You as a teacher are a designer, and like others in the design fields, ABE teachers have standards which inform practice. This CMA SABES Teaching Tip supports the following MA ABE Professional Standards :
-Develop curriculum relevant to the experience, interests and goals of learners, the particular instructional setting and the Departments’ adult basic education Curriculum Frameworks.
-Use lesson plans that include learning objectives, indicators of success, instructional activities, resources and materials, assessments and wrap-up and reflection.
-Use various instructional methods, resources and tools that facilitate adult learning.
-Provide frequent and varied contexts to apply learning using authentic materials and experiences.
We will use the acronym, WHERET0, to highlight the key considerations when planning lessons to help you meet these standards. Use the following essential questions every time you plan or teach a lesson to help you know Where You are Going, How Will You Get There and How Will You Know Your Students are Coming With You. To learn more about WHERETO, keep reading!
WHERETO
| WHERETO |
Essential Questions to Ask Yourself When Planning
A Lesson or Unit |
Classroom Implementation Suggestions |
W
Where to and Where from |
-Where to: Where are we headed and Why?
-Where from: How does today’s work relate to what we previously did?
-What prior knowledge interests, learning styles, and talents do students bring?
-What does a student truly need to be able to do (i.e. skill or “chunk of key knowledge” in order to do or understand this?
-What misunderstandings and learning rough spots do you anticipate? |
-When you plan, design with the end in mind
-Identify what students should know and be able to do based on the MA ABE Curriculum Frameworks
-Determine basic and essential information to students’ understanding of the content
-Determine how you will assess students’ knowledge (i.e. pre-post test, vote with your feet activity, KWL graphic organizer which assesses what students Know, what they Want to know and what they have Learned)
-Ensure that students understand where the unit or lesson is headed by providing a rationale for the desired learning and articulate clearly why it is worth learning |
H
Hook And Hold them |
-How will you HOOK and HOLD students interest?
There is so much stimuli in the world that our brains are very particular regarding what they choose to pay attention to. Your lesson may be competing with stimulus from many sources including a noise in the hall, reflections of an argument the student had with a family member prior to school, etc.
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-Create student interest and curiosity in the subject by using a provocative question, pose a real life problem or challenge at the beginning of the lesson or unit (i.e., should there be term limits for presidents, should unhealthy food be sold at the grocery store?)
-Have students read a case study to solve a real life problem using math skills but ensure there be many solutions
-Create novelty by changing your lesson delivery, class routine, voice inflection, etc.
-Use laughter, your passion and enthusiasm for a topic, stirring stories to gain and maintain students’ attention. Emotion is the most powerful means to gain students’ attention and creates the strongest memories to help with retention. |
E
Explore Engage Enable and Equip
(This is the key to classroom success) |
-What learning experiences, real or simulated, can students experience to make the ideas and issues authentic?
-What learning activities will help students explore the big questions (the lesson’s learning goals)?
-How can students practice using their newly acquired knowledge and skills with enough frequency and duration to reach mastery?
-How can students apply their learning outside the classroom?
-What instructional activities will enable the students to perform with understanding and autonomy?
-What supports or scaffolding need to be put into place so the learning experiences are productive for all students?
-How will you divide and teach the content to engage students to meet the goals of the lesson (to meet the assessment criteria)? |
-Devise active and collaborative exercises that encourage students to grapple with new concepts in order to own them.
-Plan educational scaffolding for students during the learning process (i.e. model thinking aloud; present information in graphic organizers and explicitly teach students to use them; provide checklists or templates; use color to call attention to important information, key words ; use props or realia, etc.)
-Connect or chunk material to help students remember (the brain can only remember seven bits of information simultaneously which is why there is are seven days of the week, seven colors in the rainbow, seven continents, etc.
-The way to remember more information is to help students chunk it (a social security number is divided into three chunks and the brain then considers it one piece of information)
-Use or have students develop their own mnemonic devices (acronyms, acrostics) to help chunk information and make it meaningful.
-Acronyms turn a recall task into an “aided recall task”. You mention chunking 3 times. I don’t think this is necessarily bad not sure if you want to do this or to condense it some how. Otherwise I think it looks good. |
R
Reflect Rethink Revise/Refine Rehearse |
The Next CMA Teaching Tip will provide information on the final four areas. |
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E
Evaluate |
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T
Tailor and personalize work |
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O
Organize for optimal effectiveness
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