Madeline Hunter’s Seven Elements
Of A Good Lesson Design
Anticipatory Set
a. Focus student’s attention.
b. Provide a very brief practice on previously achieved and (if possible) related
learnings and/or;
c. Develop a readiness for the instruction that will follow.
Give Lesson Objective and Purpose
This step involves teacher communication which informs the student what he/she will be able to do by the end of the instruction and why that accomplishment is important, useful, and relevant to present and future life situations.
Instruction input
a. Teacher must determine what information is needed by the student in order to
accomplish the present objective.
b. Teacher must select the means for teaching the information: will it be from a book, film, record, filmstrip, diagram, picture, real object, demonstration, field trip, etc.?
Modeling
a. Students should see examples of finished product (story poem, model, diagram, graph, etc.) Or;
b. Students should see a process. For example: how to identify the main idea, weave, articulate thinking while proceeding in the assignment, etc.
c. While receiving visual input of modeling, students should also receive verbal input of labeling the critical elements of what is happening (or has happened).
Checking For Understanding
a. Sampling: posing questions and getting answers from a representative member of a group;
b. Signaled response from each number of the total group;
c. Individual private responses.
Guided Practice
Under supervision of teacher, student needs to perform all (or enough) of the tasks so clarification or remediation can occur immediately as needed.
Independent Practice
Once the student can perform without major errors, discomfort or confusion, he/she is ready to develop fluency by practicing without the availability of the teacher. Homework, with a purpose, thus becomes meaningful.
Hunter Madeline and Russell, Dough. “Planning For Effective Instruction”
Increasing Teaching Effectiveness (Learny Institute, Palo Alto, California, 1982)