As a new teacher, writing a mini-lesson often felt like a daunting task. Where to begin? How much detail do I include? How can I get my students attention? How can I keep their attention?
In my first year teaching, as I worked to find a mini-lesson format that suited both myself and my students, while meeting the requirements of weekly submitted lesson plans. And in my earnest efforts, I occasionally ended up with plans that were five, six, seven pages long! While I believe in being thorough, this level of detail had several drawbacks:
1) I was spending way to much writing out these plans. This took away from precious planning time that could have been used analyzing and responding to real-time student data.
2) With plans so detailed and lengthy, I often got lost in the weeds of it. Though I wrote the plans with the intention of helping me focus my instruction, when it came time to teaching the plans, it had the opposite effect.
And that is why I am eternally grateful for the mini-lesson plan format that was introduced to me in my fifth year of teaching--the What, How, Why model. This model simplified my planning, focused my lessons, shored up my teaching language, encouraged student buy-in, and freed up my planning time for important, data driven tasks.
WHAT, HOW, WHY
The What, How, Why mini-lesson plan framework is as simple as this:
What are you teaching?
Why is this important?
How do you do it?
Here's an example from a reading mini-lesson:
Standard 4.RI.4: Determine the meaning of general academic and domain specific words or phrases in a text relevant to a grade 4 topic or subject area.
What: Today we are going to work on determining the meaning of important, but unfamiliar words in a text. There are several strategies that we can use to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words. Display the "Drive the CARS" anchor chart. Today, the strategy we will focus on is apposition. Apposition is when the author provides the definition of the word in the text.
How: Apposition is when the definition of the word is explicitly given right after the unfamiliar word. Often times the author will write the word, a comma, and then the definition after the comma. Sometimes the definition will be in the following sentence. The author may begin the sentence with "this means that..." or a similar phrase. As we read, we will look for these signals to see if the author provided us with a clear definition of the vocabulary term in the text.
Why: It is important to pause when we come to unfamiliar words in a text and work to determine their meanings. When we understand the language in a text, we can better understand the author's overall meaning. Working to learn the meanings of unfamiliar words also helps us build our knowledge and vocabulary--which in turn will help us grow as readers, writers, and thinkers.
Simplified and Focused My Planning
Three short paragraphs is a lot more manageable to plan and execute than a five page document. By sticking to these three prompts of what, how, and why, the purpose and content of my lesson remained at the forefront. There is no room for getting lost in the weeds, no space for distracting tangents. It is clear, concise, easy to follow, AND easy to deliver in the small window that is a mini-lesson timeframe.
Helped My "Economy of Language"
When I say "shored up my teacher language," I mean it helped my language become precise and concise. This mini-lesson framework helped rid me of any rambling tendencies. I had a clear statement of what we would be doing today. I planned out exactly how students would execute this skill. And I had a clear "why" for the importance of the every lesson's focus.
It is easier for students to grasp ideas, concepts, and skills when they are clearly and concisely explained. Students are less likely to get lost in the ideas when they are well-explained without extra fluff.
Encouraged Student Buy-In
This was a biggie! In a methods course in undergrad, I was taught that the "hook" is what engages students. While a hook is certainly useful in capturing students attention, it can only take engagement so far. If students do not see the value in the work they are doing, their minds will soon wander, now matter how exciting your first minutes were.
Writing out the "why" and incorporating that piece of the lesson everyday increased student motivation and engagement like no other strategy. This portion of the mini-lesson framework makes it clear to students the importance of the work at hand. It was a chance to explain how the day's objective and practice was relevant to their lives--how they would directly benefit from mastering this skill or learning this knowledge.
Repurposing My Planning Time
This simplified lesson plan template allowed me to spend more planning time on strategies that would yield greater student results. I spent my (limited) planning time analyzing the most recent student data collected and used the real-time data to drive my instruction. I had ample time to pre-read and analyze every text that would be shared, with my particular students and their abilities in mind. I was able to work through any student questions, prompts, or problems, looking for areas that would trip them up, thinking through common misconceptions that they may have based off of the data I was examining.
My instruction became so much more purposeful and tailored to my individual students' needs, rather than the cookie-cutter lessons I had hoped would suit the children with whom I worked.
So, if you are looking for a format that can be applied tomorrow, to every lesson, and that will give your lessons focus and clarity, I strongly recommend trying out the WHAT, HOW, WHY model.
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