Giulia Lato: My Teaching Portfolio
Education in Everything
Lesson Planning
All teachers must be skilled in lesson planning because it is a vital component of teaching, as it encompasses a wide range of aspects that a teacher must consider every single day. Lesson plans don't only serve as a blueprint to the day's activities; it also allows educators to reflect on important features of any classroom and group of students. For example, lesson plans guide teachers in differentiation and assessment, as well as improving their instruction. Being able to plan a complete and organized lesson is an indispensable skill that teachers develop every day.
The Process
Most likely every teacher has their own preferred process they follow when making lesson plans. This is the sequence of considerations that I usually go through when planning a particular lesson in order to maximize student learning and be as prepared as possible when enacting these lessons with my students. The detailed process can be found below, while the shorter version is the graphic to the right. With experience, teachers learn how to plan lessons and follow this procedure rather quickly and effectively. One of the steps is that of differentiation, which you can read more about here.
4 1
3 2
This process includes questions that educators should ask themselves when planning for learning (the shaded boxes) and the sequence of steps that they then take to answer these questions (the un-shaded boxes). This particular process has a clear order from start to finish, but not all planning is done this way. Another effective strategy is to start at the end and work towards the start. This approach, called Backwards Design for Forward Action, will also be depicted further on.
Key Components to any Lesson Plan
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General Info
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Date and Time
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Cycle & Level
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Subject
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Duration (and location, if desired)
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Pedagogical Program (ex: Immersion)
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Learning Objectives (end results)
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Big Idea or Inquiry
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Student objectives (learnings)
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Teacher objectives (actions)
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Competencies
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Subject Specific Competencies
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Key Features
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Understandings
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Cross Curricular Competencies
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Key Features
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Materials
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ICT resources
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Teacher and student materials
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Procedures (with time indications)
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Group Size
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Introduction or Hook Activity
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Development activities (5 “E”s)
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Conclusion
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Learning Centers (if applicable)
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Homework (if applicable)
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Differentiation
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Extensions for those above grade level
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Adaptations for those below grade level
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Assessment Methods
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Performance Tasks
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Criteria
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Tools (rubrics, checklists, etc.)
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Self-assessments (if applicable)
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Professional Competencies
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Teacher Reflections
* In order to quickly indicate which student competencies and professionnal competencies my lesson targets, I use these two charts to check them off. Access the Student Chart here and Professional Chart here.
Lesson Plan Templates
Here are a few templates that I have used to plan and organize my lessons. Each template includes the same basic information about the lesson, but presents it differently and has a unique organizational structure. Lesson plan templates can certainly be adapted and changed to reflect unique student needs and teaching styles. In addition, some templates include all relevant information in the same place (even differentiation techniques, assessment tools, etc.), while others have different parts and sections for this additional information.
Lesson Plan Examples
In order to demonstrate the lesson planning process as well as the use of some of the templates, here are some lesson plan examples that I have developed (organized by cycle) as well as enacted in the classroom. The Intro to Malala lesson (below right) also shows my drafting and brainstorming process, which occurs before I develop the finalized lesson plan. Click on the titles to view each lesson plan.
CYCLE 3
Geste négatifs et solutions (environnement)
Français
CYCLE 2
CYCLE 1
KINDERGARTEN
Kindergarten
Centre
Centre
Préscolaire
Learning Evaluation Situation (LES)
A learning Evaluation Situation (LES) is a set of complex tasks and learning activities rooted in a context which is linked to a problems or issue (MEQ). There is often a guiding question, such as "What does it mean to be a hero?" that guides the entire LES. Through the chosen activities and over a certain period of time, student learn how to answer this complex questions using the resources and knowledges acquired throughout the unit. Therefore, the tasks must be varied and chosen carefully, as they must bring the child to a point of understanding whereby they have enough knowledge and skills to answer the question or solve the problem. Tasks must build upon prior knowledge of students and should allow student to construct new knowledge.
The LES is most successful is if it relevant to stuents' lives and if is rooted in a realistic context. The teacher must also consider evaluation strategies at the end of the unit as well as throughout the activities and tasks. The final task of an LES can often be used as a summative evaluatin for a given term. Click here for the LES planning template. I've created several Learning Evaluation Situations, some of which can be found here:
ELA: Malala Yousafzai LES French: L'Imparfait French: Les biomes et les adjectifs
Learning Centers
A learning center is a self-contained section of the classroom in which students engage in independent and self-directed learning activities (TeacherVision.com). Students work independently or in small groups in order to achieve the learning goals of each center. Usually, each center in the classroom targets a different skill/concept that the teacher has already presented in class. By doing this, student skills and knowledge is enhanced by the activities they are performing. Centers can be designed in a varity of ways, depending on what the teacher wants the student to achieve. I've worked on developing centers before and have enacted them in the classroom, which was actually a very educational and fun experience.
Halloween themed centers (Gr. 6)
French Immersion Kindergaten center on water and the ocean
Click here for a description of each of the activities at this learning center, as well as the targeted competencies, differentiation strategies, and technology uses
Toolkits
Essentially, a toolkit is a collection of various resources that an educator uses to teach a specific unit or group of lessons. Toolkits, which are often designed with specific competencies to develop, can also be created for any subject area and grade level. They usually comprise of a wide variety of resources, such as online links, books, lesson plans, additional activities and extensions, etc. Toolkits can be shared between educators, as they can be very helpful in introduing a theme or unit and in carrying out various lessons in a unit for a particular grade or cycle. To the right is an example of a Cycle 3 toolkit I created with other colleagues for Social Sciences, focused on Iroquian Society and Inca Society around 1500. The toolkit includes several online resources that students can use to study, to revise material, or for extended activities. There are also some examples of books suited to this theme, as well as an arts-based lesson and ideas for additional activities.
Long Term Planning
Apart from planning individual lessons, it's important for teachers to plan long-term, either for the entire school year or one term at a time.. How teachers do this depends on their preferred method or organizational vision. It also depends on their goals for the year ahead, and how they want to move their students forward. When I think about planning for a whole year, I break it down like this:
School Year
Term 1
Term 2
Term 3
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Lessons
Reflections
I've learned a great deal about planning lessons during my teacher training, especially during my field experiences. I love planning different kinds of lessons and projects, such as Learning Evaluation Situations, Learning Centers, and toolkits. Depending on what I want my students to achieve, I choose the appropriate type of lesson to plan. One strategy I often use is that of Backwards Design, which allows me to establish my goals first and then plan accordingly to those. As I plan more and more, the process has gotten much more natural, as it feels like something I do all the time. With the guidance of other teachers, I've learned how to organize a lesson so that children can produce valuable work and can engage in meaningful learning opportunities.