Lesson Planning Tutorial

You've learned the skills necessary to utilize the tools; Word, Excel, Access, or PowerPoint.  Now how do take your new-found knowledge about technology and prepare a lesson?  

(If you are prompted for a password at any time during this tutorial,  just click cancel)

Standards

Begin by looking through the Idaho achievement standards for the content area and grade that you plan to teach.  These standards describe specific objectives your students will be required to reach when they exit your class.  Print out the Lesson Outline before you begin.  This will help you organize your thoughts and your lesson.

Idaho Achievement Standards
Once at the "standards" page, scroll down to "Teacher Guides" and choose the appropriate content and grade level.  There is no "go" or "search" button.  Be patient and wait for the new window to open.

Identify at least one objective from the standards for the focus of the content of your lesson.  Remember that the objective you choose should fit well with the use of technology.  

If you're interested, here are the standards for pre-service teachers relating to technology that are followed in the 202 course here at BSU.

Idaho Core Teacher Standards (MOST)

National Educational Technology Standards (NETS)

Links

You might want to investigate lessons that have already been completed to help give you a better understanding of what a good lesson should look like.

Links to lesson ideas

Search for lessons that closely match  the standard you plan to teach.  You may be able to adapt one to fit your needs.

Try a search on www.google.com.

Goal or Overview of the lesson

The goal of a lesson, is a broad statement about what you wish to accomplish.  As a whole, what is it that you are trying to teach?  The Idaho Achievement Standards provide you with excellent examples of goals in the first column of the standards.  These are very broad statements about the content that should be included when teaching a particular subject at a particular grade level.

Objectives

A complete overview of objectives is beyond the scope of this tutorial.  We will discuss objectives only generally and provide you with some examples to follow.

The objectives of a lesson are what you expect your students to be able to do when you've completed the lesson.  They should be written in a way that describes an observable/measurable behavior.  If you were assessing your students you could write your test questions from the objectives.

In technology supported lessons you may have two categories of objectives:  one for the content of the lesson and another for the technology skills incorporated into the lesson.

Some examples are:

• The learner will be able to identify the capital city of every state.
• The student will be able to define the weekly vocabulary words with 85% accuracy.
• The learner will create a visual presentation demonstrating the steps in long division using PowerPoint.
  

Notice the key words in the objectives.  They describe a specific behavior that you expect your students to be able to do.    Many objectives start with the words:

The learner will be able to
or
Students will be able to

Some sample keywords:

Again, the Idaho Achievement Standards provide excellent examples of objectives in the second and third columns.  

Practice writing some objectives for your chosen lesson.

Set-Up/Time Allotment

Describe any special set-up procedures and the number and length of class periods needed to complete this lesson.

Materials Needed

What materials are needed by the teacher and student to implement the lesson.  This should include necessary hardware/software or other technical or media support required.

Grouping Strategies

Since your lessons will utilize technology, it is important to describe how students will be grouped in relationship to the number of computers available.  A good rule of thumb is to assume that there are 5 computers in the classroom.  It individual computers are needed, then make sure to include that information here and a recommendation to reserve time in the computer lab.

Learning Activities

Provide the detailed steps necessary to successfully present this lesson.  Use bullets for easier reading and organization.  Describe in enough detail that a substitute could conduct this lesson if you weren't available.

Sample Lesson Plans

President's Database Lesson Plan

Speech/Communications Spreadsheet Integration