Chapter 9:Rethinking lessons

Stage three in backward design is when teachers start creating their learning plans for their classes. The most important thing teachers need to keep in mind when creating a lesson plan is student engagement and effectiveness of the lessons. They need to create activities and lessons that keep students involved in the learning process. Hands on activities, group work, problem solving are different ways teachers can get their students engaged in the class. Effectiveness can be seen through lessons by keeping the lesson goals clear to students and when students show they understand the purpose for learning.  

To do this teachers can follow the WHERETO model. First they need to keep clear the what the students are learning and why are they learning it. They need to hook student interest in the subject. Teachers should plan lessons that equip students with the necessary abilities to obtain the goal. Reflection and providing opportunities to rethink keep student engagement in the classroom too. Students should also get a chance to evaluate the learning process so they can keep check their understanding. Lessons should also be tailored to what the students need to help achieve the unit goal. Also the unit should be organized in a way that helps students achieve a deeper meaning of the goal and not just memorizing information.

Keeping engagement and effectiveness is very difficult in my lessons. I work with 8^th graders and they have the language ability to communicate in English, but a lot of them are starting to pick up a teenage attitude and not put effort into their work. To counter this I need to focus on creating engaging and effective lessons. I can use the WHERETO introduce in the book to help me put lessons together that my students would be interested in. This chapter has really helped me to view lesson planning in a different way.