The Most Effective High School Lesson Plan
In all of the high school schools that I have worked in, both as a teacher and as an administrator, the single most effective lesson plan structure that I have ever seen, is by far the workshop model lesson plan.
By using this method, you will have the most focused plan, with time considered for ‘ busy work’ to be conducted while students are engaged, deliver new information in a multitude of ways, foster the environment for student centered learning, and assess class comprehension in a number of differentiated ways to determine efficacy — daily.
As a high school teacher, ask yourself this question, “After I teach a lesson, do I know if my students understood the concept of my lesson?”
If you say that you think most of your students got it, most meaning between 60–80%, that’s awesome. You are still missing a large portion of the students, and therefore unless you’re closer to 95–99% of the students understanding what you taught — you need to hit the drawing board and instead of repeating the lesson concepts several times, revise how you deliver it. Here’s how…
The Workshop Model Lesson Plan, which I learned about first in the late 90’s from Charlotte Danielson, was something that reinvented the traditional lesson plan, as it forced a student centered concept into what was mainly teacher centered direct instruction. For the record, I have nothing against direct instruction, and in fact find it extremely useful when teaching — SOMETIMES.
Anything in moderation, can be beneficial as long as it’s legal.
So, what are the steps of creating a lesson plan that follows the workshop model for high schools? The following steps will break it down into granular parts, as it’s crucial that all are included in obtaining maximum class comprehension daily.
To begin each lesson, it’s extremely important that you set the tone from the moment students come into your classroom. Those first few minutes can determine the outcome of your lesson plan even if it’s one that you really could be excited about teaching.
Why? Downtime knows no definition.
Students in high school walk into your room on display. A traditional entry includes saying hello to even those you may not ever call or text. Those you do know, it’s similar to a holiday gathering in your home, fully equipped with hugs and kisses, sometimes brief conversation persists until perhaps you have to say something or the bell interrupts the students and they are redirected.
Is this bad? No. But it does mean that a loose environment started your class time, because you had to wait for the bell to begin and that meant you needed the bell to do so. The conversation most likely never stops at the bell, it just pauses.
Instead, the first thing you should focus on in your lesson plan, is a starter activity. I call it a Do Now or my staff loves to say, “starter activity” because it’s nicer. Ah — California…
What is a starter activity/do now? It’s anything to get students into your room, seated, with the necessary belongings ready for your class, and started on connecting yesterday’s concept to today’s. It could be a journal entry, or a reflection on something from the day before. It could be a few questions to answer, or a passage to read and respond to. It could be a hypothesis that needs evaluating, or a rewrite of an ending from content read just recently. It’s on the board or overhead or google class — or where ever. Yet it should be consistently done, every day. If your students know that going into your classroom means to get started immediately, they may conduct socializing in the hallway before they come in — meaning your classroom equals being busy.
That’s the tone you want!
You want to have something that taps prior knowledge, sets up the topic for the current day, or even asks students to conduct basic inquiry on a new topic so they are engaged by why they want to learn it. These tasks are quick, gradable, and should be done every single day. Students will expect it after a while, as you are training them for what your class time is to be spent like.
During this time that students come in, sit down, and begin working, you take attendance, conduct “teacher busy work” by reviewing past assignments or current projects with individual students, that you can facilitate around and check in with. Starter activities are only 5 minutes long, and the successful completion of which, equals participation points or classwork points — that add up and are simple to earn.
The best advice my last principal gave to me was, “Remember, points are free.”
After a few minutes of the starter activity, review it with the students. Offer bonus points for those who volunteer or go above and beyond. And as soon as you’ve heard a few and ensured completion from students, move on to the next phase — introducing new information in a mini lesson.
The mini lesson is exactly what it says — take your 50 minute power point, and dwindle it down into 1 open ended question — which asks ultimately “why should your students learn what you are teaching them?” Finding the answer to the open ended question will carry you through the period on your quest to have all students be able to do so, and it begins with fusing new information with their current brain capacity, so it can be applied in life.
Here are some examples:
“Why is math the true mastermind behind the internet?”
“How can the literary element setting help us in understanding the world around us today?”
“How has following OSHA standards in construction, saved us money and made us safer?”
“How can stoichiometry make me a better baker?”
After reviewing the lesson starter activity, a method of using the AIM here, is simply putting it on the board for all to see. Your students will know that the point of the lesson is to answer it, and since it’s real world applicable — that becomes intrinsically important for them to know.
The point behind the mini lesson, is to deliver to your students the basics of the information needed to begin student centered research in answering the AIM question.
Perhaps in this part, students are experiencing direct instruction as you guide them through a webquest or a video, where you model with them what you would take notes on. Or, maybe together as a class, you guys read a passage and highlight important information. You could ask questions that students find the answers to and discover as you go. This could be going over steps in a text book or website, learning new vocabulary or a technique, evaluating a map or visual; yet no matter the mini lesson — it’s conducted in a whole class configuration. This mini lesson should be no more than 10–15 minutes in length.
At this point, you’re about 20 minutes into your class period. For the next 20 or so, you go to part III — the application. You already have the focus question, that students are warmed up to and can connect to the purpose of learning. You have given the foundation of information for the students to have what is necessary to perhaps dive deeper, make their own connection with, or apply in a way that is useful to them or the world around them.
This is where your lesson comes alive.
This part can be driven by a selection of choices that the students can make to use when completing this part. If you offer a multitude of means to gain understanding, you are doing the opposite of direct instruction — you are enabling self comprehension via self inquiry.
In the application part of your plan, if students are in groups, make them pre-arranged and heterogeneous — so you maximize the learning going on. Offer student choice in completing the task, so they are using learning methods they are strongest in — to ensure they endure the information.
Perhaps students write a one act play eliciting why that sought out new information learned will help us in life. Maybe students create a website on resources needed for anyone looking to utilize this new information in a way that can benefit us all. Or what if during this time, a student is able to come up with any way that they can, to demonstrate how they comprehend the information — and run it by you for your approval before doing so. All are acceptable and amazing paths for students to learn on.
You must be willing to guide them, facilitating around the room during this process throughout the entirety of this task allotted — and your formative assessments conducted at this time will foster grounds for your intervention, revision, or assistance. You may have students finish a second part for homework, or complete it during that time — however your clarity in expectations are what is key to this part working successfully. Rubrics are the key to this.
For example — if I said, “Let’s break into groups and dive into these websites listed on the board, where you will find new information about erosion on the coast of California. You guys have 20 minutes to do so, and we’ll stop at the end and discuss what you learned.” This is going to be grounds for downtime — because no real goal was elicited to the students. You said take 20 minutes, and go research. How many facts do they find? Which way do they organize what they find, so you will know that they did? What does success look like for this part?
If you said, “Break into the groups assigned on the overhead, select from a list of choices to accomplish, and using the rubric for each — let that guide you towards successful completion of our goal.” Each group task within the selection of choices comes with group roles for each student, and the rubrics are similar in structure and vary only in what assignment specific differences will entail.
At the end of the activity, students should prepare a way to exemplify that they have a successful understanding of the content covered in class that day — also allowing a rubric to guide this process.
Now, your lesson plan activity is managing the class — so you don’t have to. Like Charlie Sheen used to say before he really went off the wall, “You are winning!”
Facilitating around the room gives you time to work with those that need it, to check in with everyone necessary, and to keep everyone on task and learning efficiently. If you find that you are reminding students of the same thing over and over, don’t get upset that they are all not listening and asking you the same thing — realize that you taught this incorrectly, and it should be revised and clarified for all due to that.
At this point, you are winding down the activity, and as the timer alerts you all that this is the case, ask the class for volunteers to go first and share out. SPOILER ALERT! If you don’t give the students who are not presenting and are listening — anything to follow that defines what active listening is in your room — you are wasting a huge opportunity to conduct a listening exercise all the while creating a forum for downtime for the students who are sitting there.
Let the plan manage the students, and ensure that students are required to create 2 questions for the presenters, one that offers insight, and one that is a suggestion. These can be handed in or emailed at the end of class — in order to earn more participation or classwork points for that lesson.
Now, in the closing part of this lesson — you are in the whole class review portion. The point of this part, is to foster grounds for speaking and listening, but also to determine is students have been able to dive into what you’re covering, so they can demonstrate if they understand what you taught that day. Offer points for presentations that are clearly able to be predicted using the rubric, and give praise at all cost.
Finally, reask your AIM question in a way that requires the students to inform you that they know the answer. You can literally have them answer it on a small scrap of paper.
They can email it, or orally answer it. Just figure out a way to remember at the end of every lesson — to ask that AIM. If students do answer it, then you know you were successful. If they don’t, hit that drawing board and figure out how to review it further using tomorrow’s starter activity or mini lesson — and continue to lay the grounds for the fundamentals of that new information — so students can turn it into new knowledge.
An advanced means of asking the AIM, is by asking the students at the end of the class, to come up and write on the board what their idea of the AIM question must be or have them wordle it on the smart board. If you your starter, mini lesson, and class challenge activity was connected properly — students should be able to give you something close to the point of what you were trying get them to answer, if not — you might be way off somewhere!
Get them right in the door with a start, go into a mini to introduce something new, and challenge the students with a number of ways to dive deeper and conduct inquiry into what they are learning — connecting with why they need to remember it. This application is crucial to understanding and enduring new content. To ensure comprehension, revisit as a whole class and share out findings, only to conclude with recycling back to the point of the lesson — which is answering your focus question for that day.
These are battle tested. This is student centered at it’s best. This is the teacher as a facilitator. And most importantly, this not only maximizes student comprehension, but your lesson plan will manage your students, so you eventually do not have to.
