Fourth Qualities of a Great Lesson Lesson.pptx

Qualities of a Great Lesson

1. Qualities of a Great Lesson

2. The   best teachers are the ones who can captivate their students’ attention day in and day out. Their students not only enjoy being in their class, but they anticipate the next day’s lesson because they want to see what happens. Putting a great lesson together takes a lot of creativity, time, and effort. It is something that is well thought out with lots of planning. Though each lesson is unique, they all have similar components that make them exceptional. Every teacher has the ability to create engaging lessons that will mesmerize their students and keep them wanting to come back for more.

3. Planning starts with a simple idea and then slowly evolves into a tremendous lesson that will resonate with every student. A great lesson …………….. is well planned .

4. The first few minutes of a lesson may be the most critical. Students will quickly decide whether or not they should devote their full attention to what is being taught. Every lesson should have a “hook” or “attention grabber” built into the first five minutes of the lesson. A great lesson …………… grabs students’ attention .

5. Lessons should be outrageous and unpredictable throughout captivating each student’s attention. They should be fast paced, loaded with quality content, and engaging. As the teacher, your approach to every lesson must be passionate and enthusiastic. You must be willing to be a salesman, comedian, content expert, and magician all rolled into one. A great lesson ……… maintains students’ attention .

6. There is a flow from one standard to the next. The teacher ties previously learned concepts into each lesson. This shows the students that various concepts are meaningful and connected . By the end of the year students should be able to make connections quickly as to how your first lesson ties into your last lesson. A great lesson ……… builds on previously learned concepts .

7. It has to have a connected purpose, meaning that all aspects of the lesson are built around critical concepts that students at a particular age should be learning. Content is typically driven by standards such as the  Common Core State Standards (mission and vision) that serve as a guide for what students are supposed to learn in each grade. A great lesson   ………… is content driven .

8. Everyone loves a good story. The best teachers are those who can incorporate vivid stories that tie in key concepts within the lesson helping students to make connections to real life . New concepts are typically abstract to students of any age. They rarely see how it is applicable to real life. A great story can make these real life connections and often helps students remember concepts because they remember the story. A great lesson ……………… establishes real life connections .

9.   A majority of students are  kinesthetic learners . They simply learn best when they are actively engaged with hands on learning activities. Active learning is fun. Students not only have fun through hands on learning, they often retain more information from this process. Students do not have to be active throughout an entire lesson, but having active components mixed in sporadically at appropriate times throughout the lesson will keep them interested and engaged. A great lesson ……………… provides students with active learning opportunities.

10.   Students must develop problem solving and critical thinking skills at an early age. If these skills are not developed early on, they will be almost impossible to acquire later on. Older students who have not been taught this skill often get discouraged and frustrated. A great lesson ……………… builds critical thinking skills.

11. It takes time, but the best teachers build a legacy. Students coming up look forward to being in their class. They hear all the crazy stories and cannot wait to experience it themselves. The hard part for the teacher is living up to those expectations. You have to bring your “A” game every single day and this can become a challenge. Creating enough great lessons for each day is exhausting. It is not impossible; it just takes a lot of extra effort. Ultimately it is worth it when your students consistently perform well and even more importantly express how much they learned by being in your class. A great lesson …………… is talked about and remembered .

12. It is always evolving. Good teachers are never satisfied. They understand that everything can be improved. They approach each lesson as an experiment, soliciting feedback from their students both directly and indirectly. They look at nonverbal cues such as body language. They look at overall engagement and participation. They look at diagnostic feedback to determine if students are retaining the concepts introduced in the lesson. Teachers use this feedback as a guide to what aspects should be tweaked and each year they make adjustments and then conduct the experiment again. A great lesson ……………… is continuously tweaked .