As you begin to think about preparing for the start of the semester, we wanted to share an interactive lesson planning tool found at the website Teaching Tools. This tool was created by Dr. Michael McCreary, a PhD candidate and educational developer. The website has two main resources – an Active Learning Library and the Lesson Planning Tool. The Active Learning Library allows you to select a few variables that are specific to your class, content, and the learning goals. The site will then recommend a few activities you could do to achieve the goal. While this is a great resource in and of itself that we encourage you to check out, the website also has another section called the Lesson Planning Tool. We will focus on the Lesson Planning Tool as a recommended resource for the post found below. The Lesson Planning tool part of the website allows you to test it as a guest user or you can login using your PSU username and password under the Google login option.
The Lesson Planning Tool
The Lesson Planning Tool allows you to streamline your class planning and preparation. The Lesson Planning Tool helps instructors structure their lessons by asking guiding questions and providing foundational pieces which you can compile into a printable lesson plan document. You can start from scratch or use one of their templates. The templates include First Day of Class, Interactive Lecture, or Seminar Discussion.
Planning the Parts of a Class Session – Opening, Main, and Closing
The tool helps you by providing guided teaching strategies for the beginning, middle, and end of a class session. The tool offers many options for each section (opening, main, and closing) for you to use as you plan your class session.
The tool asks what elements you’d like to include in the opening of class, such as setting the agenda and motivating interest. The tool then asks what elements you’d like to include as the “main” part of the lesson, which might include direct presentation of ideas from you as the instructor through lecture. There are also many options to include in the main part of the lesson as an active learning component, with examples provided such as Think-Pair-Share, brainstorming, or a demonstration. The tool then asks about your plan for closing the session, which consists of assessing student growth and summarizing the takeaways from the session. There are so many options to choose from it is worth exploring this tool to see its full potential.
The cherry on top of it all!
The website will save your lesson plans (if you create an account). Penn State instructors can use their username/password under the Google login option. You can then access your lesson plans year after year. This feature allows you to update your lessons quickly and easily. In terms of managing your ever growing repertoire of quality lesson plans, the Teaching Tools website is an amazing resource to check out!
To hear more about this tool directly from the developer, Dr. Michael McCreary, check out episode 140 of Lecture Breakers titled How “Teaching Tools” Help Educators Plan Effective and Inclusive Learning Experiences.
