You should plan your Teaching Sample Lesson so that the Opening, Mini-lesson, and Closing are all aligned to the lesson objective you have chosen. To have an aligned lesson, you'll want to give careful consideration to how the parts of your lesson progress so that students are actively learning and the lesson ends with students meeting the objective you've selected.
Steps to Create your Objective-Aligned Teaching Sample
- Become an expert in the content. You will first want to spend time thinking about your objective and identifying the knowledge and skills it requires of your students. Make sure you know exactly what the objective entails and that you can accomplish the objective yourself. Through this process, identify two or three knowledge-based and/or skill-based key points directly related to your objective that students must know or be able to do in order to meet the lesson objective. Remember: accuracy is essential; you never want to teach the wrong content to your students. Successful candidates typically spend 1-2 hours understanding their content and carefully preparing their lesson.
Think back to the example English Teaching Sample Planning Form. The key points are directly related to the objective, “Identify examples of hyperbole and explain why an author uses specific hyperboles.” The three key points in that Teaching Sample Planning Form define what hyperbole is, what skills students can use to determine what an author really means when they use hyperbole, and why students, as authors, would use hyperbole.
- Know where you’re headed. Next, plan your Teaching Sample Closing. This is the part of your lesson where you sum up the lesson, and your students show what they have learned. Although this part of your lesson comes last when you teach it, you want to plan for it as early as possible. If you've already completed the objective yourself (see above) you know exactly what success looks like and what you should expect of your students. Be clear on what you expect to hear and see from your students at the end of your five-minute Teaching Sample Lesson. Let this serve as your "north star" and ensure that all other parts of your lesson will lead students directly to this outcome.
Once again, take a look at the example English Teaching Sample Planning Form. You’ll see that the Closing is also aligned to the objective because the questions ask students to explain why an author uses hyperboles (use the exaggeration to make a point) and to identify examples of hyperbole (“what do I really mean if I say, ‘I feel like I’ve been walking for a thousand years!’?”).
- Teaching is a two-way street! Last, plan your Mini-lesson. To ensure alignment to your objective, the activities you choose should center on the two or three key points you identified earlier when you were reflecting on your objective.
Presenting information in a logical order is important when planning your Mini-lesson. Ask yourself questions like: What do students need to learn first? Second? Third? After they learn the last key point, will they have fully mastered the objective?
You'll want to plan for how you and your students will engage with the content. How will you introduce the key points to your class? Consider including explanations, modeling, or thinking-aloud for students. You'll also want to choose appropriate activities that lend themselves to the knowledge and skills represented in your key points. Consider student activities such as discussing, analyzing, writing, drawing, problem-solving, and asking and investigating questions.
In the example English Teaching Sample Planning Form, the lesson includes activities such as reading poems with hyperboles and identifying (by underlining) and interpreting the meanings of hyperboles.
Strategies to Engage Every Student in Your Lesson
Checking for Understanding: Effective teachers always know if their students are on track to master the objective. Check to make sure students understand your lesson by engaging students with questions that will prove they are on track for mastery.
Cold Call: Call on students by name to answer questions, read aloud, or share ideas. For Cold Call, students do not need to raise their hands to respond to their teacher. The teacher simply calls on a student whether or not they have volunteered. You can cold call on Zoom by simply calling on one of the candidates in your interview room.
Everybody Writes: Pose a question to the class that requires every student to write a response on the virtual Whiteboard or on their own papers.
Call and Response: Ask a question verbally. Instead of calling on one student to answer, prompt the entire class to respond verbally at the same time. Make sure the expected answer is only one word and is something that all students can answer.
Taking Charge and Leading the Class
When you’re the teacher, you’re in command of the virtual learning space! As the teacher, you’re responsible for making sure your students are learning, so you’ll need to take charge by being confident in your body language and tone. Here are some tips that will help you be perceived as the leader of your classroom.
Eyes on your Class: Face your body towards the webcam during your lesson. Look into your camera to encourage eye contact. Your students should feel like you are addressing them, not reading from your notes.
Speak Concisely: Focus your words on the most important content that you want to deliver to your students. Plan your lesson so that you can efficiently deliver content, and then practice so you remember your content without pausing to collect your thoughts.
Mind your Tone: Your voice should be loud enough for all of your students to clearly hear you through the virtual platform. Keep your students captivated by varying your tone. You want to sound formal, but also warm and inviting.