Overview
Let us begin with a few suggests as to how lessons could be designed in general:
- Lessons should be designed with the students in mind. This means that tasks should not be too hard; if you cannot easily work through the lesson yourself in ~15-20 minutes, the chances are that many of the students we teach, who are unfamiliar with computers may have difficulty completing the task in the two hours we have. Possibly a good idea is to design a lesson in blocks, with each block producing some tangible result. This should aid in the teaching, and also mean that advanced students will be able to achieve a little more. Also, lessons and resources should use English based websites and programs!
- Lessons should have certain key concepts in mind. If the student forgot everything else, what is the one 'take home' thing that you want them to remember? Focussing on one concept like this helps keeps lessons simple and effective.
- Lessons should have a practical application. For instance; being able to type better, be able to search Google, be able to find train times online, be able to write a resume, etc.
Remember these are only ideas, but ones which may assist in the design process.
Lesson Plan Requirements
At the end of the design process, three things must be submitted. The final product, a lesson flow and a lesson description paragraph. These are explained in detail below. Please note that it will probably be helpful to see how these criterion have been met in previous tasks, found under resources.
The Final Product
When teaching a lesson, it is crucial to know where the lesson is headed. Therefore, we would like lesson designers to submit a copy of what the final product of the lesson will look like. Examples include:
- If the lesson were about creating Microsoft Word documents, then a copy of the final document that they would achieve should be submitted.
- If the lesson were about drawing something very particular in paint, then a copy of the final document should be submitted.
- Etc.
This is more challenging for lessons that do not necessarily have a tangible product; such as lessons based around navigating and using particular websites. In that case, a series of screenshots capturing the work flow should be sufficient. If you are unsure, discuss it with fellow tutors, or the co-ordinator. Remember the purpose is to crate a lesson that is helpful to students, reasonably easy to teach, and simple enough that the students have a hope of retaining something.
The Lesson Flow Plan
The other compulsory requirement for a lesson plan is what we have called a 'lesson flow'. The idea behind the lesson flow is that it will outline the progression of the lesson in terms of the concepts being used/taught. In most cases, simply knowing the final product is not enough, because there is usually an infinite number of ways to arrive at that product. The lesson flow will help you, as the task designer, have a better idea of task complexity, and will help the tutors to more effectively teach. It also allows the tutors to move more freely between students, if that becomes required.
The best way to understand what is expected in a lesson flow is by looking at the example of previously submitted tasks under resources.
The Lesson Description and Focus
Please include a paragraph describing the point of the lesson including a statement of focus. The statement of focus will encapsulate "what to take out if you can't remember anything else". This description and focus will describe the lesson in our library stored on wiki. See an example of a lesson description by clicking on "Simple Microsoft Word Document Lesson" under resources for NSW Connectivity.
This serves two purposes. One to have a description for every class activity package, letting tutors know approximately what it's about before delving in further. Two the focus statement will allow tutors to have a clear aim they can emphasise on throughout to achieve a "we did something!" feel by the end of each lesson.