What is it that makes a lesson plan great? There are so many qualities that define a successful lesson plan, including organization, incorporation of technology, actively engaging the learner, accomodations, and collaboration. For my group work in EHS 401/600, we are searching for lesson plans to find those that exemplify the qualities that we find most instrumental in a lesson plan's effectiveness. For more information on my group members research on these qualities of great lesson plans, you can look to Andrew's Teaching the Future Blog and Kristen's The Heart of An Educator Blog. For my research, I find the incorporation of differentiated instruction to be an important characteristic of a well-constructed lesson plan. Differentiated instruction allows the students to choose between different project, essay, and assessment options that best coordinate with their learning type and educational preparedness for the subject. By allowing the students the freedom to choose the outlet that best meets their needs, you offer them the great chance for success and achievement. I have searched the worldwide web for examples of lesson plans that I feel incorporate differentiated instruction in an effective and powerful way.
1) To Kill A Mockingbird: Building Knowledge
This lesson plan is a concluding lesson to a study of To Kill A Mockingbird in which the students must demonstrate their knowledge of how the setting effects character and plot. The students will use information about setting gleaned from the reading of the novel to create a model of a particular scene. The students will present their models to the class. The differentiated portion of the lesson comes in the concluding essay assignment. The students are given two different essay topics to choose from to complete an essay on setting for the conclusion of the lesson. This offers the students the opportunity to choose the topic they feel that they can most confidently execute based on learning style (as one is more analytical and one is more reflective).
2) Character Metaphors - The Great Gatsby
This lesson incorporates a gingerbread template that the students use as the basis for their character metaphor. The students will select a character from the novel and then use magazines, newspapers, clipart, etc. to create metaphors about the character that coordinate with body parts. The reason this lesson plan appealed to me is because it offers a technology extension to the assignment with differentiated options of completion. These technology options allow the students to expand the assignment to websites that are geared at creating these character analyses online. The combination of technology and differentiated instruction makes this a great lesson that challenges the students to expand their knowledge and exposes them to other project options.
3) The Pearl Novel Study
This is a fantistc lesson plan that is thorough and well thought in its organization and overall preparation. I selected this lesson plan because it offers differentiated project options for the students' final assessment of the novel study. The goal of this lesson plan is for the students to have a deeper understanding and appreciation for the novel. The differentiated project assignment offers the following options: 1) in a group, rewrite the novel in modern times using illustrations as needed, 2) write a 16-20 line poem and find music to compliment, 3) write a 1-2 page paper about the symbols and their meaning in the novel. These options offer something that will appeal to every learning type.
4) Poetry Writing
This lesson does lack in some areas of organization and does not include all of the elements that I feel are important to presenting a complete lesson plan (objectives, standards, etc.) However, I do enjoy the differentiated instruction offered in the overall basis of the assignment in that the students are able to select the poem types they will create that they feel they can most confidently execute in a timely fashion. This assists the students in setting realistic goals for themselves and, by working with the teacher to set these goals, they are still pushing themselves to grasp and create different poem types.
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