Science Lesson Plan (Learning Cycle Lesson Model)



Science Lesson Plan (Learning Cycle Lesson Model)

Introduction

Units are often considered the building blocks of successful instruction. When a teacher is assigned a particular subject or course to teach, one of the first tasks he or she approaches is the breaking up of the course into a series of units of instruction. The reasons for this approach vary, but although students, and often their teachers, find it difficult to conceptualize an entire course ranging across a 10-month span of time, it is also difficult to assist students in the creation of meaning using only daily lesson plans.

Unit teaching provides a structure whereby teachers can work with students to achieve learning goals while creating meaning by providing a larger, less fragmented approach to instruction, a goal congruent with both Gestalt psychology and information-processing learning theory. Unit planning is historically credited to Johann F. Herbart and Henry C. Morrison with a variety of curriculum specialists recommending adaptations, for example, William Kilpatrick's project method. A teaching unit is generally conceived as a 2- to 6-week block of instruction depending on the topic and the developmental stages of the students.

Regardless of the category, units usually include the following components: title/topic; rationale or justification for study; unit goals (general) and objectives (specific) in cognitive (knowledge), affective (values), and skills domains; daily lesson plans aligned with unit goals and objectives including a variety of instructional strategies (differentiated activities to meet the needs of all learners); a list of materials and resources needed for unit completion; and, an assessment plan to ensure that goals and objectives have been learned. Recently, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe have advocated “backward design” by moving the assessment plan to the forefront of the unit and lesson plan, immediately following listed goals and objectives. This is to encourage teachers to consider the curricular alignment aspects of unit and lesson planning rather than viewing units simply as a collection of activities around a common topic. Evaluation consists of both formative and summative assessment regardless of design technique.

Discussion

Curriculum for middle schools should be different from elementary and high school curriculum as different as the developmental needs of 10- to 14-year-olds are from younger and older students. As young adolescents become more cognizant of the world around them and of their place in it, developmentally responsive forms of middle school curricula reflect that awareness. James Beane's belief that middle school curricula should focus upon the questions and concerns that adolescents have about themselves and their surroundings exemplifies this notion. It is also important to recognize that one of the functions of middle level curricula should be to extend and build upon the skills that students learned in the elementary school. Finally, curricula in middle schools should deepen students' understanding of the disciplines of knowledge while simultaneously demonstrating their connectedness.

The separate subject approach to curriculum the most common arrangement at the secondary level will not be addressed in this entry, even though it is found in most middle grades ...