Lesson Design

I wanted to share an excerpt from my MEMSPA weekly update written by Nancy Colfilesh about Lesson Design and what we should be looking for in walk throughs and evaluations.  I'm sure we all remember learning about Hunter in our early teaching classes.  I enjoyed the reminder of good instructional practice and thought you might to:
Over the years, Hunter’s Lesson Design has often been misunderstood, misinterpreted and misused. So, let’s take a few minutes and see if we can clarify her purpose and the elements of that planning process. As a former educational psychologist, Dr. Hunter had a strong background and knowledge base in learning theory. When she was invited to serve as principal at the UCLA Lab School, she was surprised to find that teachers did not have strong background or expertise in learning theory: motivation theory, retention theory, practice theory, reinforcement theory and transfer theory. So, like all good Leaders of Learning, she taught the theories to the faculty.

Yet, she noticed that, despite their new knowledge of learning theory, they didn’t consistently keep this theory in mind when planning for instruction for their students. So, she developed a planning process to help them apply learning theory when planning for learning. Many of us will recognize the elements of Lesson Design:
Anticipatory Set
Sharing the Objective/Purpose of Lesson
Instruction Input              Modeling or Examples         Check for Understanding
Guided or Monitored Practice (or Processing)
Independent Practice (or Processing)

Too frequently, when principals were observing instruction in the classrooms in their schools, they watched for these elements of Lesson Design and were unhappy when instruction did not appear to include all of them. That was never Hunter’s intent. Instead, each of the elements must be considered when planning for learning…..that her intention was for her work to become a Decision-making Model. Therefore, when planning for instruction, she encouraged teachers to “backward map” using the elements when planning for instruction. For example:

• Consider the Lesson Objective (What the teacher wants the students to know or be able to do as a result of the instruction)
• Determine, based on the Lesson Objective, what the Independent Practice or Processing will be. In today’s language, what will be the assessment of learning?
• Next, now that the Lesson Objective is clear and the Independent Practice is determined, the teacher decides what the students will do to practice or process with her and others’ assistance (to check for errors, to provide feedback, to give encouragement, etc.): Guided/Monitored Practice or Processing.
  • Now, with the final elements of the lesson clearly determined, it is time to work on the “guts” of the lesson…..and these three elements are interwoven: Instructional Input – What input do the students need to learn the objective and in what form shall it be provided?
  • Modeling or Examples – How can the teacher show the students the process for learning a skill or use examples to highlight the key attributes of specific content or concept?
  • Checking for Understanding – What is a variety of ways I can use questions or activities throughout this part of the lesson to make sure the students really “get” what they need to successfully practice or process during the next part of the lesson?

• Next, the teacher decides how to share with the students what they will know or be able to do as a result of the lesson…in language the students will understand: Share the Objective/Purpose.
• Last, now that the bulk of the lesson is planned, the teacher designs the Anticipatory Set or strategy to “hook” the students to learn, to provide a quick review as a take-off point, to connect with previous learning……some way to focus the students and get them ready for learning.

When Lesson Design first appeared on the scene 30 years ago, too many educators planned so carefully for the Anticipatory Set and then lost steam as they put together the really essential elements of instruction. I hope that this explanation of backward mapping the elements of Lesson Design will help you, as the Leaders of Learning, support teachers as they plan more effectively for student learning.

An example of Lesson Design as well as Carol Cummings’ adaptation for teaching content and concepts is attached for your use when working with beginning and/or experienced teachers who struggle with planning for successful student learning.
Remember, Hunter told us, “A well-planned lesson is 9/10th delivered.” It was true three decades ago, it is true today.

This Week's Calendar:

Wednesday, October 24:  Grades k - 2 PLC Assembly
Thursday, October 25:  Flu Shot Clinic
Friday, October 26:  Fall Festival 5:30 - 7:30

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