Lessons that Promote Learning

Brenda Hill
Feb 21, 2011

How do we develop quality lesson plans with rigor that promotes learning for all students?

     “The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live.”  ~Mortimer Adler
There has been much written and documented about how teachers should effectively plan lessons.  In addition, there is a plethora of materials and resources available to support, aid, and help teachers in this planning process.  Most prominent educational researchers espouse the importance of lesson planning as a tool to guide instruction and to focus a lesson. Gini Cunningham addresses the importance of lesson planning in her book, New Teacher’s Companion, stating “few factors are as vital to teaching success as having well-designed lessons.”   She further states, “When lessons flow sequentially, always reviewing prior knowledge and then constructing deeper understanding based on new concepts and skills, learning is relevant, organized, and comprehensible. Yesterday's learning is complemented by today's lesson, which leads to achievement tomorrow and beyond.”  Posamentier, Jaye, and Krulik in their book, Exemplary Practices for Secondary Math Teachers, write the “main ingredient for a successful lesson is a well-designed lesson plan.   Teachers should begin planning a lesson by identifying the student learning outcomes:  exactly what the student is expected to learn and what the teacher will use as evidence of a successful learning outcome.”  The Learning-Focused Strategies Model provides teachers templates for lesson planning – acquisition and extending thinking - that embed effective research-based and evidence-based strategies to increase student learning and achievement.  However, even though the importance of lesson planning has been addressed and reiterated over the last several decades, the depth and quality of individual lesson plans vary greatly.  So… How do we develop quality lessons plans that promote learning for all students?

Eric Jensen addresses several classroom-level success factors as “drivers of change” in his book, Teaching with Poverty in Mind:  What Being Poor Does to Kid’s Brains and What Schools Can Do About It.  He states that one of the first things we must do is align our curriculum and instruction to state standards.  In the Learning-Focused Strategies Model:  Transforming Standards into Learning we begin by doing just that.  Teachers assess, identify, and clarify state standards by creating a Know-Understand-Do (K-U-D) organizer.  This organizer becomes a planning tool which visually represents the learning outcomes for a unit by identifying what students should know, understand, and do as a result of their newly acquired knowledge.  The K-U-D organizer is then used to develop a Student Learning Map that includes: a key learning statement, key concepts, unit and lesson essential questions, and key vocabulary.  The lesson essential questions from the Student Learning Map, which are directly aligned to state standards, then become the impetus for planning lessons of quality that promote learning for all.  The Learning-Focused Strategies Model:  Connecting Exemplary Practices in Acquisition Lessons provides a plan which embeds research-based strategies to actively engage students in the learning process.  Students’ understanding of new information is monitored and assessed throughout instruction and students summarize to answer the lesson essential question.  We have established the importance of lesson planning, but it is also imperative that we address the issue of rigor within each and every lesson by asking, How do I develop quality lesson plans with rigor that promote learning for all students?

In order to develop lessons of rigor we must first understand its meaning.  In Teaching What Matters Most: Standards and Strategies for Raising Student Achievement by Richard W. Strong, Harvey F. Silver and Matthew J. Perini, ASCD, 2001 the term is defined as, “…the goal of helping students develop the capacity to understand content that is complex, ambiguous, provocative, and personally or emotionally challenging.” Again, this reiterates the importance of identifying, clarifying, and understanding state standards in order to effectively plan lessons that promote learning.  Lessons of rigor actively engage students in on-grade level learning with meaningful, purposeful, appropriate tasks and assignments reflective of state standards.  As we plan lessons and assignments of rigor which are grade level appropriate we are often required to more closely examine the indicators and benchmarks within and across each standard.  Closer scrutiny of the benchmarks for each standard is imperative since many times the “Enduring Understanding” or the “Big Idea” is the same across several grade levels. The following table shows the importance of closely examining benchmarks and/or indicators for each grade level: 

Science:  Big Idea 8:  Properties of Matter (Big Ideas 8 & 9 are written the same K-5) 

  1.  All objects and substances in the world are made of matter.  Matter has two fundamental properties:  matter takes up space and matter has mass. 

  2.  Objects and substances can be classified by their physical and chemical properties.  Mass is the amount of matter (or “stuff”) in an object.  Weight, on the other hand, is the measure of force of attraction (gravitational force) between an object and Earth.  

Big Idea 9:  Changes in Matter

  1.  Matter can undergo change. 

  2.  Matter can be changed physically or chemically.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Careful examination of grade level benchmarks for each standard reflects how rigor differs across grade levels; therefore, tasks, assignments (especially writing assignments), and evidence of student learning should also differ across grade levels. Quality lessons not only actively engage students, but also reflect rigorous tasks and appropriate grade level assignments based upon the differences in benchmarks from one grade level to the next. In striving to develop lessons that promote learning, keep in mind the importance of planning for quality instruction as you plan assignments and tasks that reflect grade level rigor.