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Session 6:A LESSON TEMPLATE FOR MAKING

CHOICES

Peter SullivanSue Gunningham

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A critical incident

Chris Hill

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Session 7 student motivationsome pedagogic al strategiesmaking group work work

Session 8leading teacher learning

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The purpose of this session is for participants to:

• experience an illustrative lesson template which can be used to construct lessons that can increase opportunities for students to make choices about goals and pathways; and

• reflect on the experience and ways of incorporating such lesson templates into classroom routines.

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Illustrating another lesson template• You have a box that needs 1 m of string to tie

it up like this. What might be the dimensions of the box?– Assume that 30cm is needed to make the bow.

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Using the rubric

• Read the rubric for making choices

• Discuss where you feel that this lesson should be scored on each of the dimensions

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The dimensions of the rubric• GOALS FOR LEARNING EXPLICIT‘

– Today we are going to….‘The goal is for you to….• TASKS SET BEYOND CURRENT LEVELS of THINKING ‘

– By building on what you know, …‘How might you…..• HIGH EXPECTATIONS COMMUNICATED

– ‘Persistence, effort ,… • NORMS for WORKING REINFORCED• OPENNESS • ‘ Try by yourself first …’• PROBLEM SOLVING & OPENNESS

– ‘Tasks have multiple possible responses and/or multiple pathways to solutions …

• SUMMARY PHASE of LESSON– ‘What did we learn …?

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The steps of this template

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Step 1

• The teacher might pose the problem, clarifying terms and meanings. The students might be invited to record their answers systematically. The teacher might pose a preliminary problem such as “how might you calculate the length of the string on this box without untying it?”

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Step 2• The teacher monitors the work of the students. For

students who have difficulty answering the initial question, the teacher might prepare some boxes and loose string for students who might need to tie up a box, or a box covered in a streamer that could be cut into sections.

• For students who produce one or more correct responses, the teacher might ask them to find as many answers as possible, the smallest box, the nicest box, etc.

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Step 3

• Some students with simple strategies might be invited to demonstrate those to the class. Next, the teacher might choose a student who had produced an organised response to summarise their answers to the whole group. Students who have different responses can be invited to contribute their answers.

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Step 4

• Finally, the teacher can summarise the successful strategies and the collective responses. Again this is the key part of the lesson for drawing out the patterns, commonalities, and generalisations.

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Planning a school or classroom investigation

• Plan a lesson that aims to increase student choices• If possible, plan with another teacher, and then

one of you watch the other while teaching. Then you can re-plan

• In any case, discuss the experience with another teacher after the teaching. In particular, consider what you have learned from the experience