Glossary of Terms for Lesson Planning:
Objective- This is the purpose for your lesson. Why are you doing it? What are the children supposed to learn? Ex: Children will learn to sort items by color and shape
Concepts (Mental task) - These are learning milestones. Examples include: patterns, letter recognition, number recognition, spelling, color recognition, size, opposites, feelings, emotions…
Skill Emphasis (Physical task) - These are the skills children will learn/ strengthen during the lesson. Examples include: cutting, holding a pencil, sharing, hopping, kicking a ball…
References: This is where you got the idea for your lesson. Books and the internet are great resources and often will have all of the information that you will need to complete your lesson plan. The resource must include the full website or title and page number. (Google images don’t count!)
Focus/ introduction- This is the warm up or transition to your lesson plan. The focus gives the children an opportunity to share their prior knowledge about the topic or simply refocus their energy from the last activity to your lesson. Sometimes it is as simple as giving instructions, but there should be a variety of different short activities (ex: songs, books, nature walk.)
Step-by- step instructions- These are the directions for your activity. You should pretend you are describing the lesson to someone who has never worked with children. These need to be complete and specific to earn full credit.
Open ended questions- These are questions you will ask the children during the lesson as a way to get feedback or further the learning experience. Open ended questions are one of the most import teaching tools. Open ended questions are a way to offer children the opportunity to freely express their knowledge, ideas and feelings. They are also a way to get children to use and expand their vocabulary.
Open ended questions are those questions that have no single right or wrong answer. However these questions sometimes are a challenge to remember to ask while you are working with children, it is a habit that we have to form as a teacher.
When you write the question ask yourself how you would answer it. If it can be answered in one word or there is only one right answer it is not open ended.
(Not open ended: How many butterflies are on the paper?)
Examples of open ended questions:
-What would happen if…? -I wonder…. -What do you think about…?
-In what way…? -Tell me about…? -What would you do…?
-How can we…? - How did you…? -What do you suppose…?
Closure- The end of your activity. Sometimes it is as simple as clean up or prizes, but there should be variety (ex: songs, books, nature walk, field trips.)