That's true even if an instructor creates their lesson plan carefully the students may impact it depending on their absorption rate and the pace of the class.
Hi Miriam:
You've laid out a good plan for estimating time. Another aspect is the content.
I start with the student learning outcomes (SLO's): What is it that the student will need to walk away from this course with? By beginning with these, all pathways in the course will feed into the SLO's. Once the SLO's are set, course planning such as you described can be conducted with the reasonable hope that the course will meet the desired learning objectives.
Regards, Barry
Estimate the time you have in class, homework time, and study time that you believe will cover all your course content. Once you have your course planned take the course yourself, so to speak, and see if you time estimates are reasonable.
Hi Billie:
For me, sufficient content means having a variety of resources that include the basic materials, supplies and equipment to meet the course objectives and student learning outcomes. Having more than needed will allow some variation in the lesson if needed.
Regards, Barry
Selecting sufficient content is most important in order to have a consistent flow of knowledge in the classroom
Hi James:
Course content should contribute something to meeting the course objectives and learning outcomes. The more variety the better. Plus, different activities keep the class interesting.
Regards, Barry
Hi Tammy:
Segmenting course content in this way should assist all students getting needed information.
Regards, Barry
Hi Latasha:
You're right - good Student Learning Outcomes (SLO's), lead to good Topic Objectives (TO's), which lead to good daily lesson objectives (DLO's).
Regards, Barry
Base you content on only what your course has outlined for you. break down the course so that your students can understand.
Hi Yaima:
Sufficient suggests "enough". Selection suggests "choice". So, we have the choice to choose the most varied and useful resources that will achieve and exceed what the student needs. This requires planning, effort, and thought.
Regards, Barry
Hi.Is really important to choose sufficient course content,because we can keep them active and motivated during the course.
Ms Melendrez
One should begin by reviewing the assignments and understanding what will be necessary in order to complete the task. One must also consider how topics covered in earlier sessions will help. When possible, build on the earlier topics to reiterate those concepts. Doing this will also help students to see how those concepts are used when trying to accomplish a variety of activities. Then be sure to select material that can be covered in the allotted time. One might have to develop short cuts in presentation materials to reduce time for students to grasp the concept. Graphics and demonstrations are good tools for this.
I spend a lot of time thinking about the course objectives and topic outline provided in the syllabus. Often, I brainstorm with the previous instructors (and/or their available resources) to see which chapters and topics they have covered. For every topic I choose to cover, I make sure it fits well into the course objectives.
I try to incorporate activities that will help students to solidify the information they have just learned. I try to present material in varying formats. The activities that I have designed before class are designed to help students practice the learned material. Also, I leave room for "ah-ha" moments in the lecture. This is where I come up with an activity on the spot as I am teaching material. I often come up with "great ideas" for activities during material based on how my students have received the information.
I review the book being used, compare the content to other courses and determine what is the most vital information for this course and fill in around that core set of information.
I have more content to teach than classtime allows so first I have the students read the chapter before class. I go through the chapter and divide it into sections. I then pick out the most important parts or the most difficult parts if each section and we discuss that part. If time allows, I ask the student questions from some of the material I didn't cover but they were supposed to read for homework prior to class.
I generally over-prepare, to ensure that I have adequate materials for each class. If I do not use all of the prepared hand-outs or lecture bullet points, I carry them forward to the next class, if they are still relevant to our class discussions. I also monitor several daily news sources to find pertinent, current events that pertain to our field of study, so I can use the articles to supplement textbook content with "real world" examples.
I teach a pastry class, so when I select course content, I initially need to be sure that I am covering everything that is planned for that day. Some students can accomplish more than others, so I always make sure that I have additional recipes available--these will either be variations of ones that the students have already done, or else recipes that are totally new. It mostly depends on the skill level of the students.
The strategies that I use to select course content are first I read over the text to pull out the major points. I put together an objective list. I identify the key word in the chapter as well. I also like to prepare some critical thinking questions from the chapter content.
Giving background which might not be in the immediate material , can be interesting and thought provoking for the students.
Selecting the course contents requires time therefore putting a good amount of time would be one strategy to select the best content for the course. Obviously the amount of time would be less according to the years of experience the instructor has.
Another strategy would be using different media to present content. I always says that a picture is worth 1000 words but a video is worth 1 million words. Certain media present good content in less time than other ways of presenting the same information
