Lesson design, when done well, is both time consuming and thought provoking.
Much is considered when it comes to lesson design including student needs, standards, interests, time, tools, and support. Lessons that are well designed for the children in your midst result in greater engagement and learning.
To teach well means that you're reflecting on the lessons you teach, and continually tweaking those learning experiences to better meet students' need and interest.
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| Visual Model for Persuasive Essay Standard Format |
For example, we've been wrestling with the difference between fact and detail when it comes to persuasive essay. I added a few words to the popular "TREE" acronym and made it
"FEEDS TREE WELL." which is an easy way to remember the kinds of facts you may use to write a strong persuasive essay. But as we discussed the difference between fact and detail, I created a couple of color coded models to provide students with a visual model to accompany the mnemonic. I know that the combination of the two has helped me gain greater efficiency and breadth with writing a persuasive essay, and I hope it meets students' needs too.
We also spent a lot of time today honing our ability to "see" the ruler as a number model. We counted by fraction numbers, scoop counted, and looked at mathematical relationships. It was a bit tedious, but sometimes that's necessary since as teachers we are sensory guides who help students see, touch, hear, smell, and even taste at times with greater discernment, analysis, and connection.
The day ended with one of my favorite lessons, a lesson on inference using
The Composition by Antonio Skarmeta. Skarmeta's well written picture book takes children into a world they are not familiar with, a world where people are living under a dictatorship. Again and again the book's descriptions "show but don't tell" exactly what is happening, hence children are forced to use their schema (knowledge and experiences) and the pictures/words in the book to make sense of the story. This book is also a great match for our current culture unit that focuses on the experiences of refugees, immigrants, migrants, and diversity today and in the past.
Tomorrow we'll stretch some more as children engage in one of our first math talks of the year related to current content and big ideas in math. Students will have the chance to complete their persuasive essays using the mnemonic and model as a guide. There will be time for reading, project completion, and an animal adaptation film at the end of the day.
I enjoy personalizing the curriculum for the children in my class--thinking deeply about who they are, what they need, and what they want. This is the essence of what it means to teach, an activity that thrives when provided with adequate support, materials, and a students-first environment.
How do you define and embed the art of lesson design into your work each day? What are your guiding principles, routines, and process? For many of us, it is this responsive, practitioner aspect of the job that keeps us coming back each day--the chance to synthesize what we know and what children need and desire into an artful learning design.
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