Building a Lesson Plan
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In this section I reveal the steps I took to build two parliamentary debate classes that I taught to a fellow teacher.
Building a lesson plan is relatively easy, but it is important to carry the themes from the Common Core requirements and any data you collect through the lesson plan in order to ensure that your student or students are learning material that is relevant to them. Step 1. Identify a student As the culmination of Learning Theories and Models of Instruction (SPRING15-C-8-OTL502-1) we were required to teach a class to a student or students, but first we needed to identify who were were teaching. Originally I had planned on teaching parliamentary debate to one of my higher level TOEFL classes but the schedule didn't work out, so I decided to teach parliamentary debate to a new foreign teacher at my school named Andrew. Andrew had never taught debate before but he was expected to teach low-level debate classes. I felt that this was a perfect opportunity because not only could he learn about parliamentary debate, but he could apply his knowledge to his classes. Step 2. Unpacking Standards Now that I had identified my student and the kind of class I was going to teach him, I needed to identify a Common Core standard that I could apply to the class. Here is how I unpacked the standard: Step 3. Performance Expectations and Goals
After I unpacked the standard I needed to the use what I unpacked to create a pre-assessment that I could give to my student. I also needed to create a rubric but I wanted to have the rubric corresponded with the pre-assessment. Therefore, I created a scoring system of 0-3 for each pre-assessment question and divided parliamentary debate into three categories: evidence, argumentation, and presentation. Those scores could then be graphed, and that graph would help me create a rubric that would emphasize what my student needed to learn the most (while covering other important parts of parliamentary debate as well). Here is my pre-assessment: Step 4. Graph the Results
I administered the pre-assessment to Andrew and then scored it and graphed it. On the graph I took care to break down the elements of parliamentary debate so that I could identify his strengths and weaknesses. Here is the graph: 
Step 5. Create a Rubric
After identifying Andrew's strengths and weaknesses on the graph I then set out to make a rubric that would address his needs as well as challenge him. Additionally, I wanted to design a rubric that he could use for his debate classes in the future, so I worked to make the rubric as detailed as possible. I used the unpacked Common Core standards, the categories and scoring that I laid out in the pre-assessment and the graph to assist me as I went along. Here is the rubric: 
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Step 6. Personal Learning Goals
Now that I had assessed my student, graphed the results, and created a rubric, I created a personal learning goals worksheet so that Andrew could set his goals for the class. Personal learning goals are important in learning because they allow a student to own their education. Those goals can be used as a motivational tool. Here is the personal learning goals worksheet I created. Note that I also show the Common Core standard for the class and asked Andrew to rate the individual unpacked standards. This is uncommon on a personal learning goals worksheet, but I wanted to be transparent with Andrew and I felt that letting him see the standards and rate how important they were to him could add another layer to his learning. Step 7. Engaging and Interacting with Students
After Andrew set his learning goals I was able to begin with my formal lesson plan. Due to the way that my professor built my class I was able to simply plug in a lot of the information that I had gathered into a template that I was provided. However, at this point we were expected to add portions on how we could re-engage students every ten minutes, add opportunities for our student(s) to make choices during the lesson to get our student(s) to buy-in to the lesson, identify how the skills being taught in our class would apply in the real world in order to demonstrate relevance to our student(s), and add opportunities to interact with our student(s) on their personal learning goals, engage them, and coach them. Below is my write up from that assignment, as well as the lesson plan. Step 8. Providing Feedback for Learning and Behavior
Now that I had devised ways to engage and interact with my student, I needed to establish rules and methods of feedback in my class. Since I was teaching one adult student who was motivated to learn parliamentary debate (so that he could teach his classes), I didn't really need to establish rules, so I decided to focus on altering the rules in my other classes. I noticed at this point that I had jumped the gun a bit by adding time in my lesson plan to engage my student, check his progress, and add feedback, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing because I took the opportunity to re-evaluate how I was organizing my time in the class. That write-up is included below. |
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Step 9. Developing Deep Knowledge
In order to complete my lesson plan I needed to do a few more things in order to make it cohesive and ensure that my student retained his knowledge. I was asked to add breaks every 15 minutes for my student to process what he had learned, integrate the "6 C's" that Goodwin and Hubbell (2013) talk about (Curiosity, Connection, Coherence, Connections, Context, and Coaching), and add the amount of time devoted to each activity. I jumped the gun on giving students breaks and allotting time in previous steps, but I was able to analyze my lesson plan and add the "6 C's" to complete my lesson plan. My write up and final lesson plan are below.
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