The Lesson Behind the Lesson Plan

       I am still in the process of taking my foundation classes for the School of Education, so I never had the opportunity to create a lesson plan of my own. I was very intimidated when we were given the assignment because it was something that I was unfamiliar with. I had not heard about the ASSURE Instructional Design Model until we were given this task. I had a slow start with my lesson plan, but with some help and tips from my wonderful group mates and a little research, I was able to move forward. According to Educational Technology (2015), “Assure is an instructional design model that has the goal of producing more effective teaching and learning. “ASSURE” is an acronym that stands for the various steps in the model. The following is the breakdown of each step: Analyze learners, State objectives, Select, modify, or design materials, Utilize materials, Require learning response, Evaluate.”

       My lesson plan was geared towards a mix of fourth and fifth grade students who were in a special education resource room. I used the salt, fat, and sugar content from three different cereals to better explain math comparison and math comparison symbols. I had a hands on activity to help the students transition to the main lesson, I used a YouTube video to keep them engaged, and I incorporated the use of Microsoft Excel as the technology tool for the students to create a bar graph with the data they collected from the cereal content. If I were to create a similar lesson plan for the same group of students I would adjust the time frame and spread the lesson and the activity over a span of a few days. Since the students are still young and they are performing below their intended math level, they may need more time understanding and completing the task. According to the article on Edutopia titled “7 Ways to Increase a Student’s Attention Span,” it stated that “If you need to adjust time frames for all or some of your students, do so. Using timers, have the student who is struggling with attention show his/her work after a short period of time. This breaks up the task and allows the child to continue working without feeling completely overwhelmed” (Reeves, 2015). Besides adjusting the time frame, I would still have the students work in small groups and have them do some hands on activities. Allowing the students to work in small groups can encourage teamwork and communication skills. Including hands on activities in can keep the students engaged and it can help those with different learning styles better comprehend the lesson.

       Based on the lesson plan I created I could teach another math lesson and tie it into the students’ personal health. I would print copies of a daily food diary and have the students keep track of all the snacks they eat everyday over a span of one week. After the week is up the students will bring their food diary to class along with some of their snack wrappers. If the students did not keep their snack wrappers, they can look for the Nutrition Facts online during class time. After the students have collected the Nutrition Facts for all their snacks, they will collect the salt, fat, and sugar content for each of the snacks just like what they did with the three different cereals. After they collect their data, they will make a bar graph. This will allow the students to use their previous knowledge in math to see how much salt, fat, and sugar they are eating and from there they can make healthier snacking choices.

       I created two rubrics for this lesson to evaluate the students’ performance. The first rubric evaluated the first three objectives in the lesson, which were: 1. Students will be able to find the Nutrition Facts with 100% accuracy on all 3 cereal boxes, 2. Students will be able to identify the salt, fat, and sugar content with 100% accuracy for all 3 cereals, and 3. Students will input the data of the salt, fat, and sugar content from the 3 cereals on a pre-loaded digital spreadsheet on Microsoft Excel with 80% accuracy. The second rubric was created to evaluate whether the students could create a digital bar graph with the proper title, labels, data, and unit measurements with at least 80% accuracy. By looking at each student’s evaluation at the end of the lesson I will be able to see if they were able to meet the objectives I set for the class and to see where each students may need extra help and explanation for future assignments. One point that was not included in the ASSURE Lesson Plan was that the teacher may need to specify that “sodium” is the same thing as “salt.” Depending on the company, some labels may say sodium and others may say salt. Students may not be aware of this, which may cause confusion and difficulty in finding the salt content for the cereals.

       I think this lesson plan is already challenging for fourth and fifth grade students in a resource classroom, but it can be adjusted for middle school students in a resource room. Instead of having a pre-loaded data sheet on Microsoft Excel, the students will need to create one on their own. This will allow the students to learn how to gather data from different sources and learn how to organize, input, and present their findings by using a technology tool. The students can still work in small groups but instead of orally presenting their digital graph to the class, the students must submit their assignment via email. The teacher can give feedback to the assignment via email as well. This will give students the opportunity to do basic work on the computer and will teach them how to use a different communication tool.

       This was the first time I ever had to create a lesson plan of my own and I was introduced to the ASSURE Instructional Design Model. I was surprised to see that there were so many templates on the ASSURE model online. I think the ASSURE model is a great lesson plan tool because it helps the teacher plan all parts of the lesson out from start to finish. This assignment allowed me to be creative and it gave me the freedom to tie the lesson to any content area. There were minimal changes that needed to be made to my lesson plan and I was also able to see how I could make it more challenging. Now teachers in the secondary level could use it if they wished. This assignment started out as an intimidating task, but it turned out to be a really great learning experience.

Resources:

Forest, E. (2015, November 23). Educational Technology. ASSURE: Instructional Design Model.  Retrieved April 02, 2016, from http://educationaltechnology.net/assure-instructional-design-model/

Reeves, D. (2015, July 10). Edutopia. 7 Ways to Increase a Student's Attention Span. Retrieved April 02, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/discussion/7-ways-increase-students-attention-span