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Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Title of Lesson: What is a Lesson Plan? What are the Eight Elements of a Lesson Plan? Part Two


When mentoring our pre-service and in-service teachers we need to describe and model both research-based and clinically tested best practices. This is one of many lessons we will be sharing on teaching Judaic content, lesson planning, models of teaching, differentiated and individualized instruction and learning activities designed to transform the classroom into a Jewish community of cooperative learners. The title of this lesson is “What is a lesson plan and what are the eight essential elements of a lesson plan?“ Since there are 13 elements in each lesson plan we will divide this lesson plan into three parts. Here is the first part of this lesson on teaching mentees how to write lesson plans. The second part of this lesson follows.

5. Select a student with whom to demonstrate and model how to do Co-op Cards[1]. An explanation of Co-op Cards appears below.

Co-op Cards

This is a paired three step cooperative procedure that was originally designed to help students master rote information such as the multiplication tables or the state capitals in the U.S.A. Co-op cards, however, can also be used for more complex cognitive operations such as defining and explaining the eight essential elements of a lesson plan.Assumption: Each student prepares a set of flashcards. On the front side of the card is a question ( i.e. What is an objective or learning outcome?); the reverse side of the card has the answer (i.e. The knowledge or the content that the student is supposed to learn). Let us call one student the tutor and his/her partner, the learner. During step one, the tutor shows and reads both sides of the Co-op card to the learner. The learner may write or trace the answer if needed. The tutor then shows the front side (i.e. question) of the card and asks for the answer. During step two, the tutor shows the question and asks the learner for the answer. During step three, the tutor poses the question without showing the card. After steps two and three, if the learner states the correct answer, he/she is praised and given the card. If the learner gives an incorrect answer, the tutor retains the card and gives the learner some helpful supplemental information.

Guided Practice: (Students apply new skill/s or strengthen previously learned skills during classroom instruction.)

1. Invite dyads to make and practice using their Co-op Cards on the eight elements of a lesson plan.

2. The teacher monitors how each dyad is following the rules for the Co-op Cards cooperative procedure.

On the next post we will share the third part of this three part lesson on how to teach mentees to write lesson plans.


[1] Co-op Cards is a cooperative learning procedure that is adapted from the work of Kagan, S. & Kagan, M. (2009). Kagan Cooperative Learning. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing, www.KaganOnline.com.

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