Now, how to plan the lesson with these things in mind.

As my girlfriend is getting back from her summer trip I decided to get a little bit ahead of where I needed to be, so here are my last few blog posts.

For the optimum experience, please listen to this song while reading this post. We don't need another hero

Post 9: Chapter 8: lesson planning

            In the book “Multiple Voices, Multiple texts.” After having established that the way students should be learning is by creating an area of intrigue for them. By tapping into the curiosity and allowing them to dictate (at least in part) what they are learning and how they are learning the book gives a framework for which they feel lessons should be planned. It is a pretty basic framework. They feel that you should pre-assess what the students know, what the vocabulary they have as well as what precious information they are able to carry with them into the reading. After that then you get them to read and learn what you have intended. After they have learned those things then you are to have a post reading activity, this is to solidify what they have learned but also to exposed any gaps in the learning that the students have had.

As with previous chapters, the authors want to focus on the higher levels of blooms taxonomy, mainly with analysis and synthesizing information and ideas from what they have learned. The book is quick to point out that it is a must to get to know what the students already know. If you are able to tap into what they already know, and prime the fire of learning then the students will be quicker to understand new material, see the value in what they are being taught, and will naturally retain more information and be more likely to draw on their previous knowledge and use that knowledge to inform future understanding. How often have I heard my students say, when am I going to use this ever? And to be able to show this to students will help them to understand that there is a reason they are learning and a reason that they are reading and that it is to do them well in the future.

This chapter was quite long and provided a lot of practical ways in which to structure a lesson plan and also to help it in information a unit plan or even a curriculum map. For the purpose of this blog I will focus on one activity that they suggest will aid in helping students to access previous information and use it to inform their thinking about what they are learning. To most people in the education arena this should not be news to  you, the use of the KWL, as introduced by Donna Ogle in 1986. The KWL stands for Know, want to know, and learned.  It is a simple process in which you are consciously asking students to tell what they already know of a previous topic, idea, theme, historical event, then it asks them to make a list of the things that they want to know, it is priming them and piquing their interest into a topic that they may know a bit about but want to know more. This step is very helpful in getting students to show what they are interested in. It also helps them to think more about what they already know and what types of questions they should be asking and what types of information they should be looking for in order to answer those questions. Then, the last part, they fill in what they learned, it is helpful to show them the progression of learning, the parts of what we know, what we seek to know, and what we end up finding out.

I have used this method a few times in class but with such a clear presentation on how to use this method I think I will use it more in the future. If, for nothing else, it helps to inform me the kinds of things students want to learn. If students read a book and want to know bout the foods eaten during that time, or the type of dress, I can find supplemental material to help students dig deeper into what they are learning and create a fuller picture of what is happening.