Due Dates. Written Lesson Plan due May 24; Presentation due June 14, Written comments on presentation due June 15

Overview. You are asked to develop a formal lesson plan according to good instructional design principles. You will have ten minutes (more if you do this as a team) to present selected elements of your plan to the class. Good presentation skills are emphasized.

Development of Lesson Plan. Your lesson plan should include these elements:

• Audience and context (the learner)
• Content to be presented (needs assessment and task analysis)
• Learning objectives for the participants
• Assessment techniques and instruments
• Class agenda including activities and a timeline (sequencing, strategy)
• resources and materials (message and materials)
• Room arrangement and equipment needs

Each of these elements is detailed below.

Selecting Audience and Context. Please select an audience and context (e.g., freshmen English composition students, graduate music majors, nursing faculty doing distance education, technical staff for a help desk in a corporate setting, etc.). You may want to describe some general characteristics of the audience that could have an impact on your manner of teaching. You may also want to describe how the context for the training may constrain and focus the objectives you have for the participants.

Content. Determine what you want your content to be. For example, for college freshmen, you will want to examine the ACRL information literacy standards and pick a topic from this source. For other organizations, there will be other standards or clues as to appropriate content. Provide some justification for your selection of content.

Learning Objectives. State one or two behavioral objectives and one affect objective for your participants. Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive objectives and Krathwohl's taxonomy of affective objectives may be helpful. Other possible models are provided in your textbook. One method for writing objectives that some find helpful is the ABDC model where A is the audience (implied from your earlier description so you can just say, "The student (or participant) will ..."), B is the behavior, C is the criterion measure (performance measure), and D is the acceptable level of performance (the "Degree to which").

Assessment Techniques. Using the criteria you specified in your objectives, show how participant performance will be measured (Examples: text, written paper, project, presentation, per evaluation, observation of behaviors, etc.) with a draft of your evaluation instrument. You may want to use different methods for assessing affective and cognitive objectives.

Class Agenda (Activities). Describe (possibly in outline form) what you as instructor will do and what the students will do. You may want to build in some initial activity that will let you gauge the current state of knowledge of your students. Be sure to include some motivating activity at the beginning of your lesson. For example, in the ARCS model for motivation John Keller (1983) asserts that

• Attention can be gained in two ways: Perceptual arousal (using surprise or uncertainty to gain interest) or Inquiry arousal (stimulating curiosity by posing challenging questions or problems to be solved). Throughout the lesson, varying the elements of instruction helps maintain student interest.

• Relevance strategies include use of prior knowledge to comprehend the new skill, stressing the current value of the topic, tying stated goals to the learner's future activities, matching needs (achievement, risk taking and power, affiliation) to the topic, modeling through use of alumni or other role models, and use of different methods to pursue work.

• Confidence can be achieved through clear learning objectives and prerequisites, building levels of difficulty through small steps, realistic expectations, giving learners some control over their learning and assessment, and providing opportunities for increased learning independence.

• Satisfaction is addressed by providing opportunities to use the newly acquired knowledge or skill in a real (or simulated setting, by providing feedback and reinforcements, and by maintaining consistent standards and consequences for task accomplishment.

Include in your lesson plan a timelineto show how many minutes each segment of the lesson should take. Make sure you include a strong summation and learning reinforcement at the end of the lesson.

Resources and Materials. List any special resources to be used. Identify any materials that will need to be prepared (handouts, etc.).

Room Arrangement and Equipment Needs. Describe how you would like the room to be arranged and what kind of audiovisual and/or computer equipment will be needed.

Presenting Your Lesson Plan. A primary objective of this assignment is to be aware of, and to practice good presentation skills. A fairly typical evaluation form will be used to allow class colleagues to provide anonymous feedback to you. You will have 10 minutes to present a short lecture to the class describing your lesson plan. Be sure to include the motivational "hook" that you will use to begin the class, the context for the class, your agenda and timeline, the activities in which the participants will engage (perhaps you can show some of this), and your wrap-up of the lesson plan. You may use Power Point, a handout, or other visual reinforcement. Do not read your notes and remember to look at the audience as you talk. You can write on the board and engage the audience in some interaction if you like, but be sure to include the elements specified above and that you stay within the time limit.

Summary and Reflection on the Presentation. You will receive the copies of the evaluation form that your class colleagues will fill out. Review the ratings you receive and the comments about the best aspects of your teaching and the places where it could be improved. Integrate these ratings with your own personal assessment and summarize for me in a brief paragraph or two. Identify what you can do to improve your presentation skills.

Revised May 12, 2005.