Begin Designing a Lesson at Its End

A Learners’ View (ALV) Is Of Choices On The Shortest And Fastest Path To Learning, The Oxygen Of Social Life.


Main Article: Checklists for Educators rev.2.0

A SECRET FOR DESIGNING A 1.0 LESSON is to begin at the end of the lesson (with your objective, the punch line of the joke, the key in which you plan to sing, the molecular weight you want learners to calculate). Then, work backwards to the start of the lesson. This way, you can adjust what you say and do to fit the amount of time you plan to allot to the lesson.

Based on what you know about learners in this class, choose:

1. Will you offer an ALV Lesson, a string of ALV Lessons, or a common lesson without distinguishing among its parts? How many seconds have you consumed preparing this lesson?

2. How many seconds do you plan for this lesson to consume?

3. How many out of each set of 10 students do you expect to learn it? If you guess less than 9, then adjust your lesson to one that will likely yield at least 9 out of each 10.

4. Which generic problem will your lesson show how to connect easy, familiar specific dots to solve it, What is it? What is like it? What is not like it? What comes next? What is missing?

5. What could you do to consume fewer seconds in your lesson next time? To clarify the dots and their relationships? For more learners to learn the lesson?

6. What ratio of lesson preparation to measured learning do you find most beneficial to learners? Will an independent outside auditor find your ratio acceptable when viewed as a cost-benefit analysis?