For the past several months I have been sharing snapshots from my critical literacy mini- lessons with students. What you don’t see in the videos is the planning that I do before I ever touch a book or see a child.
I want to share the strategic planning formula I use in every grade level, every content area, and across every discipline. It is based on the work of Richard Allington, and I call it the Six T’s of Effective Lesson Planning:
- TEACH: What is my objective? This is the skill, strategy, or outcome that I am wanting my students to understand.
- TEXT: When my teaching point is clear in my mind, I then think about what text would be best to use when modeling this objective with students. (I use the word text here very broadly to reference online and offline resources across multiple genre.)
- TASK: What is the task or work I wish students to engage in that will allow them to practice or work collaborative on the objective? Is it authentic? Is it meaningful? Will students engage in focused,productive ways?
- TALK: I think very carefully about the nature of the conversation around and about that text. I want to keep in mind that I am teaching the reader of the book not the book or content within the book-that’s where I want the talk focused.
- TIME: What is the time I am allocating for the students to reach independence. Did I allow time for the work to be gradually released from the expert to the novice? This includes time for modeling, guiding, working collaboratively, and independent practice.
- TECHNOLOGY:Technology-Is there a way to use technology in any part of the lesson sequence as a way to enhance or engage the students in the learning objective?
This week’s mini lesson explores The Six T’s of Effective Planning with Teachers.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a1780f7b-56b0-44bc-b454-02a927f1f2b9)
