Aricka Ladebu - The Secret of Planning

         I loved this chapter!  As Kate and Jenny said, we learned much of this information in previous classes, but I can never get enough of the fundamentals.  I will share the things I highlighted as I read through the chapter; they are the things that stood out or spoke to me the most.

         "When overplanning,...don't just plan another of the same type of activity.  If one activity is successfully completed by your students, then it is time to take the newly acquired skill to the next level."  This is so true and a great help in planning lessons.  It kind of takes the stress out of planning.  You just take the students through varying degrees of difficulty on the same topic until they've mastered it.  And that's what we're after: mastery.

          I also loved the point in Part 3 about planning lessons in 5 minute increments.  I tried to do this with my lessons for this week, but I found that 8-10 minute increments were what I ended up with.  This will work too.  The bottom line is that planning is done in chunks - small chunks. Along with this, I began during Junior Field to write the increments down on a cue card for myself.  The times I didn't do this, I noticed I forgot certain things - little details that may have enriched the lesson.

        In Part 5 the author addresses the subject of making objectives clear.  In my classroom, my co-op puts the weekly agenda on the board as well as the daily agenda.  The agendas primarily reflect the activities for the week/day, but when I put mine up there, I plan to include the objectives as well.  Since we are working toward "mastery and not mystery," objectives should be known by the learners.  I've put on seminars in the past where I was afraid to outline exactly what I would be covering when I spoke.  In hindsight I can see now that I was afraid that if I told the seminar participants what I would be talking about, they would have no need for me to teach them anything.  I would have already given it all away.  But I see now how vitally important it is for students to see/hear the objective(s) for the day first - to search their schema for something to connect with.  Then, as the information is presented, they will better grasp each point.  The more familiar and better acquainted they are with what I am going to talk about, the easier it will be for them to assimilate and remember the material.

        I also enjoyed the section about being proactive.  This takes time and a lot of thought.  I think it's best to even picture yourself teaching each segment and imagine what problems could possibly arise.  You have to "think like a child."  You also need to plan ahead by placing all props, books, papers, etc. that you will need to use during your teaching, in the same area you'll be standing when you teach.  Otherwise you'll be running to the back of the room to dig through your bag while the kids are going wild.