Engage
To begin, think about a memorable learning experience you have had in your life. This could be something you experienced in grade school, high school, college, or in the real world. Using the Cognitive Comics learning strategy and the attached Cognitive Comics Template, create a comic strip depicting what happened during this experience. Focus on what made the experience so memorable rather than the art skills. Include dialogue bubbles to detail the following:
What was your experience?
What made it so memorable?
Would you consider this learning experience to be authentic? How so?
Additionally, take some time during this initial meeting to talk about your educational background and what subject area your expertise is in. Together, look through the Content Development Plan handout (found in the attachments) and discuss a lesson that you would like to develop throughout this activity. Your peer collaborator will be with you at every step to provide support, answer questions, and make sure that you have a good grasp on the activities. This Content Development Plan covers the bare bones of a lesson and is always the first step in the lesson writing process at K20. It includes the grade level, content area, lesson length, delivery mode, technology requirements, the essential question, and the learning objectives.
Explore
Once you have a completed Content Development Plan and you have gone through the Planning Proof with your peer collaborator, begin thinking about how you could present this topic to an audience by breaking it down into a 5E lesson format. To help with this, use the 5E Outline (found in the attachments) and begin thinking about the following questions:
What is engaging about the topic you chose?
What could your students explore?
What could your students do that would help them explain the topic and clarify misconceptions?
How could you extend student learning? How could you extend this learning experience to connect it with personal or professional learning?
What could you have students reflect on? What could they take with them?
Remember this outline is just that, an outline! This is your opportunity to get familiar with your ideas, the content, and how they all piece together to form one cohesive lesson rather than expand on the details.
After you have completed your outline, explore the K20 Learn website using the instructional strategy Tip of the Iceberg. During this exploration, look through other LEARN lessons to see how other instructional designers have utilized the various features of LEARN and analyze the variety of strategies available to teachers. Using the Tip of the Iceberg template you'll want to identify the following:
Information that you already know about the site (labeled at the top of the iceberg)
Information you think you may know based on prior interactions with the site (labeled at the "water line")
Questions or deeper knowledge that you learn along the way (labeled below the "water line")
Once you have fully explored the LEARN website, revisit your outline and take a closer look at each part of the lesson. Which strategies do you believe would best enhance your lesson and where would they occur within the lesson outline? Make any changes to your outline and add these strategies, then schedule a time to meet with your peer collaborator. You will meet with him/her in the next section of this activity following the reading.
Explain
Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the attached 5E Lesson Framework and the 5 Standards of Authenticity using the instructional strategy Why Lighting now that you have spent some time exploring the LEARN lesson website. Read the three articles provided making sure to note important aspects of the information and how it applies to your job here at K20.
Extend
After you have made any changes to your outline, open up a LEARN lesson template. The steps for getting started can be found in the LEARN Manual, as well as in the attachments above. This manual walks you through each step and provide helpful tips on how to navigate the website.
Within the lesson template, input your lesson details. The 5E lesson outline you created earlier provides you with a great starting point, but now is the time to expand on the details. When you are creating a lesson in LEARN, write it in a narrative format and keep a few things in mind:
Would any teacher, at any phase of their teaching career, be able to pick up this lesson and teach it?
Are the summary, essential questions, snapshot, and procedures congruent?
What materials are required?
What attachments could you create to help enhance your lesson? Are there handouts, PowerPoint guides, etc. that would streamline the lesson?
Do you need to add teacher's notes, images, hyperlinks, etc. to make your lesson more accessible?
In the meantime, take a moment to think through and articulate what you encountered in the reading, your exploration of LEARN, and the process of creating your own lesson using the instructional strategy 3-2-1. Be prepared to talk about these items in your meeting with your peer collaborator along with the next steps for a final lesson revision.
What were the three most challenging aspects of creating a lesson?
What are two questions you have for your supervisor?
What was one thing you enjoyed about this exploration or one misconception you had clarified?
Evaluate
Finally, it's time for you make the last revisions to your lesson before it's sent off to be copyedited and published. Once you have made all of your revisions, set one final meeting with your peer collaborator to reflect on your learning.
Congratulations, you just completed your first LEARN lesson! Send your lesson to the appropriate party for peer review before it goes on to copyediting and gets published.
Resources
3-2-1. (n.d.). https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/d9908066f654727934df7bf4f5059a7b
Abell, S.K. & Volkmann, M.J. (2006). Seamless assessment in science: A guide for elementary and middle school teachers. Chicago, IL: Heinemann and Arlington, VA: NSTA Press.
Bybee, R.W. (1997). Achieving scientific literacy: From purposes to practices. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Colburn, A. (2003). The lingo of learning: 88 educational terms every science teacher should know. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press.
Harris, S. (n.d.). Tip of the Iceberg. Retrieved from https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/6f19b778b73e4c339d1a7d9653008def
K20 Center. (2019). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efaqxzyR6EM&list=PL-aUhEQeaZXICXKCWAO98QrSGJKrFpsZz&index=2&t=0s
K20 Center. (2019). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8vkxKRq3_M
K20 Center. (2019). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXlIsVGeuvw
K20 Center. (2019). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7QzJEutWT8
K20 Center. (2019). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzg6cuibXCo
K20 Learn Walkthrough. (n.d.). https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/files/manual.pdf
K20 Lessons and Engaging Activity Repository and Network. (n.d.). https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/
Morgan, E., & Ansberry, K. (2013). Even more picture perfect science lessons, K-5: Using Children’s Books to Guide Inquiry. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press.
Newmann, F. M., & Wehlage, G. G. (1993). Five Standards of Authentic Instruction. Educational Leadership: Journal of the Department of Supervision and Curriculum Development, N.E.A , 50(7). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241535960_Five_Standards_of_Authentic_Instruction
Pond, S. (n.d.). Cognitive Comics. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/fe96d3de46cfdc1f385aab7e7500a422
Wells, C. (n.d.). What? So What? Now What? https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/b30762a7557ba0b391f207f4c6002113
Why Lighting. (n.d.). https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/d9908066f654727934df7bf4f505e7d5