SHELAH MINER
French teacher and author
Classroom Management and Lesson Planning
Classroom teachers are familiar with designing lesson plans. They know how to create learning activities that employ backward design from the desired learning outcomes. They know how to create formative assessments to prepare students for summative assessments and give them feedback. Teachers are well-versed in scaffolding and creating opportunities for collaboration and higher-order thinking. Most teachers are also constantly looking for ways to improve their practice. One way to improve teacher practice regarding effective lesson planning is to read and evaluate scholarly research. In order to improve culturally diverse student performance, teachers can research best-practice methods in the design of a rigorous and appropriate curriculum.
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Lesson Plan for Diverse Learners (Example)
Here's an example of a lesson plan I use in French 2 when we talk about clothing. Although it was not necessarily created for diverse learners, it uses some relational strategies to help all learners relate their own experiences with the experience of Emmanuelle. The critique of the lesson can be found here.
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Lesson Plan Critique
Lesson Plan Critique. A critique of the previous lesson plan, including charts on outcome disparities for various learner groups, can be found here.
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Rigorous Lesson Design
As a middle school teacher, I find that most of my students want clear instruction and an opportunity to practice what they learned. Many students also benefit from having a regular structure or plan to the class period.
The critical aspects of a lesson plan from the perspective of a teacher, parent, and administrator likely undoubtedly differ from person to person. As a parent, I would like my student to have regular formative assessments with feedback to help them gain mastery of material they will be responsible later in summative or standardized assessments. I also want the students to feel connection with the learning material. In general, I would guess that administrators would like to see students be prepared for future assessments and to be engaged. They might also want clear objectives and cleary-defined ties to certain standards. They may also want to see measurable data to demonstrate student learning. As a teacher, I personally like to have clear objectives, a plan that is easy to follow (I rely on a basic framework most days), and plenty of opportunity for formative assessment.
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Classroom Management for Diverse Learners
A presentation on Classroom Management for Diverse Learners can be found here.
Bonus Lesson for Diverse Learners
Here's a bonus lesson I created to use for diverse learners in my French 1 classroom