Lesson Planning

When I lesson plan I divide my lesson plan into these 5 parts and I use these 5 questions to guide my instructional planning.

1. Anticipatory Set/Prior knowledge (5-10 mins) -- What do I already know about the subject? This is usually a short, warm up activity.

2. Direct Instruction (15-20 mins) -- What do I need to learn about the subject? 20 mins is the maximum time I lecture or speak to the class in one chunk. This includes modeling an activity for students before they will do it in groups or independently.

3. Guided practice (15 mins) -- Can I do this with guidance? This is usually a pair or group work activity undertaken with my guidance. It can also be a teacher facilitated discussion like Socratic Seminar or an activity where I guide students through a process that I have already modeled for the class .

4. Independent practice (15-20 mins) -- Can I do this alone? Sometimes this is done after class as homework or it can be a collaborative activity where students must demonstrate their competency without my guidance, like Tutorial or student presentations.

5. Check for Understanding/Assessment (5-10 mins) -- Do I understand what I learned?  What questions do I need answered? This is often a short closure activity like an exit ticket.

Here are a couple of lesson plan templates I like to use. As always, if you would like the documents, please leave me your email address in the comments.

Classroom Management Techniques

I will do a few classroom management posts but here are a couple of good ideas I plan to do in the future. I like this idea to manage disruptive behavior. Using a consequence from a sport that many students know and love is good. It's also good to use something simple that is color coded. It makes it much easier for students to remember.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-j4q9c_-Q4
 
I like this idea for teaching students to reconfigure desks. Since I do a lot of activities that require students to move desks quickly and efficiently, it is important to spend some time teaching the procedure. The only thing I would add is for students to move the desks more quietly. If your classroom door is open to get air or you do not have a thick wall separating classrooms, other classes can be disrupted by noisy desks moving.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhhxk26NfWM

Cubing: A Reading Strategy for Social Studies

I just got this strategy from another teacher. I think it would be very useful to use in the future.

This is a great site for reading strategies for Social Studies:  http://www.readingquest.org/strat/

Philosophical Chairs: AVID Style Debate

This is another AVID strategy that I use in my Social Studies classes. It is a well-developed strategy for doing class debates. I use it every unit or every other unit in Social Studies. I do it at least half way through the unit. If you do not want to have students move their desks into the U shape, I have had my students just move their chairs. I borrowed this explanation of the process. If you cannot see it well enough and would like the PDF file, leave your email in the comments and I will send it to you.

Using Documentaries in Social Studies

Using documentaries in Social Studies classes works very well; giving students a sense of what life was like for a group of people at a certain period in time. One of my favorite sources for documentaries is PBS' American Experience series. Below are links to the ones I use in my U.S. History classes. Due to the 11th grade CA Standards, there is not a lot of time to cover Native Americans in U.S. History (yes, it's atrocious!). I do a bit on them at the beginning of the class when we talk about the colonies and then I do a segment on the Indian Removal Act. I show part 3 of We Shall Remain, the part of American Experience on Native Americans. I use note-taking activities, role plays/simulations and group activities like Socratic Seminar or the Decision Making Process with the documentaries to develop student understanding of the material, to develop their study skills, discussion abilities and critical thinking skills. I do a similar process with Eyes on the Prize during our Civil Rights unit and Journey to America for our immigration unit. I follow up with contemporary videos to explore how far we have come regarding the subjects since these historical periods. We watch Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later, an HBO documentary comparing Little Rock's Central High in 1957 and 2007. It is quite good at showing the changes and the shocking similarities. Students are always interested in it, particularly because it focuses on students their age. We always have engaging discussions, comparing not only Little Rock then and today but also Little Rock to their own experiences. I use shorter videos interviewing Native Americans today and ones of modern day immigrant experiences, as well. Those also produce interesting discussions.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/the_films/episode_3_trailer

  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/JourneytoAmerica/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/

http://www.amazon.com/Little-Rock-Central-High-Years/dp/B000UR9TK0

This is a video I have used to compliment We Shall Remain. It was also produced by PBS and featured on the Newshour. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_issues/july-dec11/efp_11-10.html

Socratic Seminar: AVID Style Discussion

I have mentioned Socratic Seminar and I want to take some time to discuss it in depth. Like the Decision Making Process, Socratic Seminar develops critical thinking skills and learning through discussion/collaboration. It also promotes analysis of a specific text as students discuss a writing piece by piece. Also like the Decision Making Process, Socratic Seminar is a process that needs to be modeled, teaching the steps and practicing the method to improve students' skills and learning experience. I like to use Socratic Seminar as pre-review test review. In other words, I often do it the day before our test review day. In Social Studies the texts I use are newspaper articles, speeches, legal documents, and segments of books. I also have students analyze media (government propaganda, photographs, art, video). Here is a short explanation of the Socratic Seminar process.

For a more detailed explanation this link is a good, comprehensive one:
http://www.maxlow.net/avid/socsem/socraticseminaroverview.html

Note: To hear the videos, headphones might be necessary.

This is a video of middle schoolers engaging in Socratic Seminar. This is one example of how a teacher can facilitate the discussion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pGVR6ZF_2M (Walker Middle School)

This video shows educators going through the Socratic Seminar process with text of the process overlaid as each step is demonstrated. This inner/outer circle is the standard practice of AVID's Socratic Seminar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDP75I1b5Do (adults)

Here are two examples of high schoolers participating in Socratic Seminar. The first is an English class. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxZMGK6IdEs (high school)

This is a high school Social Studies class:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ4MYD6HLR4 (another high school)

The Decision Making Process/News Analysis Guide

These are more activities I got from my mentor teacher. They can be combined as a great critical thinking process that force students to analyze a large problem one piece at a time. Doing the News Analysis prior to the Decision Making Process is good because students can usually connect understanding to a contemporary issue more easily than to a historical one. In other words, the News Analysis Guide is good scaffolding for the Decision Making Process. I have used both in all my social studies classes to analyze historical, economic and legal issues. It is good to dissect problems in a way that shows students that historical and contemporary events are not inevitable but many outcomes could happen instead. It is important for students to realize that people make decisions that produce the outcomes that occur today and in the past. You have to model the process for students before they do it themselves and they will continue to need guidance the first few times they do it. It is good to have students work in small groups to discuss the positive and negative aspects of possible solutions to the problem. Once students have experience with the process they will be able to do it independently. I plan to use the Decision Making Process more frequently in the future and for each of my U.S. History units to delve into a major issue for each time period.