Lesson Plan: A Critical Review

The lesson plan I created for the first day of FOR242 is true to what occurred in the classroom on Thursday, January 14, 2016. I will admit, although I had thought through the class several times, I had only written a brief list of how I wanted class to go. Since writing this lesson plan, I have written the subsequent lesson plans to date and will continue to do so. Also true to the class, the session is 160 minutes instead of the typical 50 minutes. Therefore, I feel it is particularly important to change approaches several times in order to keep both my own and my student’s attentions.

Here are my thoughts as I developed the following:

Lesson Title (Phrased as a question)/ Learning Objectives/lesson goals
Creating a lesson title seems simple enough, but phrasing it as a question threw me for a loop. Frankly, I could not find a satisfactory answer online as to why a lesson title should be phrased as a question. The students won’t see it and likely few to no other faculty will see it either; so, I find myself asking how important is this?

Now that I know how to write a clear objective, it is very helpful to explicitly state these at the beginning of a lesson. I am able to ask myself how my lesson contributes to students successfully achieving the objective.

To me, the lesson goals help place a particular lesson into the overall scope of the course. If I cannot justify it in the larger picture, perhaps the lesson is missing the mark.

Gain attention and tap into prior knowledge/Interest Approach/Hook/Anticipatory Set
I like starting class with some sort of warm-up activity. This allows the students to shift from whatever was happening before class to a learning mind-set. Beyond the first day of class, I like to use this opportunity to ask the types of questions I would use on an exam. This serves two purposes: 1) Students can anticipate what my exam will be like and 2) I can gauge how well students are grasping the material. However, on the first day of class I used the warm-up as a precursor to our class introductions. By creating “business cards”, not only did I get to know the students faster, I had flashcards to study the student’s names! Additionally, this pulls from student’s prior knowledge of jobs available to them, although I hope to expend on this throughout the semester as well.

Input/teaching/Summary of Teaching Methods
This section was initially hard for me to design. I had tried to follow Dr. Foster’s formatting of a lesson plan, but I found that his style was too hard for me to follow. Therefore, I created my own table layout. There are three columns to my table: time, activity and description/instructions. The description/instruction column is detailed enough for a colleague to follow, but leaves enough room for interpretation as well.

Within my lesson plan, I tried to mix-up who was doing the talking; typically every-other activity switches the attention from students to instructor. Also, I was sure to change up the way information was being conveyed (e.g. PowerPoint, unsupported lecture, discussion).

In this particular lesson, introductions and review of the syllabus are necessary first day activities. I only see these students 15 times; so, I believe it is important for me to get to know the students quickly and for them to get to know me as an instructor. Also, it is important I lay the framework of the course through the syllabus to set the tone for the rest of the semester. I prefer taking the time to set the framework for the semester, rather than jumping right into lecture materials on the first day of class.

Since this course is partly discussion based, covering potentially controversial topics, I like the triangle activity because it is a low risk situation for students to put out their thoughts to the entire classroom. In addition, it’s fun (with a purpose of course!).

Lastly, I expect students to write well for this course; therefore, I attempt to set them up for success by conveying these expectations. Previously, students have had difficulty structuring their arguments; so, I review a basic 5-paragraph essay with the idea of including a claim, data to support the claim, and a warrant to connect the data to the claim. We then look at examples written by a variety of authors based on topics related to the environment. These essays are available online through NPR’s This I Believe website.

Application/Guided practice with feedback
This activity (This I Believe) was given a longer timeframe than most other sections of the lesson plan. However, because the guided practice was based on 4 different scenarios (and the relative importance of grasping this topic), I was ok with this. In my mind, the 60 minutes was divided into smaller activities, which did not make a 60 minute chunk of time seem as if it lasted forever.

Independent practice/assessment (ex. Homework)
Homework in this course is primarily essay based, which is why I tried to lay out my expectations for writing during the first week. I expect that students will apply what we talked about (claim, data, warrant) as they write their opinions of chapters read from their text. Not only does this show me that they comprehend what is going on, but I realize not everyone is keen on class discussions. Short papers allow for me to know what the student is thinking and engage in another forum.

Closure Wrap Up/Cognitive Connect/Show what you know in class!
To me, this is a time for me to emphasize take-home messages and give reminder announcements. I know that my class is not the only class students have on their plate so I try to take the time to summarize the day’s class.


Overall, I was please how the first day of class went. I wish I had had this lesson plan at the time, but I look forward to having them in the future.