Assignment:
Signature Assignment: Early Childhood Lesson Plan
During this course, you will create a developmentally effective lesson plan based on early childhood learning theories, research, and educational philosophy. For this lesson plan, select an early childhood age range from birth through age 8 or through Grade 3. You may not use a lesson plan from an already published source.
Your lesson plan should address the following areas:
1. Setting the Stage for Learning
· You will set the stage for learning in the early childhood setting. Identify way(s) in which you will activate prior knowledge and relate the life experiences of young children to the objective of the lesson. Describe the developmentally appropriate strategies you will use to set the focus of the lesson and engage the group of young children.
2. Objectives
· In this section, you will describe the purpose of the lesson and list the lesson objectives. Write course objectives based on the criteria below. You should also include how you will explain or demonstrate to the young children how they will benefit from the learning activity. Objectives should meet the following requirements:
o Specific, measurable, and observable
o State what children should know and be able to do
o Align to national, state, and district standards
o Age/grade-level and content-area appropriate
3. Teaching/Instructional Process
· Modeling: Describe exactly how you will model the skills and tasks for the children without their participation. What steps need to be followed to master the skills and concepts related to the objective?
· Check for understanding (Formative Assessment): Throughout the lesson, you should be checking for understanding and pacing the lesson based on the feedback you receive from formative assessment. Describe various ways you will check for understanding throughout the lesson. It is important that you check for understanding and modify, if necessary, before you have the children complete the guided practice.
· Guided practice: Explain how you will guide the children through the activity to foster oral language and communication through assistance in the guided practice. Be sure that you are employing the tripodal approach (i.e., see/hear/do). The child is seeing you model, hearing you explain, and now doing it with assistance.
· Task analysis: Using one activity from the guided practice, design a task analysis that outlines the materials, procedures, and necessary steps for introducing, conducting, and completing the activity. Use the Task Analysis document in the course materials as a guide.
· Closure: In the closure section, you will explain how you will guide the children to organize their learning and apply the information learned. The lesson should be reviewed and clarified for the child to build relevant connections and meaning.
· Independent practice: Describe what you will ask the child to do independently to show understanding of the concepts or skills taught in the lesson. Independent practice should be aligned to the objective(s). It is an opportunity to observe children's level of understanding, and to utilize their work to guide further instruction and plan for subsequent activities.