CLASS 5

Elements of a Lesson Opening

Foundation Transcript

Chapter 1: Introduction

Agreement

Transcript:

The first few minutes of a lesson can be some of the most valuable time you spend with your students. Like a coach before the big game, you can use this time to get your students hyped and ready for the learning to come.

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Context

Transcript:

However, it can be difficult to know how to start every lesson in a way that grabs students’ attention and gets them prepared and excited to learn.

That is the purpose of this module. We are going to identify the specific elements of an effective lesson opening, and explore different methods for incorporating these elements into your daily plans.

Story Example

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Transcript:

To start off, let’s take a look at what an ineffective lesson opening might look like.

Meet Mr. Montcreft. Every day, at the sound of the bell, he stands at his door ready to greet each student. Today when Susan enters, he talks with her for a minute about last night’s baseball game, a subject they are both passionate about. After his conversation, Mr. Montcreft takes attendance, collects homework, and returns graded quizzes. By the time he is done a few students have their heads down, others are in conversations, and some are playing on their phones. To get their attention, he begins to update the students on his training for an upcoming half-marathon, a subject the students seem interested in.

Noticing that ten minutes have passed since the ringing of the bell, Mr. Montcreft stops his story abruptly and says, “Okay students let’s open our textbooks to page 137 to read about how to determine electron configuration.”

How Not to Start a Lesson

Transcript:

Mr. Montcreft has good intentions. He values making personal connections with his students, and has good relationships with most of them. He is organized and he makes it a priority to return graded work in a timely fashion. But, by the time Mr. Montcreft was ready to start the lesson many of the students were either bored or distracted, and none of them were prepared for the learning.

( Copyright 2017 Arizona Board of Regents. Copyright 2021 Inspire Teaching & Learning. All rights reserved. For a complete list of references, refer to the On-Demand Module ‘ Elements of a Lesson Opening . ’ ) ( 10 )

What is a Lesson Opening?

Transcript:

One of the most common ways to start a lesson is through the use of an anticipatory set. A well- planned anticipatory set lets students know what they can expect to learn and why it is important. It also builds on what students already know and gets them excited about the lesson (Price & Nelson, 2003).

Educator Madeline Hunter states that an anticipatory set “brings mental focus to the upcoming learning activity” (Hunter, 2004, p. 40).

Three Elements of Lesson Openings

Transcript:

There are three elements of an effective lesson opening. A lesson opening should hook student interest, access prior knowledge, and communicate lesson objectives.

These elements do not necessarily have to proceed in a specific order, and you do not need a separate activity for each element (Hunter, 2004; Price & Nelson, 2003; Willen et al., 2004).

Chapter 2: Hooking Student Interest

Definition

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The first element of an effective lesson opening is having an engaging hook. A hook is any technique used by the teacher to get the students excited about the learning to come (Lemov, 2010).

As teachers, we cannot assume that students will be as curious about our content as we are.

Students who are interested in what they are learning tend to become more engaged and active participants. (Jones, Jones, & Vermette, 2011, p. 853). Without a hook students may lack interest in the content and become confused, passive learners throughout the learning experience (Jones, Jones, & Vermette, 2011, p.853).

Strategies

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A hook should be short and sweet and connected to the lesson’s objective. You are trying to get students excited about the learning to come, not just excited in general. There are many different strategies to hook students’ attention. You will want to decide on strategies that make sense for your own style, connect with your students’ interests, and are relevant to the lesson. If, for example, you know you are not a funny person, you probably would not want to use humor as a hook.

Take a look at the list of strategies that can be used to hook student interest. Hover over each to see an example of what they would look like in practice.

Press proceed when you are ready to move on.

Ineffective Hooks

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If a teacher simply uses one of these strategies without considering time restraints, content, and student interests the hook could be ineffective. Read the example of an ineffective hook. Select the reason why you think the hook is ineffective and press submit to hear feedback.

Feedback

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Ms. Whitwell uses technology for her hook and seems generally excited about the book students are going to read, yet this hook is ineffective. Ms. Whitwell did not take her students’ interests into consideration. Knowing nothing about the book, students are forced to watch a conversation from a movie made over seventy years ago. They don’t know what is going on, and quickly become bored.

Ms. Whitwell instead could have introduced the book by showing real images from the Great Depression, and asking students to imagine if they lost everything, what would they do, and where would they go?

Chapter 3: Accessing Prior Knowledge

Definition

Transcript:

The second element of an effective lesson opening is that it should access prior knowledge. Students are more likely to be invested in the lesson if they can see how it connects to previous lessons and/or what they already know (Willen, Bosse, Hutchinson, & Kindsvatter, 2004). Beyond investment, accessing prior knowledge can help students with content comprehension.

One of the most common ways teachers access prior knowledge is by assigning what is often known as a do-now or warm-up. These are quick tasks or questions that get students working and thinking from the moment they enter the room. They can be used to diagnose what students already know, or check their understanding of a previously learned topic. Students should be able to complete the do- now without any direction, and finish in less than five minutes (Lemov, 2010).

Strategies

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Take time to think about your purpose for accessing prior knowledge. Are you trying to see what students already know about a topic? Are you trying to get students to recall information from a previous lesson? What information do you think students need to be successful in today’s lesson?

Take a look at the list of strategies that can be used to access prior knowledge. Hover over each to see an example of what they would look like in practice.

Press proceed when you are ready to move on.

Ineffective Prior Knowledge Strategies

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Similar to the hook, simply using one of these strategies does not guarantee an effective opening.

Read the ineffective example. Select the reason why you think this is an ineffective example of accessing prior knowledge and press submit to hear feedback.

Feedback

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( For a complete list of references, refer to the On-Demand Module ‘ Elements of a Lesson Opening . ’ ) ( 11 )

Transcript:

Mr. Pingitore wanted to see what students already knew about angles, but his do-now was too open ended. Students were confused about his expectations for the opening activity. Instead, Mr. Pingitore could have showed his students a set of angles and asked them to identify their measurements.

Let’s move on to the third element of an effective lesson opening.

Chapter 4: Communicating Lesson Objectives

Definition

Transcript:

The third element of an effective opening is to communicate the lesson objectives. Students will demonstrate more effort and learn more if they know what is expected of them (Hunter, 1984). Reviewing the objectives gives students a clear goal for the learning experience. It also provides purpose for the lesson, and can make the learning more relevant to the students’ lives.

( Copyright 2017 Arizona Board of Regents. Copyright 2021 Inspire Teaching & Learning. All rights reserved. For a complete list of references, refer to the On-Demand Module ‘ Elements of a Lesson Opening . ’ ) ( 12 )

Strategies

Transcript:

Take a look at the list of strategies that can be used to communicate lesson objectives. To effectively communicate the lesson objective a teacher should use at least one of these strategies. Hover over each to see an example of what they would look like in practice.

Press proceed when you are ready to move on.

Ineffective Communication of Objectives

Transcript:

Let’s take a moment to look at an example of objectives being communicated ineffectively.

Read the ineffective example. Select the reason why you think this is an ineffective example of communicating objectives and press submit to hear feedback.

Feedback

Copyright 2017 Arizona Board of Regents. Copyright 2021 Inspire Teaching & Learning. All rights reserved.

For a complete list of references, refer to the On-Demand Module ‘ Elements of a Lesson Opening. ’ 14

Transcript:

The objective itself is fine, but the teacher says nothing about why learning it is important for the students. Telling students there will be a test on this objective is not a good way to invest them in the learning. Instead, the teacher could have explained that cells are the building blocks of all life, and understanding how they work will help students understand how the whole human body works.

Chapter 5: Conclusion

Other Tasks

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When you include an effective opening in your lesson there is often little time to do other things such as talk to students or hand out papers. If you would like some suggestions on other times you can perform these activities, then hover over each.

Press proceed when you are ready to move on.

( Copyright 2017 Arizona Board of Regents. Copyright 2021 Inspire Teaching & Learning. All rights reserved. For a complete list of references, refer to the On-Demand Module ‘ Elements of a Lesson Opening . ’ ) ( 15 )

Foundation Conclusion

Transcript:

The first few minutes of a lesson is the time to capture your students’ attention and get them excited and prepared for learning. In the resource section you will be introduced to a document that provides relevant strategies and grade-level-specific examples for each element.