LOS ANGELES MISSION COLLEGE JANICE G. SILVER
CREATING A LEARNING PLAN
Thoughtful and careful planning allows the teacher to meet the needs of the whole child as consideration is given to each and all areas of the child's development. Initially, this requires written plans to help the teacher focus and ensure that all areas of development are being supported and enhanced. With much experience, this planning may be done mentally. During the course of this student teaching experience, all your learning plans must be submitted in writing. Below are some questions to help you focus your thoughts and plans.
Choice of Activity:
What activity are you planning?
Why did you choose this particular activity?
Children:
Who are the children for whom the experience is being designed?
How many children will be involved?
What are their ages?
Goals and Objectives:
What is the primary learning outcome (purpose) for presenting this experience?
What do want the children to learn?
What do you expect to accomplish?
How will you meet the children's physical needs?
How will you meet the children's social needs?
How will you meet the children's emotional needs?
How will you meet the children's cognitive/language needs? (e.g. discovery, language and literacy, thinking, reasoning, problem-solving skills)
Is their room for creative growth?
How will you accommodate individual differences?
Materials and Procedures:
What equipment and materials will you need?
How much space will be required?
How much time will be allowed?
What set-up and preparation is required before the activity begins? (e.g. mixing paint, setting up the environment)
How will the materials be arranged?
How will you present the activity?
What will the children actually be doing during the activity? (e.g. fingerpainting, listening to a story, etc.)
How will you terminate the activity?
What clean-up will be required?
What is the children's role in clean-up?
How will transition be handled for the next activity?
Evaluation:
Was your primary learning outcome met? How do you know?
Evaluate each objective one by one giving evidence of each.
Did the children enjoy themselves?
What would you change if you repeated this activity?
How could you build upon the learning that has taken place?
What would be an appropriate follow-up activity?
LOS ANGELES MISSION COLLEGE JANICE G. SILVER
LEARNING PLAN OUTLINE
I. Activity Information
a. Name of activity and brief description
b. Curriculum area
c. Date and place of activity
II. Children Involved
a. Number and ages of children
b. Grouping patterns ie. one group only or rotating groups of children
III. Primary Learning Outcome
a. What is the most important outcome that you want to come from this activity? What is the most important thing that the children will learn? (Be sure to relate this to the curriculum area chosen above)
IV. Goals and Objectives
a. Social Development: relationships to be fostered, prosocial skills to be supported, interaction with others to be encouraged, examples of cooperation, taking turns, working as a group, leadership, etc.
b. Emotional Development: self-esteem building, feelings to be expressed, understandings to be enhanced, pleasure, enjoyment, pride, accomplishment, etc.
c. Cognitive/Language Development: discovery, thinking and reasoning skills, language and literacy, problem solving skills, curiosity, concepts to be learned
d. Physical Development: large and small motor skills, sensory experience, eye-hand coordination, balance, visual or hearing acuity etc.
e. Creative Expression: verbal and/or non-verbal self-expression, originality
f. Provision for Individual and Cultural Differences
V. Materials and Preparation
a. Materials Needed
b. Space Required
c. Set-up Required
VI. Procedures (step-by-step description)
a. Introduction
b. Description of actual activity
c. Language/Discussion/Questions
d. Closure: how to terminate the activity
e. Clean-up
VII. Evaluation (to be done with cooperating teacher if possible after the activity)
a. Primary Learning Outcome
b. Objectives: evaluate each objective one by one giving evidence
c. Follow-up Activities Recommended
d. Changes Considered
LOS ANGELES MISSION COLLEGE JANICE G. SILVER
WRITING OBJECTIVES
Objectives are an important part of all learning plans for two major reasons:
(1) They allow the teacher to develop thoughtful activities and experiences for the children with an eye to supporting their growth in all areas of development.
(2) Objectives provide a mechanism for evaluating the success of activities and experiences.
1. Objectives should be written in such a way that they include all areas of a child's development: physical, social, emotional and cognitive (intellectual). In this way, plans address the whole child, and the curriculum is balanced.
Physical: small and/or large muscle development, sensory, eye-hand coordination, balance, visual/hearing acuity, etc.
Social: cooperation, taking turns, working as a group, leadership, prosocial skills, etc.
Emotional: self-concept, self-esteem, expression of emotions such as pleasure, pride, accomplishment, etc.
Cognitive/Language: discovery, language and literacy, thinking and reasoning skills (such as matching, sorting, grouping, cause and effect, ordering and conservation), listening, concepts to be explored, etc.
2. Objectives should be written in such a way that they indicate the number of children that will experience success.
e.g. All of the children will.....
Most of the children will....
Some of the children will....
A few of the children will....
Andrew or Andrea will.....(objectives can be written for specific children)
3. Objectives should be written in such a way that they indicate what will happen and how it will happen.
EXAMPLES:
Physical: All of the children will practice their fine motor skills by using scissors to cut a large piece of paper into smaller pieces.
Social: Most of the children will use cooperation to work together pasting their pieces on the large paper tree trunk.
Emotional: Most of the children will demonstrate pleasure and pride at contributing to the large family tree.
Cognitive/Language: Some of the children will be able to group the members of their family together and count how many there are.
LEARNING PLAN
(Janice Silver)
I. Activity Information
a. Children will trace their hands and paint them their own skin color. The pictures will then be mounted and displayed.
b. Social Studies/Anti-bias
c. Activity will take place September 20 at 10:00 a.m. during activity time. It will be located in the classroom in the art corner at a table with four chairs
II. Children Involved
a. The children are ages 4 - 5 years.
b. Children will participate in small groups of four children on a rotating basis.
III. Primary Learning Outcome
a. The children will explore their own individual skin color and discover that they have similarities and differences with their friends.
IV. Goals and Objectives
a. Social Development:
1. Some of the children will compare their hands with those of their friends.
2. Most of the children will discuss information about size, shape, and color of their hands.
3. Most of the children will take turns at the table as well as using the materials while they do the project.
b. Emotional Development:
1.Most of the children will value their accomplishments as they complete the project.
2. Most of the children will confirm their satisfaction when they find the paint color that matches their skin.
3. Most of the children will identify positive feelings as they find their hand pictures displayed on the wall.
c. Cognitive/Language Development:
1. All of the children will discover and conclude that everyone has their own special skin color.
2. All of the children will try to match the skin color paints to their own skin color.
3. Most of the children will compare the skin colors of their own hands to those of their friends.
4. Some of the children will use language to describe the various shades of paints.
5. Some of the children will identify vocabulary of the paint colors and shades: mahogany, almond, lighter, darker, etc.
d. Physical Development:
1. All the children will use fine motor skills to trace their hands with the crayons.
2. Most of the children will practice eye-hand coordination to paint the hand outlines with the skin color paints.
3. Most of the children will decide which color matches their skin based on visual acuity.
e. Creative Expression:
1. Most of the children will design their handprints on the paper according to their own ideas.
2. Some of the children will generate discussions about skin color and related topics.
f. Provision for Individual and Cultural Differences:
1. Some of the children may need help tracing their hands.
2. Children will choose their own individual skin color of paint.
3. Carlos may need support in Spanish.
V. Materials and Preparation
a. The materials required are: large sheets of white paper, paint shirts, eight dishes of various skin colored paints, various paint brushes, black crayons, access to water, soap, sponge, paper towel.
b. The space required is a small table with four chairs close to a source of water.
c. Set up: A paint shirt will be on the back of each chair. Each space will have a large sheet of white paper and a black crayon for tracing. Each dish of paint in the middle of the table will have a paintbrush in it. A sponge and soapy water will be accessible.
VI. Procedures
a. Introduction to the activity will be at Circle Time when we read the book My Hands. I will ask them to look at their hands and begin to describe what they see. I will then encourage each child to compare her/his hand to the friend sitting next. We will look at color, shape, fingernails, size etc. As I introduce each activity center to the children I will describe the handpainting center as well.
b. As the children approach the table, I will help them put on a paint shirt and reintroduce the activity. If they need help tracing, I will be there for assistance until they feel comfortable. The children will then be encouraged to look carefully at their hands and to all the colors of paint on the table. Eventually they will choose the color that they believe matches their own skin and begin to paint their hand outlines.
c. Discussion will include descriptions of the hands, their skin and the available colors. I will encourage them to find something that is the same about their hands as their friends’ hands, and also things that are different. I will put my hand next to them as well, so that we can compare similarities and differences.
d. When the painting is completed, I will encourage them to put their painting on the painting rack to dry before choosing another activity. When dry, I will help the children find a place on the wall to display their picture.
e. The children will help wash and dry the table with sponges and paper towels. Paint shirts will be returned to the art closet and the children will push in their chairs.
VII. Evaluation
a. Must include evaluation of your primary learning outcome, each objective one by one, changes considered for next time, as well as suggested follow up activities.