A LYS Principal Submits... The Updated Lesson Cycle

A LYS Principal shares the following with the LYS Nation.

SC,

At the conference last week, along with catching your sessions, I listened to another presenter who reminded us about the effectiveness of the Madeline Hunter lesson cycle. I decided to synthesize a lesson cycle that incorporated The Fundamental 5 and other student-centered activities into the traditional Hunter lesson cycle.  If you think it would be useful, feel free to distribute this to anyone in the LYS Nation that you believe would find it helpful. 

The Lesson Cycle

With Embedded Fundamental Five and Other High Yield Instructional Practices

·      Engage (whole class)

This refers to a short activity that draws the students' attention before the lesson begins. This can be a short video, cartoon, an example problem, or a simple question.  At this point the teacher introduces the lesson frame for the day.

·      Teacher Input and Modeling (whole class)

Teacher input and modeling refers to the teacher showing and telling students how to do a particular skill, process, or explain a concept.  This direct input should last no longer than 5 to 7 minutes without engaging in small group purposeful talk.  High yield teacher practices such as teacher-to-student feedback, questions, cues, and advanced organizers, providing recognition and reinforcing effort are important to employ during this phase of the lesson cycle. 

·      Guided Practice with Formative Assessment (student groups)

Once a skill, process, or concept has been presented to the student, it is vital that the student practice that skill, process, or concept immediately. It is also vital that students are monitored for understanding using formative assessment. This is faciliated by maximizing time spent in the Power Zone. Knowing how well students understand the lesson will allow the teacher to modify instruction, re-teach, or move forward.

·      Independent Practice or Group Practice with Student-talk

Both practice and teaching someone else is are highly effective way for people to learn at higher levels of rigor and relevance with longer retention.  Once student have demonstrated that the essential skills, processes, or concepts have been achieved, they should be allowed to practice their newly acquired concept or skill either individually or by working in small groups. Group discussion, summarizing, identifying similarities and differences, non-linguistic representations are a few of the high-yield student-centered activities that are appropriate here. The teacher should stay in the Power Zone monitoring student practice.

·      Closure (individual or student groups)

A closing activity allows students to feel accomplishment by completing the objective of the lesson, or for the student to reflect and consolidate recent learning with previous learning and cultivate a broader understanding.  Critical writing is an essential part of closure.

·      Evaluation (individual or student groups)

Once enough lesson cycles have been completed to teach the desired skill set or concept, it is time for an evaluation. Evaluation involves assigning a grade to a student's performance.  This can be a traditional multiple-choice or other type of objective assessment, an essay test, or a performance assessment using a rubric previously made known to the students.  More frequent evaluation allows students to achieve incremental success and will lead to increased student performance.

SC Response

Thanks and done.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/4ydqd4t

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Confirmed 2012 Presentations: NASSP Conference; NASB Conference