Kim Petty - Instructional Design Coach
Once students have conducted research that has been scaffolded from beginning to end, it’s time to remove some of these supports for their next project. An old proverb tells us that the right word at the right time is like a custom-made piece of jewelry. Providing support for the research process through mini-lessons will be the right word at the right time. Mini-lessons are effective because they consider a student’s working memory, they provide “just-in-time” learning, and they demand that the teacher plan lessons very thoroughly and concisely. Give yourself a 5 - 15 minute time frame for each mini-lesson. Following the mini-lesson, give students a 5 minute assignment to demonstrate their understanding. Petty’s Pointer: No extraneous fluff in the mini-lesson. Present need-to-know information for that lesson’s task. Then make the lesson stick with a quick application for students to do on the spot. Chronological Order of Mini-Lessons
After each mini-lesson, display the instructional nuggets in the room for later reference (humongous post-it notes work great). With each mini-lesson, you’ll add a new poster. Making the information constantly visible fosters students’ interdependence with the lesson, not dependence on you. That frees you up to do more differentiation in small groups or 1:1 as students need it. Petty’s Pointer: For maximum effectiveness, develop the unit of mini-lessons around a light-hearted topic, something familiar to students. The lessons will flow more easily, and the connections to the learning will be concrete. I’ve listed eleven separate mini-lessons; these obviously won’t be one-a-days. You will decide before the unit how many class periods to devote to each piece of the unit. Students’ choosing a topic might take a couple of days. Reading, viewing, and listening deeply will take students much longer. Plan which days you will begin with a mini-lesson and which days you will devote to student work time. Remember, this is not a one-and-done process. Research tends to be messy, sometimes dead-ending in one direction before making a hard right toward more useful information and thinking. Your role as instructional designer will be to help students navigate the journey, which will start with the mini-lessons and continue with the personal and small group differentiation as needed. Good luck with your unit!
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AuthorMeredith Williams is the principal at NRHS. A graduate of NRHS and an community member, Mrs. Williams is invested in the success of the NRHS student population. ArchivesCategories |