Forums

Hello All - I am a graduate student and have an assignment to create a project based learning lesson. It needs to be two weeks in length and align with the elementary school standards for Maryland. I would like to have the students learn about weather. If you were me, where would you begin? When you are about to create a lesson, what is your thought process? What steps do you take? Thanks!

I am an elementary pre-service teacher. To begin the concept of weather I would check the state standards for the topic. Then to introduce the lesson I would dress up in different outfits to demonstrate the weather patterns. I would then engage in a discussion about weather patterns and so on. I would further have the students go outside and test the weather for themselves. As an extension I would have the students create a weather journal with specific instructions.

Thank you Tina and Shakeria for your replies. I have created a few lessons for assignments in my program. I have a great deal of trouble making that creative leap. Do you ever start with lessons that are online and build from there or are most of your ideas your own from scratch? Cindy

Cynthia, Looking for lessons online is a good thing to do. I have been teaching for 40 years and I look up lessons online to see if someone has created a new twist on some lesson I have been doing for years. It is fun to change a lesson and make it new to the teacher! As for your starting out new with lessons, I would suggest looking up lessons online with the same topic and taking the parts of the lessons that appeal to you and combine them into your own lesson.

Thanks for sharing the articles Tina. They were great.

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. I felt guilty for not starting from scratch with my lesson planning. It makes me feel better to know that teachers with experience do the same thing. I currently work in an elementary school's media center and watch my media specialist create wonderful lessons seemingly effortlessly. Thanks for the encouragement!