What’s the most creative or innovative lesson you taught?

     Q:  What’s the most creative or innovative lesson you taught?

     A:   During the fifth week of student teaching I contacted a family friend at Prospect Hill Cemetery.  He provided my fifth grade class with a tour of the Cemetery.  When we got back to the classroom we divided the class into several teams.  One team worked on a PowerPoint presentation, another team created a timeline of important events in the life of the cemetery from the Revolutionary War to the present, another team looked into burial customs from around the world, another team of students developed an annotated bibliography of books about death and dying, and the final team gathered oral histories from some of the docents and volunteers at the Cemetery.  What was originally conceived as a three-week project eventually turned into a two month multi-disciplinary project that combined social studies, art, music, language arts, and reading into a most exciting thematic unit.

            This is a grand opportunity to provide a specific and concrete example of how you went “above and beyond” the usual lesson planning for student teaching.  Be sure to provide specific details and any reactions you obtained from supervisors or administrators.  Show, as much as possible, how you are willing to pursue projects that are somewhat out of the ordinary – projects that engage students in creative or innovative ways.

Describe the steps you use to plan a lesson.

     Q:  Please describe the steps you use to plan a lesson.

     A:   A good lesson plan provides an outline for the accomplishment of specific tasks, while at the same time allowing for a measure of flexibility in terms of student interests and needs.  My lesson plans consist of several critical elements.  First, there must be a set of specific objectives.  I know that a well-crafted objective has two components: The students for whom the objective is intended and the anticipated performance.  Next, there must be an anticipatory set or motivational opening – that is, how will I stimulate student interest in a topic or subject.  Next, I must provide a series of guided practice activities.  These should incorporate several elements including specific instructional methodologies, creative thinking opportunities, “hands-on, minds-on” activities, and various ways in which students can practice the desired behavior(s).  There must be some form of closure to the lesson.  This can take the form of a teacher summary, a student summary, or some type of lesson product – a poster, brochure, mobile, or portfolio, for example.  Finally, I need to address evaluation and assessment – not as something done solely at the end of a lesson, but rather as a concept woven throughout the entire lesson.  Above all, I have to make sure that everything in a lesson is geared towards the identified objectives or a set of specific standards.

            If you don’t know how to write a lesson plan you’re going to have a very difficult time convincing any interviewer you are a competent teacher.  Make sure you know all the elements of a good lesson plan…cold!