions will take more time to grade, but will give you a fuller picture of what students know. They provide students with the opportunity to use their own words, identify examples, and give analogies. There may be a variety of correct responses to open-ended questions.

Special-needs students and English-language learners will need modifications of the test and adaptations of procedures in order to be successful on these types of items. Depending on their abilities, you may choose to provide word banks, select fewer items, and/or include samples of correctly answered items.

Essay questions are closely tied to students’ writing skills and ability to communicate. Therefore, they may be difficult for special-needs and English-language learners. Again, modifications and adaptation may be needed. Because it is more difficult to cover all the content with essay tests, many teachers use a combination of items. Grading essays takes a long time, but using rubrics (see
page 68
) will help you do so efficiently and reliably.

Alternative Assessments

By using alternative assessments (see
Box 6.1
), you allow students to give you a fuller picture of their achievement. Alternative assessments are also greatly appealing to students. They can involve a performance or demonstration, such as a dance; or a presentation, such as a PowerPoint slide show of a research project or a speech; or a product, such as a ceramic bowl, or a newspaper created by hand or by using Publisher software. Whatever the assignment, alternative assessments involve a lot of time and preparation to implement, and performances and presentations take time to evaluate.

BOX 6.1 LIST OF ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENTS

Advertisement, artifact replicas, animated stories

Brochure

Collage, children’s book

Dance, debate, demonstration, diorama, drawings

Editorial

Fashion show

Games

Historical portrayal of person or event

Interview

Journal entry

K-W-L Chart

Letter, learning log

Maps, mobiles, models, movie, museum

Newscast

Obituary

Photographic essay, play, poem, political cartoon, poster

Questionnaire and results analysis, quilt

Role play

Simulation, slide show, song, speech, storyboard

Television program, think-aloud

Unit summary with illustrations

Video documentary, virtual field trip

Web site, word wall

Xylograph-wood engraving or other artistic rendering

Yearbook or similar type documentary

Z to A or A to Z alphabet-type presentation

Rubrics

Checklists, rating scales, or rubrics facilitate the evaluation process. By using rubrics or scoring guides with writing assignments, you identify the characteristics of a project or performance that will be graded and how the grade will be determined. Both students and parents appreciate such detailed information. The mystery is taken out of grading as it becomes more objective. Students can be involved in creating the rubrics and can self-evaluate their work based on what has been developed. Scoring can be holistic or analytic. You will also find that rubrics enable you to grade student work more quickly. In both types of rubrics, you would include the skills and knowledge pertinent to the unit.