Unit/Lesson Planning 101

What is a unit plan? A series of lessons generally related to a theme or having a common thread.

What is a lesson plan? An outline or guide to help the teacher structure the learning experience.

Developing a unit and lesson plans Start with the goals or objectives – what do you want the students to learn? In North Carolina the Standard Course of Study (NC SCOS)specifies the goals and objectives for each grade and subject. Visit LEARNNC for the NC SCOS http://www.learnnc.org/

Developing a unit and lesson plans Next outline the activities you will use Consider the following as you are writing your activities What do students already know? How long do I have for the lesson? What approach(es) might be best to use e.g. will students work alone, in groups, whole class?

Developing a unit and lesson plans Determine/find resources you can use to teach the lesson. Decide how you will assess the student’s learning – did the students learn what you wanted them to learn? Formal (e.g. a test, a product) Informal (e.g. discussion with students) Link to a presentation on assessment Note – this was a workshop I presented at the Florida Educational Technology Conference. You may find some of the information helpful.

Examples & Additional Resources LEARNC has a database of unit and lesson plans correlated to the NC SCOS http://www.learnnc.org/ The Educator’s Reference desk provides an overview and resources for lesson planning http://www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/Guide.shtml

Examples & Additional Resources Thinkfinity (formerly Marco Polo) provides lesson plans and educational resources, many that align to national educational organization standards http://www.marcopolo-education.org/

Another approach …. …. suggested by Wiggins and McTighe in Understanding by Design is backwards design. Indentify results Determine assessments Design activities Check it out from the ASU library