Investigating Lesson Plans as Instructional System

Our discussion of lesson plans will offer you the following:

Our discussion will be based on the following:
Reading Selections - please read the selections on building lesson plans and evaluating them.
www.usask.ca/education/ideas/stuteach/pitfalls.htm - "Avoid the Pitfalls of Mediocre Lesson Plans" by Don C. Barnett - As you read this selection, pay attention to the places with which you agree and disagree. Bring these points up in class discussion.
www.lessonplanspage.com/WriteLessonPlan.htm - "10 Steps to Developing a Quality Lesson Plan" from LessonPlansPage.com
geminfo.org/Workbench/Evaluation/quality.html - "The Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) - Guidelines for Resource Evaluation" - these are the criteria that the AskERIC database uses to select sample lesson plans. You'll also find a useful "Educational Resource Evaluation Form" for lesson plans.
www.askeric.org/Virtual/Lessons/Guide.shtml - "An AskERIC Write-a-Lesson Plan Guide: How to Develop a Lesson Plan." If you scroll down near the bottom of this document, you'll find a box called "Sample Lesson Plans from the AskERIC Collection." Look at as many of these examples as you can.

Collaborative Critique - either write a lesson plan you'd like help with or bring in a lesson plan you've already written. If you're comfortable writing lesson plans, here's your chance to try something new. If you're inexperienced writing lesson plans, here's your chance to get feedback.

Resources - the web offers a plethora of lesson plan databases. If you have time to browse through these collections before class, then please do so. We'll use some computer lab time to work in groups evaluating some of the following collections:
www.askeric.org/Virtual/Lessons - AskERIC Lesson Plans
www.pbs.org/teachersource - PBS TeacherSource
www.thegateway.org/collections.html - The Gateway: Collections List
school.discovery.com/lessonplans - DiscoverySchool.com Lesson Plans Library
www.col-ed.org/cur - CEC (Columbia Education Center) Lesson Plans
www.teachers.net/lessons - Teachers.net Lesson Bank
www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/index.shtml - Education World's Lesson Planning Center

Web-Based Lesson Plans
A whole genre of web-based lesson plans makes use of the world wide web to encourage students in the use of technology and to broaden their access to information. Scavenger hunts or web quests, as these plans are typically called, offer a rich resource for the classroom. Below you'll find some collections:
www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/hunt/archives - Education World's Scavenger Hunt Archives
webquest.sdsu.edu/webquest.html - The WebQuest Page
www.askeric.org/cgi-bin/printresponses.cgi/Virtual/Qa/archives/Educational_Technology/Internet/webquests.html - WebQuests - An AskERIC Response (Aug. 2001) - I've included this resource to alert you not only to more webquest resources but also to let you know about the ERIC database services. This page is AskERIC staff's response to someone's query about webquests, and the responder at ERIC not only describes the search terms used, but also gives a variety of resources including Internet Sites, Electronic Discussion Groups, and ERIC Database Citations (primarily print journal sources). This is an excellent resource, should you wish to learn more about webquests, how to incorporate them, and their pedagogical efficacy.

first published: 4 april 2002
last revised: 10 april 2002
webspinner: s.d.shattuck



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