AY 375 - Fall 2013: Fifth Day Lesson Plan

Today we'll be talking about the different levels of learning one can achieve and how to design lesson plans that target specific levels of learning. We will also continue to discuss group work activities and how we can use different activities to target certain kinds of learning objectives.

1. Learning objectives should be specific, not vague.
2. Lower level learning is OK and is necessary for higher level learning to occur. Do not try to jump right into the highest level of learning without ensuring that the fundamentals are in place.
3. When planning your section, think about what types of activities are most conducive to your learning objectives and the level of learning you are targeting.

First have students discuss in pairs how section went (5 min).

Open the floor up for general questions and sharing about how sections are going. Some questions include:

• What did you do?
• How did you implement your activities?
• What worked?
• What didn't work?
• What would you do differently?
• How did you assess learning?
• Did you receive any unexpected questions/reactions/etc.?
• Did anything unexpected happen?
• What were you thinking about while you were running section? Any moments of panic?

1. Introduce Bloom (15 min)
   • Last week we talked about the various kinds of learning that students and experts have. For example, when I asked you the question about what you think about, many of you drew plots or made references that what you wrote down encapsulates a lot of the main ideas of that concept. I then asked you what you what a student might say, you and commented that it would be random facts.
   • Discussion: Which would you consider as a higher form of learning? Why? (write some of this on the board)
   • Did you immediately understand the material in this way? How did you get to this level of understanding? What is the highest form of learning you could imagine? (a pyramid shape should start to develop on the board)
   • Give students the Bloom handout.
2. Lesson Plans (15 min)
   • Consider your lesson plan, identify which levels of learning you are targeting for each activity.
   • Do your activities make it clear what your learning objectives are?
   • Achieving and writing good learning objectives requires:
     • Exact statements of your goals, not vague generalities
       • For example:
         • Bad: Understand Kepler's Laws
         • Good: Be able to identify the location of the star in an elliptical planetary orbit and understand this is a statement of Kepler's first law.
         • Bad: Appreciate the scale of the Solar System
         • Good: Be able to calculate the ratio of distances between the Sun-Earth and distance from the Sun to other planets.
         • Bad: Understand that stars shine by nuclear fusion.
         • Good: Be able to define nuclear fusion and state that hydrogen fusion occurs in the core of stars.
         • Bad:
         • Good:
     • A good lesson plan to targets these learning objectives (go over the 12 steps)
     • Good implementation of the lesson plan (we'll talk about this at the end of class)

Instructors: Point out how avoiding the “6 ways to discourage learning” can help achieve learning objectives (especially for higher level thinking).

1. (10 min) Final discussion question: How much higher level learning should we aim for? Expect? How/Should this evolve over the semester? Over the discussion section?
2. Along with the pyramid, write on the board:
   1. Three ways to target higher level learning:
      1. Have good lesson plans.
      2. Have good learning objectives.
      3. Have good implementation.

Some notes on Bloom:

The committee identified three domains of educational activities or learning (Bloom, 1956):

1. Cognitive: mental skills (Knowledge)
2. Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (Attitude or self)
3. Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (Skills)

Since the work was produced by higher education, the words tend to be a little bigger than we normally use. Domains can be thought of as categories. Trainers often refer to these three categories as KSA (Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude). This taxonomy of learning behaviors can be thought of as “the goals of the learning process.” That is, after a learning episode, the learner should have acquired new skills, knowledge, and/or attitudes.

This compilation divides the three domains into subdivisions, starting from the simplest behavior to the most complex. The divisions outlined are not absolutes and there are other systems or hierarchies that have been devised in the educational and training world. However, Bloom's taxonomy is easily understood and is probably the most widely applied one in use today.

Some notes on lesson plans:

Here is a 12-step program for writing effective lesson plans. Here is the same content in handout form. Here is a lesson plan template.

1. Identify topics to cover.
   • Lecture meets for ~150 minutes a week, while discussion section meets only 50 minutes a week. You cannot be expected to recap a week's worth of material. Don't even try! Pick two, at most three, topics to cover during your 50 minutes. Encourage students to attend office hours if they have more questions.
2. Define the learning objectives of the section.
   • Ask yourself ``What do I want students to leave with at the end of our 50 minutes together?“ Be specific. Are these goals long-term (e.g., mastery of a skill) or short-term (e.g., recapping material)?
3. Determine what method and materials you will use to accomplish these goals.
   • Will you spend section having a classroom discussion, individualized problem solving, or group work? Will there be demonstrations? What materials will you need?
4. Think of a motivation or ``hook” to open the section with.
   • How will you get the student's attention? Flashy demos, hypothetical or real-world situations involving material from lecture, or an ungraded quiz of questions from past exams are good ways of getting students focused.
5. Write a draft of the discussion section. Including an opening hook, procedures, and closing.
   • Do not forget things such as conveying any administrative notes and allowing time for questions.
6. Add details and specific examples. Eliminate vague words like ``discuss,“ ``introduce,” or ``explain.“
   • HOW will you explain a particular topic? Give details. What will you write on the board to aid in your explanation? What prompts will you give to the class?
7. Criticize your timetable.
   • The average attention span is 10–15 minutes. Are you spending longer than this on a particular exercise? Break up your discussion section with demos, lecture work, group work, class discussions, etc. that last only 10 minutes or so.
8. Come up with a backup plan.
   • Wednesday lecture was canceled and students are not ready to discuss the material you had planned to cover. Or your students are so smart that you finish your discussion section in 30 minutes. What do you do now? Have backup plans.
9. Critique your lesson plan globally.
   • Look over your entire plan. Does it work to accomplish your learning objectives? If not, have your learning objectives changed or does your plan need revising?
10. Critique your lesson plan meticulously.
    • You should be able to write a sentence on how each part of your lesson plan goes to accomplishing your learning objectives. If you cannot, that may be alerting you to revise your learning objectives or to revise your plan.
11. Determine how you will assess the success of your discussion section.
    • Will you ask questions near the end of section to probe whether section was successful? Will you ask for written or oral feedback?
12. Repeat any of the above steps as necessary.

1. Instructors: How the group work activities listed in Day 4 on the projector.
2. Ask them the questions we posed at the end of class last time: Did anyone try any of these? If not or if you haven't had a chance, which few might you want to try? Why? What material are you covering, your goals, and which types of activities target higher levels of learning? Target lower levels?
3. Did any of the six discouraging ways seem familiar? Surprising? Is there one you particularly want to work on avoiding?

1. Have your offline chat with the peer you visited. Complete the Peer Visitation Worksheet, to be collected next time.
2. Write one multiple choice question (5 choices, no throw-aways) and one free response question. Bring a copy of them to class next week.
3. We'll start taping them this week.