DHRhoads

Most articles I see lately deal with assessment or curriculum. I agree that having a curriculum that clearly identifies what students are expected to know and be able and to do at the completion of each course or grade level is essential. I also agree that assessments should be planned prior to instruction and assessment data should be analyzed by teaching teams and used to drive instruction. However, what happened to recognizing the importance instruction?

I believe a common lesson plan or schema model should be used throughout a school for instruction. The lesson model should create a common language for discussion of instruction and best practice of presenting information. The lesson schema will aid understanding of instruction for ESL students and the spectrum of mild to moderate special needs learners. Solid instruction includes: 1/objective 2/access prior knowledge 3/present new information 4/application 5/closure. Those five steps might have variations in terms of what each section is labeled in a district or school, but the basic lesson steps should hold form for cooperative learning to inquiry to direct instruction. The only variation would be in the amount of time allotted for each phase of the lesson.

Creating learning outcomes based on clear and compelling curriculum targets should be commonplace practice in highly functioning schools. However, just as needed is a shared lesson plan format for creating a common language and understanding of instructional strategies that will help students retain and apply information for long periods of time. Even when the curriculum is established and the assessment outcomes are determined in advance of instruction, engaging instruction based a clear lesson schema might be the single biggest ingredient to ensuring student achievement throughout the school.