Lesson Plans: Using Procedures

The procedure is the body of your lesson plan, the ways in which you'll share information with students and the methods you'll use to help them assume a measure of mastery of that material. The three stages (a motivational opening, the development of the lesson, and the closing), although instructional in nature, can also involve some formal or informal assessment periodically. Periodic assessment throughout a lesson will alert you to any misconceptions or misunderstandings students may have long before they reach the conclusion of the lesson (when it may be too late).

Let's take a look at the three major stages of this section of effective lesson planning.

Motivational Opening

This stage of a lesson is critical! It's how you stimulate students' interest in a topic or subject. It may involve asking students a thought-provoking question such as, “How would you like to sleep for four months every year?” or “Did you know we can measure any tree on the playground without climbing it?” Other attention-gaining devises can include models, maps, globes, a piece of apparatus, or a demonstration. It is important that each and every lesson include some method to stimulate the students' interests.

Here are some other methods to consider for this all-important first stage:

• Tapping background knowledge. Students bring a certain amount of background knowledge or prior experiences to any lesson. Use this opportunity to find out what students know before beginning any lesson.
• Self-questioning. I've found that when students of any age are provided opportunities to generate their own questions about a topic, they will be motivated to seek the answers to those questions.
• Predicting. Predictions are educated guesses about what might or might not happen. Predictions are valuable for providing students with some self-initiated directions for a lesson.
• Brainstorming. Brainstorming allows students to share much of their prior knowledge in a supportive arena. Encourage students to brainstorm for everything they may know about a topic. Remember that the emphasis in brainstorming is on gathering a quantity of ideas, regardless of their quality.
• Reading aloud. Read a book, a piece of children's or adolescent literature, or other written resource to students to pique their interest and stimulate their curiosity.
• Establishing relationships. It's valuable for you to demonstrate how a lesson is related to other lessons. Students must understand that no single lesson exists apart from other lessons, but has a relationship with other previously presented material.
• Organizing graphically. Use graphic organizers (charts, graphs, or outlines of the essential information in a lesson) to provide students with a pictorial representation of the major points in a lesson and how those points are related to each other.
• Stating the lesson objectives. Often students perceive a lesson as something a teacher concocts on the spot. Unfortunately, that perception sends a signal that lessons are not designed with students' needs and interests in mind. It's vital, therefore, to let your students know exactly what they will be taught and what you plan to have them learn. When students are aware of the objectives, they will be able to understand the direction and scope of a lesson and work with you in achieving those learning experiences.

Development of the Lesson

This is the heart of any lesson—that portion where you teach and where students learn. This is where students obtain valuable information, manipulate data, and engage in active discovery through total involvement. Include some of the following elements in this stage:

• Lesson methodologies. Not only is it important to give some thought as to what you're going to teach, it is equally significant that you consider the methods of presentation as well. I'm sure you've been in a class where the only method of instruction was dry, stale lectures. You undoubtedly found the class boring and wearying. The same fate awaits your students if you provide them with an overabundance of one type of teaching methodology to the exclusion of others. 
  
• Problem-solving. As I discuss in another article, problem-solving is an inherent part of any lesson. Providing students with the opportunities to solve their own problems in their own way is a valuable motivational technique.
• Creative thinking. Learning is much more than the memorization of facts. Any lesson must allow students opportunities to manipulate data in new and unusual ways.
• Hands-on activities. It's critical that students have sufficient opportunities to create products based on what they learn. These might include but are not limited to posters, dioramas, charts, graphs, mobiles, notebooks, portfolios, and models.
• Student engagement. Successful lessons include several ways in which students can practice the desired behavior(s). Here are just a few suggestions:
• Students critique the directions or set up for a presentation or demonstration.
• Students verbalize the steps they're taking during the completion of an activity.
• Students manipulate objects or devices and verbalize their feelings about their actions.
• Students work in small groups to share information learned and how it relates to prior knowledge.
• Students graph or illustrate significant points on the chalkboard for class critique.

Closure

Effective public speakers always follow three essential rules of a good presentation:

1. Tell the audience what you're going to tell them.
2. Tell them.
3. Tell them what you've told them.

Those same rules are important in the well-designed lesson, too. It's essential that you incorporate some sort of closure into the lesson. This might mean a few minutes at the end of the lesson during which you or your students summarize some of the significant points, an activity in which students share perceptions with each other, or a time during which students recall their positive or negative perceptions of a lesson.

Here are some closure suggestions:

• Teacher summary. Be sure to summarize the important points or critical elements of a lesson for students. Discuss what you taught and what they learned. This might be the most valuable 3 to 5 minutes of any lesson.
• Student summary. Provide opportunities for students to summarize a lesson as well. Inviting them to put a lesson into their own words can be helpful to you in determining how well they learned the material.
• Lesson product. Invite students to incorporate the major elements of a lesson into a final product. As described earlier, this product may take the form of a poster, brochure, model, or portfolio.

Self-Evaluation

As you write lessons, include a brief section at the end that allows you to self-evaluate. This will be important when and if you decide to teach the lesson again. It will also provide you with some important insights relative to your perceived level of success.

You might consider some of these self-evaluative questions:

• “How was my pacing?”
• “Did students understand the content?”
• “Did students understand the important concepts?”
• “Did I use my time appropriately?”
• “What changes should I make the next time I teach this lesson?”
• “Were students engaged and involved?”
• “What new activities or procedures could I include?”
• “Did I present the lesson well?”