Session Plan

Having developed some goals and a plan for assessing students' progress toward those goals, it's time to think about how you will help students master those goals. Part of that help will occur during the time the class meets as a group. In this assignment, you will plan one class meeting.

As we've discussed, a focus on what the students will do during the session can be very helpful. It's possible that listening and taking notes for the entire session will help them make progress toward the goals, but my bias is that including some other student activities (even if those activites consiste only of asking and answering questions) will help them make even more progress. In thinking about the activities the students will engage in, be careful to think about what all the students will be doing. If one student answers a question, what are the other students doing during that time?

There is an enormous variety in the contexts in which we teach and the goals we are trying to achieve. That makes it impossible to provide a template for a class session that will be universally applicable. There is, though, one thing I think is universal. Every session, ideally, has a meaningful beginning, middle, and end.

Beginning

In starting a session, you might attend to three things

  1. Attention. You need to draw students into the session and get them ready to work. There are many ways to convey to students that class has started and to get the focused on the topic at hand. Consider projecting a relevant cartoon, telling a joke, making an outrageous claim, asking a rhetorical question. But remember, the idea is focus the students attention on the topic at hand, so whatever you do has to be directly relevant to the day's goals.
  2. Motivation. Try to quickly give the students a good reason to work hard today. Let them know how what you are about to do togehter will benefit them. Your pitch should probably be personalized (i.e., relate specifically to your students), enthusiastic, and meaningful. This last criteriona suggests that telling your students that today is particularly important because the material will be on the test is not a great way to motivate.
  3. Overview. Now that your students are paying attention and are motivated to work, let them know where you are going. A roadmap will help them a lot with work, because they will see how what is going on at any given time fits with both the activiites or material that came before and that which is yet to come. This overview also holds you, the instructor, accountable.

Middle

The body of the class session will depend on what you hope your students will accomplish during the session.We've discussed a number of teaching strategies over the course of this semester, and here is your opportunity to choose one or more to accomplish your objectives in the context in which you'll be teaching.

End

As your session comes to an end, you have three responsibilities.

  1. Summary. Help students understand what the "take away" points from today's session are. This allows them to note any thing that they missed and fill in. Don't introduce new material here, though, or you'll confuse students about the structure of what they have learned. The summary should be brief and at a relatively high level.
  2. Re-motivate. Remember, students spend much more time outside of class than they do inside of class. At the end of the session try to find a way to motivate them to keep working between classes. Try to make a direct connection between today's session and what they'll be doing during the time before the next session.For example, you could ask students to watch for real-life examples of a concept they have worked with during class. Or, you might just point out how the day's session contributes to their ability to complete an assignment.
  3. Closing. Let students know that the end of the session is here and it's OK for them to pack up and leave. If you are conscientious about providing a clear closing, you can avoid early packing up.

What to turn in

For this assignment, simply turn in a plan describing how you would spend one session with your class. Specifiy the activities and the amount of time you will devote to each. If you plan a lecture for the bulk of the time, provide a high level (i.e., not detailed) outline. If you plan to ask your students to work on tasks in class, describe the tasks briefly. It may be helpful to specifiy how many students will be there and what the physical facility will be like. It also may be helpful to specify a little bit about what will have come before the session and what will come after it.

Maintained by Tom Rocklin ( thomas-rocklin@uiowa.edu)