Collaboration and Planning
P2G Unit Planning Template
This template, which can be found here, is a focused and streamlined approach to backwards planning. It helps to guide our process as we determine our learning targets, figure out how we know we have met these learning targets, and design a (roughly) week-long series of lessons/learning activities. This approach can help to tie together our P2G Curricular Resources, the Common Core Learning Standards, the Depth of Knowledge Levels three and four, and what we know about the TASC.
Understanding by Design Planning Templates
Understanding by Design, or UbD, is a popular approach to backwards planning. The teacher begins with the desired results in mind at the beginning of the planning process, thinking concretely about the content, skills, and additional (perhaps linguistic or vocabulary) goals to be taught. Then, in the second stage, the teacher thinks of a project or activity that will allow the teacher to see if these goals have been met. After completing these two stages, the teacher then begins to plan the learning activities. These activities include explicitly teaching the skills and content knowledge, etc. while supporting the learners in the activity or project that is meant to assess if learning has taken place.
The six-page unit planning template is a great support for planning units that support authentic and deep learning projects. It provides much detail to guide a teacher through thinking about the skills, competencies, and content goals to be taught, how to know if they have been learned, and, finally, how to design meaningful lessons and activities in class. You can find this template here.
For those who would like to use this approach with an individual lesson, you can use the UbD individual Lesson planning template.
The "5E" Lesson Planning Template
Though there are many ways to plan a strong lesson, one approach is the "5E" lesson, which advocates having a clear progression of Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration, and Evaluation. Another way of thinking about this is that a great lesson has 4 Quarters plus an Assessment (This way of describing it comes from James Caputo, our Manhattan Hub AP).
The idea is that a strong lesson starts with some kind of hook, the Engagement piece. This could be a provocative question that leads into the lesson's content or skills, or it could be a free-write or realizable math challenge. The idea is that there is a connection made between what the learners already know and are able to do, which facilitates engagement and feelings of success. Then comes the Exploration, where learners are presented with a task that is a challenge. This will look different in every discipline, but the idea is to challenge the learners with something just outside of their reach (but to give them a chance to try it). Then, the Explanation, where teachers engage in direct instruction to model how to work with the new concept, approach, or skill. The Elaboration is where the learners have a guided practice, and have the opportunity to work with the concept, approach, or skill themselves (if there are students who are at different levels, as is often the case in the work that we do, it is important to have extension or follow-up activities). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, comes the Evaluation, where the teacher assesses to see what the students have learned. This is key, as it drives the next lesson, and lets us know when to re-teach something, and when to move on.
If you're interested in trying the "5E" (aka "4 Quarters plus Assessment) approach to planning a lesson, you can try use this template.