High-Quality Instruction: Creating a Lesson Plan

High Quality Instruction

Educational professionals have often mentioned that the current system of learning and teaching program requires High-Quality Instruction that ensures structured student learning, desirable academic performance, which provides benchmarks for students’ classroom performance. This paper attempts to create a lesson plan that describes various steps of a language classroom.

Lesson Plan

Anticipatory Set

This is a process to connect the student’s previous knowledge and present topics and the teacher or instructor asks some questions to the students. The topic is learning biography.

Instructional Goals

A high-quality instruction classroom helps to develop basic learning skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

• To improve the awareness about duties and responsibilities of the students
• To know about the political, cultural, and historic traditions of the United States
• Make the students more cooperative and helpful members of the community

Instructional Objectives

Instructional objectives constitute an elaborate learning process in the classroom. The following instructional objectives satisfy the student’s academic demands and promote numerous classroom activities. Major instructional objectives are as follows:

Learn more about Abraham Lincoln, former American President, and improve students’ existing knowledge about the content.

Develop the skill of data collection and analysis

To understand more about the personal, political and social life of Abraham Lincoln, discuss and conclude the political, social, and cultural background of America in Lincoln’s time. Improve the student qualities such as national integration, political awareness, social duties and responsibilities, and hardworking mentality.

Improve various language skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing, and other classroom activities. (Slavin, 2009). Learn more about profile writing, group discussion, peer discussion, and classroom magazines.

Prerequisites

The teacher asks some standard questions about the life of former American Presidents and then shows the pictures of political figures and events. Students actively partake in the discussion.

1. Who is the first President of the United States?
2. Do you recognize Abraham Lincoln and know anything about his political career?
3. Name the historical figures who participated in the American freedom fights?

Instructional materials or tools

The teacher uses internet facilities, blackboard, and LCD projectors in the classroom. Pictures, photographs, journals, biographies, etc of American Presidents and the internet are also used.

Instructional approach

Lesion Description

In a setting of high-quality instruction, making a good and effective rapport is an important factor, so the initial stage is the teacher introduces the biography of Abraham Lincoln, Teacher then gives an introduction about former American Presidents. After a brief discussion, the teacher declares the name and the topic of the lesson.

Lesson Procedure

As it is an elite part of the educational system, the teaching of biographies and autobiographies assumes greater significance. Though the learning of biography is ‘boring’ to students, one is sure of the fact that such learning can bring out some good qualities in the students as they have the right opportunity to imbibe many things from the lives of the great personalities. So, it should be noted that the strategies implemented for the teaching of biographies should be well planned and accurate aiming at the comprehensive level of students. In High-Quality instruction settings, one thing that is to achieve the desired effect of teaching biographies, it would be better to adopt the strategies of teaching biographies and autobiographies through direct instruction and by proposing self-directed learning methods. Lynnmargaret introduces innovative strategies for learning or teaching biographies. The online article entitled, How to Teach Biographies Using Puppets includes numerous pieces of information. The instructions of lynnmargaret are as follows;

• Professionals of education often state that one of the difficulties that students feel regarding the biographies is that they feel it to be descriptive. Here the teachers play a vital role in apprising the students that biographies are the stories of real persons that one is supposed to understand and inbibes in his life. An experienced teacher should be capable of explaining the main differences between biography and autobiography, as the first is the story of a person written by others and the latter is the story about a person that the same person writes.
• Teachers can provide the students with some preliminary questions and ask them to write mini-biographies of their parents or relatives.
• The next step involves a homework assignment for the students to interview family members and note down the responses.
• After the preliminary sections are over the teacher should insist his/her students to make some models or funny practical works by writing the details of the person they interviewed and sticking it on their lunch bags.
• Other possible self-directed learning involves the instructions given to students to collect maps and pictures of the period during which the persons of the biographies provided for their studies, have lived
• It is also possible for the teachers to show the photograph of different personalities before the commencement of the class which will enable students to get a clear picture of the period.

Content Analysis

Introduction

Teacher says about Abraham Lincoln and shows the photographs of Abraham Lincoln and some pertaining the period in which he lived. Here the study focuses on brief report about American Presidents. Abraham Lincoln was the former President of The United States and also a dominant figure in American struggle against racial discrimination. Abraham was born on 12^th February 1809. (Hanaford, 1866, p.9).

Lincoln’s life and political career became a great source of inspiration for further generations. His fight against racial discrimination has been a key event in the social and political history of the United States.

Main Activity

Teacher explains the difference between biography and autobiography. Teacher and students discuss the major events of Abraham Lincoln’s life.Then gives them proper help in reading. Teacher asks the students to answer the above questions.

Opportunity to practice activity

• Teacher asks the students to prepare assignments about Abraham Lincoln
• Topic: Abraham Lincoln was an effective politician and a skillful administrator.

Assessment

In a High Quality instruction settings assessment both students and teachers are significant. Implementation of formative assessment of the lesson plan is more sufficient and it will enable both teachers and students to comprehend at a point when timely modifications can be made. By applying formative assessment it is possible to identify whether the lesson plan fulfills most of the precisions referred in the instructional method. To make the study more effective, teachers can take the help of maps and other visual aids like photographs. “Often times, it is necessary for a teacher to watch for misunderstanding and to correct them before the misunderstanding becomes set in stone” (Science / math education for def students, n.d, para.15).

It is possible to asses the role of different strategies applied in this lesson plan. The assessment should also evaluate the relationship of the instructional objectives and content to the national/state/district standards.

Rule number 2

Both teacher and students enter the second phase of the classroom. Teacher arranges the classroom for various classroom activities.

Conclusion

Teacher concludes the process by summarizing various points which have been discussed in the classrooms. Teacher writes the main points on the blackboard and then reads it and the students listen it carefully.

Abraham Lincoln was the 18th President of America.

He was an effective ruler and a skillful politician.

Abraham Lincoln has participated in a number of battles against social and political inequalities.

Abraham Lincoln has introduced many laws and administrative reforms in America.

Abraham Lincoln died on 15^th April 1865

Follow up Activities

The teacher asks the students to arrange various events of Abraham Lincoln’s life and gives them post reading questions and evaluate their answer. The teacher asks the students to write short notes about major historical events in American independence.

 Assessments

Reference List

Hanaford, P. A. (1866). Abraham Lincoln: His life and public service. The University of Michigan. Web.

Science / math education for def students. (n.d.). NSF. Web.

Slavin, R. E. (2009). Educational psychology. Johns Hopkins University.