Activity Planning! Being Intentional about Supporting Skill Development

When do you have to Plan? Whenever an activity is not part of the daily routine Whenever you are doing a new activity Whenever you want to pass on your great ideas to other people

Breakdown of an Activity Plan Objectives Activity description Supplies De-brief/Reflection Assessment

Objectives What you expect the participants to be able to do, know or feel after the activity Characteristics of A Good Objective Specific – says exactly what the learner will be able to do Measurable – can be observed by the end of the activity Attainable within scheduled time and specified conditions Relevant to the needs of the participant and the organization

Examples of Objectives demonstrate dance movements through informal presentations and share their thoughts and feelings in response to their own and others’ dances describe how a volcano explodes recognize and draw the following line styles; vertical, horizontal, diagonal, wavy, curved and zig-zag convince a donor to provide refreshments for the program’s showcase program Participants will be able to

Activity Description: Description of what you and the participants are going to do in the activity. It should be in enough detail so that a person who did not write the lesson plan can follow it.

Supplies What is needed to do the activity (Don’t forget the small stuff like pencils, paper, scotch tape)

De-brief/Reflection Strategies that allows the participants a few minutes to internalize what happened during the activity or connect to their own lives. Give the participants the opportunity to reflect on the following: What happened? Describe what happened or what was learned during the activity So What? Determine what was important about what was learned/done during the activity Now What? Think of what can be done with what was learned during the activity Great websites for reflection strategies: Reflection Activity for Community Service and Service Learning Projects: =22661 Reflection Toolkit: Northwest Service Academy, Metro Center, Portland, OR Toolkit%201.pdf Reflection Strategies: stitutes_and_Centers/OSL/docs/Reflection%20Activiti es.pdf stitutes_and_Centers/OSL/docs/Reflection%20Activiti es.pdf

Assessment: Strategy that allows you to determine whether the participants met the objectives of the activity. Can be questions, a review of the products developed during the activity etc.

Assessment Strategies Directly ask the participant to answer questions related to the objectives for the activity. (This type of assessment can often be folded into your feedback/reflection) Assess a finished product to see if has met the designated criteria. Use KWL: a brainstorming process exploring what participants know prior to beginning an activity(s), what they what to learn about it, and after finishing what they have learned. Use a rubric to assess to what degree the participants has successfully mastered the objective. This can be a time consuming process if you are going to assess individual participants’ efforts but provides a lot of information. If you want many examples of rubrics for different subjects and topics, check out RubiStar For full use you have to register for free but it has a lot of ideas and rubrics templates.

KWL

Rubric

Theme Planning Sheet