Lesson Plan Template
SUBJECT
English
GRADE
9
DATE 9.20 & 9.21
PERIOD
A-1,2,4
B-1,2,4
How Will You Cause Learning Today?
TOPIC “The Most Dangerous Game”
This lesson is built on the following Essential Questions:
OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON
A statement or statements of what students will be able to do AS A RESULT of rather than AS PART OF the lesson.
SWBAT:
Students will be able to:
Connect and respond to the literary elements of suspense and conflict.
Develop word analysis skills, fluency and systematic vocabulary.
Analyze literary devices used in “The Most Dangerous Game”
Comprehend and appreciate a short story.
These should be observable, behavioral, and measurable.
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Well, let me start on a sour-sounding note! I looked back to see if these were the objectives you’d sent
me to review back in early November, and I’m not finding any record of your having done so. Did you
submit that task?
These objectives present several problems for us. Let’s start with the meaning of the term “objective.” It
is a statement of a learning outcome. Each separate objective refers to separate types of learning. And
in order for learning to occur, there must be a Before-During-After progression of events/activities. So if
you have four objectives, you must be planning to have four B-D-As…because you cannot/will not reach
the learning outcome [i.e., objective] unless you undertake a B-D-A. Four objectives = four BDAs.
The next challenge that is presented for us is determining whether these objectives are observable,
behavioral, and measurable and whether they relate to a comprehension/cognitive outcome. We also
have to be mindful of whether we are actually talking about NEW learning, or if these might get into
asking students to do something they can already do. So let’s focus on the verbs…
“Connect and respond”: what is meant by “connect”? Is this observable and measurable? What does a
connecting kid look like? What does he do? And are you going to teach students HOW to connect, or will
you simply instruct them to connect to specific literary elements? Likewise: “respond.” Is this
something that kids currently do NOT know how to do? They respond to things all the time…are we
teaching them HOW to respond? Or is there something else that you are really after?
The next objective promises that students will be able to “develop” word analysis skills, fluency, and
systematic vocabulary. All that sounds like quite a tall order for just one lesson, and I’m still pondering
what, exactly, might be meant by these things. But it does suggest that, before this lesson, students do
not know how to develop fluency, and after this lesson they will be able to develop fluency. You may
mean something other than what I think of with fluency, because I know that teachers start working on
st
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this as early as 1 grade, and you have 9 graders. I also didn’t realize that “The Most Dangerous Game”
was a natural selection for the purposes of teaching students HOW to develop fluency or word analysis
skills.
The third objective is the one that has the most credibility, although it’s interesting that, among literary
analysis skills, you’ll only be interested in those that can be used with “The Most Dangerous Game,” as
opposed to any other piece of short fiction they might encounter. Is there something so particular about
that short story that we develop certain skills only for it, and they would not be portable or transferable?
The fourth objective is, well, simply unfortunate. “Comprehend” is not observable, behavioral, or
measurable, and its use here leads me to believe that you may not have had a chance to spend time on
earlier course modules. Likewise, the verb “appreciate” is not a cognitive outcome; it is affective.
Funnily enough, the lecture on Lesson Planning cites the verb “appreciate” specifically as one that
should not be used as an objective. What happened? Why has it shown up here in your lesson plan,
which is being used to evaluate your grasp of the concepts in our course?
Raymond C. Jones
http://www.raymondjones.org
12/9/07
ReadingQuest.org
© 2007
ASSESSMENT OF THE OBJECTIVES
Describe how you will collect evidence that individual students have indeed met the lesson objectives.
[ There was no assessment submitted/described. ]
The assessment should have been developed and decided upon before any of the rest of the lesson plan
was written. That’s why it is positioned HERE on the template. First you think of the objective, then you
consider how evidence of it might be collected. Again, this was discussed in the lecture/module on
Lesson Planning. We would both be much better off if this task were a reflection of what you had learned
through those modules, rather than an expression of how you would have written a lesson prior to taking
this course. At this point, I’m pretty sure that’s what I’m getting. Most of my commentary, then, will be a
repeat of things you were already supposed to have grasped in the course thus far.
That’s too bad, for both of us.
BEFORE READING, VIEWING, or LISTENING
TEACHER
• focusing attention, laying groundwork, creating interest, sparking
curiosity…think of it as setting the stage/setting them up for
success
• make sure students “get” the purpose (not just agenda) of today;
what it will result in or lead to; the “why” of what they’ll be doing
Raymond C. Jones
http://www.raymondjones.org
STUDENTS
• strategies to get STUDENTS thinking about what they already
know
• cause STUDENTS to bring to mind similar ways of thinking, an
analogous idea, or previously-learned content or concepts
• STUDENTS are caused to think about that element of today’s
learning that is most close to or familiar to them
12/9/07
ReadingQuest.org
© 2007
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Students will look at pictures (That would be a DURING, as in “during viewing.” It would
most certainly NOT be activation of PRIOR KNOWLEDGE.) in “The Most Dangerous Game.”
Based on the pictures, they will be required to predict what the story will be about. (Predicting and
purpose setting are not the same thing. Further, your objectives do not address the skill
of predicting, so I am left wondering about its prominence as the first thing you are
doing before students learn how to connect and respond to suspense and conflict;
before they learn how to develop word analysis skills, fluency, and systematic
vocabulary; before they learn how to analyze the literary devices used specifically in
“The Most Dangerous Game”; and before they learn how to comprehend and appreciate
a short story.)
Students will discuss (Who? How? Which students do you mean? What will all the other
students be doing while one student talks? If you intend for there to be “student
discussion,” which strategy from the list that appears later on this template will you be
using? Stated like this, I am picturing a teacher-centered call-and-response time when
most kids are passive most of the time, and where you are likely to hear from five or
fewer students. That would not successfully activate individual students’ prior
knowledge, and it would not make their thinking visible, and it would give reluctant and
less able students a place to hide. One of the ways this idea was broached in the course
was through the T vs. S continuum [“Where Is the Energy?”]…what you are describing
will be very much about the Teacher, and very little about the Students, so it violates yet
another central idea of the course) a time when they were involved in a competition (athletic,
board game, outdoor game, etc.) and their opponent took the competition to seriously. After they’ve
discussed (They? They who? The last module pointed out how this is most likely to really
play out. You’ll hear from one student. Then another student. Maybe another student.
Then another student. And 24 other students will think nothing, say nothing, hear
nothing.) their personal experiences, I’ll encourage (Even better would be if you would
strategically structure it so that students have no choice but to think, and have no
choice but to delve into prior knowledge…something like a quick write or a think-pairshare…anything but a teacher-led discussion among you and your five favorite
students!) them to discuss similar situations on TV or in a movie, where the competition became
serious. I will inform them that this story involves a deadly hunting competition.
Students (on their own? with no strategy?) will review the vocabulary (What, exactly, does
this mean? Are these new words, or known words?) used in the story. Using two of the terms
and today’s class discussions, they will write their prediction. (If they are new words, how do you
expect them to learn them well enough to be able to “use” them in writing? This isn’t
what you thought you meant by “Students will be able to develop systematic
vocabulary,” is it? That’s pretty far off the mark, if so.)
Students will complete a KWL Chart for the literary devices; suspense and conflict (which are both
prior knowledge, then? Since they are both concepts, wouldn’t it be better to use a
vocabulary strategy to activate the prior knowledge of these?), as I present (Well, that’s a
DURING, not a BEFORE…why is it in the prior knowledge activation phase?) the
information (with examples) in a brief power point (DURING means DURING viewing or
listening).
DURING READING, VIEWING, or LISTENING
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strategy(ies) for active engagement with the new content that’s coming
what are students doing WHILE reading, viewing, or listening?
Raymond C. Jones
http://www.raymondjones.org
12/9/07
ReadingQuest.org
© 2007
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Students will use sticky notes to highlight areas in the text where they identified examples of suspense (pink) and
examples of conflict (yellow) as they read. (Well, it appears that students can “connect” and “respond” to
these literary elements without being taught how. That means that this is something they could
ALREADY do before they came to this class, and therefore the objective you wrote for this is not an
objective. Objectives describe something that students do NOT know prior to the lesson, but WILL
know or be able to do as a result of the lesson. I’m just repeating myself, because this has all been
said before in the course modules.)
Students will take notes in their reading journals as we pause and question (This has no meaning to me, as the
reader of this lesson plan. While students are reading you are going to stop them and ask the
questions? Who will respond? How will he or she respond?) for comprehension (What, exactly, do you
mean by this?) of the story and apply reading strategies (It’s going to be hard for them to apply reading
strategies themselves if you keep interrupting and asking questions. I’m also wondering why they
are reading without you having set a purpose related to your objectives...).
AFTER READING, VIEWING, or LISTENING
• how will students apply new knowledge in a new way?
• how will students check to see if their understanding is correct?
• how will students be prompted to reflect on what they learned?
• how will students be prompted to reflect on how they learned it?
[Also, Please Note: The Assessment Occurs in the After Phase]
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Students will complete Plot Diagrams based on “The Most Dangerous Game.”
Students will complete Sum it Up worksheets to identify the main idea of the story. (The student who uses the most
key words, without going over, gets a piece of candy!) (Is that what they were thinking about while they were
reading? How does this relate back to the objectives of the lesson?)
ASSESSMENT:
Students will complete a RAFT paper based on “The Most Dangerous Game.” Role: General Rainsford; Audience:
Police; Format: A letter; Topic: Explaining why you killed Zaroff in self-defense. It is extremely important to utilize
supporting details from the story-you want them to believe what you say happened on Shipwreck Island! (Please notice
that none of the objectives will be measured by this task.)
Discussion
Think-Pair-Share
Authentic Questions
Seed Discussions
Group Pattern Puzzles
Group Graphic Organizers
Carousel
Gallery Walk
Concentric Circles
Clock Buddies
Group QARs
Capsule Vocabulary
Organizing
Power Thinking
Pattern Puzzles
Graphic Organizers
Venn Diagram/Comparison
Selective Underlining/Highlighting
Column Notes
History Frame/Story Map
Sticky Notes
Opinion-Proof/Conclusion-Support
Problem-Solution
Writing
Summarizing
Sum It Up
Framed Paragraph
Writing Template
Journal/Learning Log
RAFT
Spool Paper
Sentence Synthesis
Word Combining
Vocabulary
Word Map
Concept of Definition Map
Graphic Organizers
Sentence/Word Expansion
Word Combining
Capsule Vocabulary
Semantic Feature Analysis
Journal/Learning Log
RATIONALE
• Why teach the lesson THIS WAY?
• Why, given this lesson’s objectives, are THESE the best strategies to choose and use? Be specific!
• Explain why this sequence of activities best leads to cultivating the behaviors or performing the skills or
displaying the knowledge called for by the objectives.
Raymond C. Jones
http://www.raymondjones.org
12/9/07
ReadingQuest.org
© 2007
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The discussion in the beginning of the lesson grabbed the students’ interest. (Actually, I’ll bet that if I’d been
there to observe, I would be able to show you data that proves MOST students were NOT engaged
or interested.)
By asking them to make a prediction, followed up with a discussion topic which encouraged them to re-think their
original answers, students were more interested in apply new vocabulary to their written predictions. (This is
wishful thinking.)
Students love Sum it Up! It is a friendly (peaceful) competitive activity amongst them. Applying something they like
to this story made them want to know the main idea. (I’m glad they like the strategy, but you are providing a
rationale that doesn’t look anything like the rationale you were asked to provide, both in the Lesson
Planning lecture and in the bullet points above this box. What is it about THESE objectives that
make these the best strategies to use? Why is THIS the best sequence of activities, given what we
know about how kids learn and comprehend?)
The RAFT paper helped students synthesize what they learned, because they were given a clear audience, topic, role
and purpose.
The sticky notes kept them actively engaged as we read (but they don’t really have anything to do with
teaching students HOW to do the things that your four objectives called for…it means that your
whole lesson is pretty much an AFTER…students are applying things they already knew, rather
than learning something new). Using them to point out examples of literary devices helped them completely
under stand them and how they were applied to the text. (Well, except we need to consider the fact that
telling is not teaching. And that’s about what you’d be doing if you do it that way.)
This sequence consisted of activities that flowed through the duration of the lesson and helped students achieve the
objective set before them. My students were completely engaged for the B-D and the A! (Oh, I think not.)
REFLECTION
Was the lesson successful? How do you know? What would you do differently next time?
As you know, my original lesson was dragged out over a few days, I’m trying to end a lesson on the day I begin it. This
example is how I taught the story to students in an after school group in order to prepare them for the mid-term. (These
students transferred into my class, or a colleague’s class, after the original lesson was presented. So they were like my
little lab mice)! The students enjoyed reading this story! (That is terrific, of course, but “enjoyment” is an
affective outcome, and we’re working on cognitive outcomes.) I actually had a student who hunts with his
father occasionally. For a moment, he shared that maybe he shouldn’t hunt anymore-he later changed his mind. I feel that
my students understood the literary devices a little better than the others. The ‘original group did well on their quiz, but I
like the new lesson much better! The only exception is, they didn’t get to compare and contrast the movie to the story-that
would be a two day lesson
Template may be downloaded from http://www.readingquest.org/pdf/
Look…let’s be honest. You knew that you were going to have students read “The Most Dangerous
Game.” The story was chosen prior to ANY objectives being considered. And once you thought about
the students reading that story, you started coming up with all the possible outcomes that might possibly
maybe perhaps be achieved, and you put them up there in the OBJECTIVES box as if that now makes
them objectives. But the simple fact of the matter is: you didn’t start with learning goal in mind; you
started with a story. That means you chose the means without having any ends. What is the question to
which “The Most Dangerous Game” is the answer? I don’t think it’s really any of the objectives you
prayerfully provided. Your lesson was not designed to achieve those objectives…nowhere in it do you
teach students how to develop fluency. Nowhere in it do you teach students how to appreciate (which
isn’t a cognitive outcome) literature. Nowhere in it do you teach students HOW to analyze literary devices
(you simply have them do it…without any instruction in HOW to do it…which means they must already
know how to do it). Nowhere do you teach students HOW to do ANY OF THE THINGS that you state in
your objectives. What did you think was meant by objectives? Where did you get those ideas? The
painful truth is this: You have submitted a task that bears little to no resemblance to anything you’ve
been taught in our course thus far. The point wasn’t for you to submit a lesson plan onto which you’d
slapped a few of our strategies, as though adorning a dress with a colorful broach. This task was
something much more fundamental. It required that you show how you can put into practice the core
concepts of Reading in the Content Areas. Most of what is here is pretty much the lesson plan that you
would have written if you’d never enrolled in the class. Why would you submit such a thing as a means
for me to assess your performance of our course competencies? It makes no sense to me. It’s like I
asked you to show me you can plant a bush and you painted the garage chartreuse. I’m trying to teach
Raymond C. Jones
http://www.raymondjones.org
12/9/07
ReadingQuest.org
© 2007
you French and you insist on showing me your Italian. It is like asking your students to read “The Most
Dangerous Game” and they read “The Stepford Wives” instead. I find this frustrating and terribly
disappointing.
At the same time, I want to value and appreciate that you developed no small measure of enthusiasm for
the incorporation of more engaging strategies into your teaching. It may be that you found this initial
foray into it to be of obvious benefit, with palpable effect on your students’ work and understanding and
appreciation. If that’s a step forward, I’m certainly delighted. Now, let’s also provide what I have to have in
order to evaluate your performance in this course: I need to see you develop products for our tasks that
are potent and convincing representations of your deep and abiding understanding of what it means to
cause comprehension. Two more Strategy Implementations to go, and then there’s also Part B of the final
exam. You might start by going back to the course modules and revisiting those essential ideas. Then
you can be in a better position to make your next task depend on them in a way that will leave me with no
doubt about your grasp of and competence with Reading in the Content Areas.
Raymond C. Jones
http://www.raymondjones.org
12/9/07
ReadingQuest.org
© 2007