From our text Gary R. Morrison and Deborah L. Lowther suggest teachers consider 2 specific
factors as you create an integrated lesson plan, (29):
1. How long can your students pay attention? Is their attention span mature enough to handle a week long project or are they only able to focus for a class period or just a few hours. What is that precious window of time that they can absorb the most from your lesson? It really depends on the age of the kids and the ability they have in each individual class to stay focused. Younger children may only be able to handle a class period or a day long lesson whereas high school students can handle much longer lessons that could go on for days and even weeks.
2. The computer should not be used the entire time or used as the "teacher" of the lesson. The computer should be used as a tool for the student to research or compile information. Good ol' fashion research with magazines, books, newspapers, and even the world wide web should be used as well, (29). Try to remember that the computer is not the teacher. When students use the computer to solve a problem rather than receive instruction from it, the are more motivated and will learn more because they are actually solving the problem themselves. When they actually research for themselves and use the computer as a tool to present their information or to compile their findings, it creates "ownership" and they are more eager to learn.
These two factors are the backbone to creating a lesson plan. However other factors will play into your lesson planning. A well rounded teacher in my opinion will explore and solve the problem herself before handing it over to the students. The teacher, as a facilitator, must be educated herself in the process. Be organized, knowing the technology in your classroom and the functions of each challenge given to the students. Also, researching ideas and new skills is important so that you can teach and give each student the best training that you can. The student is only as strong as their weakest link!
I have found a website that I'm interested in researching for our lesson plan project.
Curriculum Ideas: How Do I Integrate the Internet into My Classroom?
These two factors are the backbone to creating a lesson plan. However other factors will play into your lesson planning. A well rounded teacher in my opinion will explore and solve the problem herself before handing it over to the students. The teacher, as a facilitator, must be educated herself in the process. Be organized, knowing the technology in your classroom and the functions of each challenge given to the students. Also, researching ideas and new skills is important so that you can teach and give each student the best training that you can. The student is only as strong as their weakest link!
I have found a website that I'm interested in researching for our lesson plan project.
Curriculum Ideas: How Do I Integrate the Internet into My Classroom?
This website has many examples of how to creatively integrate the web into your classroom for student lessons! The lesson examples that they provide cross disciples which is very helpful.
Why do I need objectives to help with my planning and lesson development?
"A lesson plan is the instructor’s road map of what students need to learn and how it will be done effectively during the class time." (Milkova). Before you plan your lesson, you will first need to decide what the learning objectives for the lesson are exactly. What is it that you want the students to learn from your lesson? After creating these objectives, then you can have fun creating appropriate lesson plans that will help to teach the objectives. Stiliana Milkova, from the University of Michigan at The Center of Research for Learning and Teaching says that there are three key components to a successful lesson plan, Milkova, S. (2013). Strategies for Effective Lesson Planning. CRLT.com, Retrieved February 4, 2014, from http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/p2_5. :
- Objectives for student learning
- Teaching/learning activities
- Strategies to check student understanding
Creating objectives for student will help you to make a successful lesson plan as well as help you to effectively grade/rate the student on whether or not they met the objectives of the lesson.
Your lesson's are in fact a "road map" for the students as well as for a substitute teacher that may be filling in for you that day. Having a detailed lesson plan is crucial not only for the students, but for anyone else who may be aiding you in teaching your class. I was a preschool teacher for The Goddard School where the teachers created the curriculum based on developmental goals set by the state. I was trained that "the most untrained person should be able to walk into your classroom and teach your class based on your well prepared lesson plan, including objectives." The objectives should be that clear.
How can I encourage my students to engage in the processing of information?
Being able to encourage students to engage in the processing of information takes preparation on the teachers part. You can't just walk into the room and quickly decide that "today we are learning this..." It takes planning, testing, and preparation. This aspect of our lesson planning is crucial to think about throughout the process of creating lesson plans. Teaching that emphasizes active engagement helps students process and retain information. When we make clear objectives and interesting lesson plans then our students are more interested and stay on task. It makes learning fun and effective!
First, prepare!
- What is the goal?
- What order does the teaching need to follow?
- What do the students already know?
- What do I want them to learn?
Think Sheets provide guidance to help students organize their thinking. The purpose of the Think Sheet is to really get the brain working and thinking about the problem that the student is solving. It guides the student to "determine what to do once they have created and gathered info. It can help them make generalizations and predictions using the data that they fill in, (Morrison and Lowther, 40).
Lastly we can encourage our students to engage in learning by creating fun and attractive activities that support the objective of our lesson plans. Hands on activities encourage learning and help the student to retain information. For example, if our students are learning about North Carolina Ocean Life, the teacher could set up a sensory table full of artifacts that may have been left behind by the Ocean and Ocean currents in North Carolina. Students can dig through the sand in a group and discover seashells, bones, sea weed, fossils, sand dollars, star fish, sponges, and corrals that can be found by exploring the beaches. They can work together in a group to chart their findings. This is a fun activity that engages each student.
Do I have to use a different lesson plan when I want my students to use computers?
No. The ten step NTeQ Model is designed so that computer usage is integrated into the lesson plan. Your lesson plan can be cross disciplinary meaning that you can involve more than one subject for a specific lesson. You may however need to teach the students a specific computer function if you are requiring them to do a specific program that they are not familiar with. In that case, you may need a seperate lesson plan. It boils down to the teacher being prepared and preparing the students for the lesson as well.
Also, our book says that teachers are able to “adapt many of their existing units to an integrated lesson by adding or rethinking the problem and objectives. One of the best sources of ideas for lessons is your old lesson plans and textbooks" (Morrison and Lowther 55). This is a huge time saver. By simply "recycling" your previous lesson plans, you can add onto and improve your lessons without making a whole new or separate lesson.
What is the relationship between objectives and computer functions?
Objectives and computer functions are not the same thing. The objective is what you are expecting the students to learn. The computer functions are the tools that the students use to meet the objectives. It is a vehicle to the objective or goal of the lesson. There are standards set by the school district that should be used when creating your objectives for the lesson. The “computer functions are tasks that computer software can assist with or perform” (Morrison and Lowther 23).
Can you use a computer for every objective or lesson?
"You should not expect to teach all of your objectives with a computer, (Morrison and Lowther, 29). The “NTeQ approach views the computer as a tool rather than as a teacher. The computer or technology should be used by students to solve problems rather than providing the instruction. The NTeQ model has 10 steps to work through for lesson planning. It includes "before during computer use", "activities before computer use" and "activities after computer use." For a well rounded lesson plan it is best to provide students with other means of research. Teaching them to look through books, newspapers, magazines, CD-ROMS and using the library are also great tools that are encouraged in the book. (Morrison and Lowther, 38). Also take into consideration that most classrooms will have a limited number of computers. If this is the case, then it is not in the best interest of every child to make the computer the center of every lesson. Plan a schedule for the students to work individually or in groups at a specific "computer time." This will allow for other resources to be manipulated.
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