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Lesson Design
Effective teaching is rarely haphazard. Since the 1970s lesson frameworks have been addressed at all levels from pre-service education to ongoing professional development. Since Madeline Hunter first described instructional lesson design through her seven components, teachers’ evaluation has often been framed by these principles.
During a person’s teaching career, it is likely they will be exposed to several variations of lesson design, including variations and some dramatically conflicting elements. The resulting confusion of understanding makes meaningful dialogue about lesson design difficult in many schools. In addition, we find that while working in schools, many faculties do not even agree what they are trying to accomplish with students.
Knowing that effective lesson design is important to quality learning, and understanding of common goals is important to any improvement effort, we have prepared a simple lesson design document that can serve as the basis of discussion. The lesson design is very general in nature and is organized from a student’s point. Teachers’ reaction to the design indicate that previously learned designs can be fit and extended under the model, and the cognitive purpose of student work becomes clear. This document is to help clarify purpose and provide a simple outline for designing effective lessons. With this, lesson design becomes planning what the students will do and how they will expand their thinking rather than how the teacher will present materials.
Click below to download a copy of Effective Lesson Design:
Effective Lesson Design (pdf version)
Effective Lesson Design (MS Word version)