what is research lesson plan

Research Lesson Plan

This lesson plan accompanies the BrainPOP topic, Research , and can be completed over several class periods. See suggested times for each section.

Students will:

Activate prior knowledge about how to do a research project.

Identify the sequence of events for conducting research.

Use critical thinking skills to analyze how and why having a focus is key to conducting research and doing a research report.

Demonstrate understanding through creative projects, such as producing a movie using research they gathered, or coding a game that challenges players to sort the different research steps.

Present projects and reflect on new understandings.

TEACHER PRE-PLANNING

For background on the Research Topic , click the Full Description link below the movie player.

The INVESTIGATE and CREATE sections of the lesson require students to use Make-a-Map, Make-a-Movie, and Creative Coding projects. Assign the Research Make-a-Map to the class in advance of the lesson. 

Approximate time: 20-25 minutes

Begin the lesson plan by activating students’ prior knowledge and making real-life connections.  Then show the movie to introduce the topic. 

• DISPLAY this Anchor Question on whiteboard and read it aloud: What are the signs of a good research question? Tell students they will investigate this question over the course of the lesson and will return to it at the end.
• ACTIVATE BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE by having pairs or small groups share with each other steps they’ve taken for doing a research project, including what has and hasn’t worked.
• READ ALOUD the description below the movie player.
• MAKE CONNECTIONS by asking students to share specific research projects they’ve worked on and what they learned from the experience. 
• WATCH the movie Research as a whole class on the whiteboard. Turn on the closed caption option to aid in comprehension.    

INVESTIGATE

Prompt students’ inquiry and critical thinking skills by having them find key details to build knowledge and understanding.

FIND EVIDENCE

• Students open their Make-a-Map Assignment and select or create a sequence map. They type the question they will investigate at the top:  What are the steps to conducting research for a research report?
• As students watch the movie again, they identify the steps for doing a research report. Evidence can include text, images, and movie clips. ADDED CHALLENGE : Prompt students to include evidence for why research isn’t always a linear process; why returning to earlier steps is sometimes a key step to conducting research. SUPPORT TIP: Help students by identifying the first step or two for doing a research report, and add it to the concept map.
• Students SUBMIT their maps when they are done.

Approximate time: 45-60 minutes

Students demonstrate their understanding by synthesizing their ideas and expressing them through one or more of the following hands-on, creative projects.  They can work individually or collaborate. Remind them to use evidence from their concept maps in their creations.

APPLY KNOWLEDGE   

• Research Memes :   Code a research meme. It can be about a research topic, the research process, or even a famous researcher.  Your meme can be funny or serious!
• A Research Tutorial : Produce a mini tutorial for classmates describing a research report you’re working on now, and the steps you are taking. Include your research question. 
• Research Steps Game : Code a game challenging players to identify when in the research process different steps happen: beginning, middle, or end.

Wrap up the lesson with student presentations and a final reflection on learning.

PRESENT : Students present their completed projects to their classmates. 

WRAP UP : Draw attention to the Anchor Question again: What are the signs of a good research question? Students answer the question using their new knowledge.

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

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• Research Skills

50 Mini-Lessons For Teaching Students Research Skills

Please note, I am no longer blogging and this post hasn’t updated since April 2020.

For a number of years, Seth Godin has been talking about the need to “ connect the dots” rather than “collect the dots” . That is, rather than memorising information, students must be able to learn how to solve new problems, see patterns, and combine multiple perspectives.

Solid research skills underpin this. Having the fluency to find and use information successfully is an essential skill for life and work.

Today’s students have more information at their fingertips than ever before and this means the role of the teacher as a guide is more important than ever.

You might be wondering how you can fit teaching research skills into a busy curriculum? There aren’t enough hours in the day! The good news is, there are so many mini-lessons you can do to build students’ skills over time.

This post outlines 50 ideas for activities that could be done in just a few minutes (or stretched out to a longer lesson if you have the time!).

Learn More About The Research Process

I have a popular post called Teach Students How To Research Online In 5 Steps. It outlines a five-step approach to break down the research process into manageable chunks.

This post shares ideas for mini-lessons that could be carried out in the classroom throughout the year to help build students’ skills in the five areas of: clarify, search, delve, evaluate , and cite . It also includes ideas for learning about staying organised throughout the research process.

Notes about the 50 research activities:

• These ideas can be adapted for different age groups from middle primary/elementary to senior high school.
• Many of these ideas can be repeated throughout the year.
• Depending on the age of your students, you can decide whether the activity will be more teacher or student led. Some activities suggest coming up with a list of words, questions, or phrases. Teachers of younger students could generate these themselves.
• Depending on how much time you have, many of the activities can be either quickly modelled by the teacher, or extended to an hour-long lesson.
• Some of the activities could fit into more than one category.
• Looking for simple articles for younger students for some of the activities? Try DOGO News or Time for Kids . Newsela is also a great resource but you do need to sign up for free account.
• Why not try a few activities in a staff meeting? Everyone can always brush up on their own research skills!

• Choose a topic (e.g. koalas, basketball, Mount Everest) . Write as many questions as you can think of relating to that topic.
• Make a mindmap of a topic you’re currently learning about. This could be either on paper or using an online tool like Bubbl.us .
• Read a short book or article. Make a list of 5 words from the text that you don’t totally understand. Look up the meaning of the words in a dictionary (online or paper).
• Look at a printed or digital copy of a short article with the title removed. Come up with as many different titles as possible that would fit the article.
• Come up with a list of 5 different questions you could type into Google (e.g. Which country in Asia has the largest population?) Circle the keywords in each question.
• Write down 10 words to describe a person, place, or topic. Come up with synonyms for these words using a tool like  Thesaurus.com .
• Write pairs of synonyms on post-it notes (this could be done by the teacher or students). Each student in the class has one post-it note and walks around the classroom to find the person with the synonym to their word.

• Explore how to search Google using your voice (i.e. click/tap on the microphone in the Google search box or on your phone/tablet keyboard) . List the pros and cons of using voice and text to search.
• Open two different search engines in your browser such as Google and Bing. Type in a query and compare the results. Do all search engines work exactly the same?
• Have students work in pairs to try out a different search engine (there are 11 listed here ). Report back to the class on the pros and cons.
• Think of something you’re curious about, (e.g. What endangered animals live in the Amazon Rainforest?). Open Google in two tabs. In one search, type in one or two keywords ( e.g. Amazon Rainforest) . In the other search type in multiple relevant keywords (e.g. endangered animals Amazon rainforest).  Compare the results. Discuss the importance of being specific.
• Similar to above, try two different searches where one phrase is in quotation marks and the other is not. For example, Origin of “raining cats and dogs” and Origin of raining cats and dogs . Discuss the difference that using quotation marks makes (It tells Google to search for the precise keywords in order.)
• Try writing a question in Google with a few minor spelling mistakes. What happens? What happens if you add or leave out punctuation ?
• Try the AGoogleADay.com daily search challenges from Google. The questions help older students learn about choosing keywords, deconstructing questions, and altering keywords.
• Explore how Google uses autocomplete to suggest searches quickly. Try it out by typing in various queries (e.g. How to draw… or What is the tallest…). Discuss how these suggestions come about, how to use them, and whether they’re usually helpful.
• Watch this video  from Code.org to learn more about how search works .
• Take a look at  20 Instant Google Searches your Students Need to Know  by Eric Curts to learn about “ instant searches ”. Try one to try out. Perhaps each student could be assigned one to try and share with the class.
• Experiment with typing some questions into Google that have a clear answer (e.g. “What is a parallelogram?” or “What is the highest mountain in the world?” or “What is the population of Australia?”). Look at the different ways the answers are displayed instantly within the search results — dictionary definitions, image cards, graphs etc.

• Watch the video How Does Google Know Everything About Me?  by Scientific American. Discuss the PageRank algorithm and how Google uses your data to customise search results.
• Brainstorm a list of popular domains   (e.g. .com, .com.au, or your country’s domain) . Discuss if any domains might be more reliable than others and why (e.g. .gov or .edu) .
• Discuss (or research) ways to open Google search results in a new tab to save your original search results  (i.e. right-click > open link in new tab or press control/command and click the link).
• Try out a few Google searches (perhaps start with things like “car service” “cat food” or “fresh flowers”). A re there advertisements within the results? Discuss where these appear and how to spot them.
• Look at ways to filter search results by using the tabs at the top of the page in Google (i.e. news, images, shopping, maps, videos etc.). Do the same filters appear for all Google searches? Try out a few different searches and see.
• Type a question into Google and look for the “People also ask” and “Searches related to…” sections. Discuss how these could be useful. When should you use them or ignore them so you don’t go off on an irrelevant tangent? Is the information in the drop-down section under “People also ask” always the best?
• Often, more current search results are more useful. Click on “tools” under the Google search box and then “any time” and your time frame of choice such as “Past month” or “Past year”.
• Have students annotate their own “anatomy of a search result” example like the one I made below. Explore the different ways search results display; some have more details like sitelinks and some do not.

• Find two articles on a news topic from different publications. Or find a news article and an opinion piece on the same topic. Make a Venn diagram comparing the similarities and differences.
• Choose a graph, map, or chart from The New York Times’ What’s Going On In This Graph series . Have a whole class or small group discussion about the data.
• Look at images stripped of their captions on What’s Going On In This Picture? by The New York Times. Discuss the images in pairs or small groups. What can you tell?
• Explore a website together as a class or in pairs — perhaps a news website. Identify all the advertisements .
• Have a look at a fake website either as a whole class or in pairs/small groups. See if students can spot that these sites are not real. Discuss the fact that you can’t believe everything that’s online. Get started with these four examples of fake websites from Eric Curts.
• Give students a copy of my website evaluation flowchart to analyse and then discuss as a class. Read more about the flowchart in this post.
• As a class, look at a prompt from Mike Caulfield’s Four Moves . Either together or in small groups, have students fact check the prompts on the site. This resource explains more about the fact checking process. Note: some of these prompts are not suitable for younger students.
• Practice skim reading — give students one minute to read a short article. Ask them to discuss what stood out to them. Headings? Bold words? Quotes? Then give students ten minutes to read the same article and discuss deep reading.

All students can benefit from learning about plagiarism, copyright, how to write information in their own words, and how to acknowledge the source. However, the formality of this process will depend on your students’ age and your curriculum guidelines.

• Watch the video Citation for Beginners for an introduction to citation. Discuss the key points to remember.
• Look up the definition of plagiarism using a variety of sources (dictionary, video, Wikipedia etc.). Create a definition as a class.
• Find an interesting video on YouTube (perhaps a “life hack” video) and write a brief summary in your own words.
• Have students pair up and tell each other about their weekend. Then have the listener try to verbalise or write their friend’s recount in their own words. Discuss how accurate this was.
• Read the class a copy of a well known fairy tale. Have them write a short summary in their own words. Compare the versions that different students come up with.
• Try out MyBib — a handy free online tool without ads that helps you create citations quickly and easily.
• Give primary/elementary students a copy of Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Citation that matches their grade level (the guide covers grades 1 to 6). Choose one form of citation and create some examples as a class (e.g. a website or a book).
• Make a list of things that are okay and not okay to do when researching, e.g. copy text from a website, use any image from Google images, paraphrase in your own words and cite your source, add a short quote and cite the source. 
• Have students read a short article and then come up with a summary that would be considered plagiarism and one that would not be considered plagiarism. These could be shared with the class and the students asked to decide which one shows an example of plagiarism .
• Older students could investigate the difference between paraphrasing and summarising . They could create a Venn diagram that compares the two.
• Write a list of statements on the board that might be true or false ( e.g. The 1956 Olympics were held in Melbourne, Australia. The rhinoceros is the largest land animal in the world. The current marathon world record is 2 hours, 7 minutes). Have students research these statements and decide whether they’re true or false by sharing their citations.

Staying Organised

• Make a list of different ways you can take notes while researching — Google Docs, Google Keep, pen and paper etc. Discuss the pros and cons of each method.
• Learn the keyboard shortcuts to help manage tabs (e.g. open new tab, reopen closed tab, go to next tab etc.). Perhaps students could all try out the shortcuts and share their favourite one with the class.
• Find a collection of resources on a topic and add them to a Wakelet .
• Listen to a short podcast or watch a brief video on a certain topic and sketchnote ideas. Sylvia Duckworth has some great tips about live sketchnoting
• Learn how to use split screen to have one window open with your research, and another open with your notes (e.g. a Google spreadsheet, Google Doc, Microsoft Word or OneNote etc.) .

All teachers know it’s important to teach students to research well. Investing time in this process will also pay off throughout the year and the years to come. Students will be able to focus on analysing and synthesizing information, rather than the mechanics of the research process.

By trying out as many of these mini-lessons as possible throughout the year, you’ll be really helping your students to thrive in all areas of school, work, and life.

Also remember to model your own searches explicitly during class time. Talk out loud as you look things up and ask students for input. Learning together is the way to go!

You Might Also Enjoy Reading:

How To Evaluate Websites: A Guide For Teachers And Students

Five Tips for Teaching Students How to Research and Filter Information

Typing Tips: The How and Why of Teaching Students Keyboarding Skills

8 Ways Teachers And Schools Can Communicate With Parents

10 Replies to “50 Mini-Lessons For Teaching Students Research Skills”

Loving these ideas, thank you

This list is amazing. Thank you so much!

So glad it’s helpful, Alex! 🙂

Hi I am a student who really needed some help on how to reasearch thanks for the help.

So glad it helped! 🙂

seriously seriously grateful for your post. 🙂

So glad it’s helpful! Makes my day 🙂

How do you get the 50 mini lessons. I got the free one but am interested in the full version.

Hi Tracey, The link to the PDF with the 50 mini lessons is in the post. Here it is . Check out this post if you need more advice on teaching students how to research online. Hope that helps! Kathleen

Best wishes to you as you face your health battler. Hoping you’ve come out stronger and healthier from it. Your website is so helpful.

Comments are closed.

How to write a research plan: Step-by-step guide

Last updated

30 January 2024

Reviewed by

Today’s businesses and institutions rely on data and analytics to inform their product and service decisions. These metrics influence how organizations stay competitive and inspire innovation. However, gathering data and insights requires carefully constructed research, and every research project needs a roadmap. This is where a research plan comes into play.

There’s general research planning; then there’s an official, well-executed research plan. Whatever data-driven research project you’re gearing up for, the research plan will be your framework for execution. The plan should also be detailed and thorough, with a diligent set of criteria to formulate your research efforts. Not including these key elements in your plan can be just as harmful as having no plan at all.

Read this step-by-step guide for writing a detailed research plan that can apply to any project, whether it’s scientific, educational, or business-related.

• What is a research plan?

A research plan is a documented overview of a project in its entirety, from end to end. It details the research efforts, participants, and methods needed, along with any anticipated results. It also outlines the project’s goals and mission, creating layers of steps to achieve those goals within a specified timeline.

Without a research plan, you and your team are flying blind, potentially wasting time and resources to pursue research without structured guidance.

The principal investigator, or PI, is responsible for facilitating the research oversight. They will create the research plan and inform team members and stakeholders of every detail relating to the project. The PI will also use the research plan to inform decision-making throughout the project.

• Why do you need a research plan?

Create a research plan before starting any official research to maximize every effort in pursuing and collecting the research data. Crucially, the plan will model the activities needed at each phase of the research project.

Like any roadmap, a research plan serves as a valuable tool providing direction for those involved in the project—both internally and externally. It will keep you and your immediate team organized and task-focused while also providing necessary definitions and timelines so you can execute your project initiatives with full understanding and transparency.

External stakeholders appreciate a working research plan because it’s a great communication tool, documenting progress and changing dynamics as they arise. Any participants of your planned research sessions will be informed about the purpose of your study, while the exercises will be based on the key messaging outlined in the official plan.

Here are some of the benefits of creating a research plan document for every project:

Project organization and structure

Well-informed participants

All stakeholders and teams align in support of the project

Clearly defined project definitions and purposes

Distractions are eliminated, prioritizing task focus

Timely management of individual task schedules and roles

Costly reworks are avoided

• What should a research plan include?

The different aspects of your research plan will depend on the nature of the project. However, most official research plan documents will include the core elements below. Each aims to define the problem statement, devising an official plan for seeking a solution.

Specific project goals and individual objectives

Ideal strategies or methods for reaching those goals

Required resources

Descriptions of the target audience, sample sizes, demographics, and scopes

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Project background

Research and testing support

Preliminary studies and progress reporting mechanisms

Cost estimates and change order processes

Depending on the research project’s size and scope, your research plan could be brief—perhaps only a few pages of documented plans. Alternatively, it could be a fully comprehensive report. Either way, it’s an essential first step in dictating your project’s facilitation in the most efficient and effective way.

• How to write a research plan for your project

When you start writing your research plan, aim to be detailed about each step, requirement, and idea. The more time you spend curating your research plan, the more precise your research execution efforts will be.

Account for every potential scenario, and be sure to address each and every aspect of the research.

Consider following this flow to develop a great research plan for your project:

Define your project’s purpose

Start by defining your project’s purpose. Identify what your project aims to accomplish and what you are researching. Remember to use clear language.

Thinking about the project’s purpose will help you set realistic goals and inform how you divide tasks and assign responsibilities. These individual tasks will be your stepping stones to reach your overarching goal.

Additionally, you’ll want to identify the specific problem, the usability metrics needed, and the intended solutions.

Know the following three things about your project’s purpose before you outline anything else:

What you’re doing

Why you’re doing it

What you expect from it

Identify individual objectives

With your overarching project objectives in place, you can identify any individual goals or steps needed to reach those objectives. Break them down into phases or steps. You can work backward from the project goal and identify every process required to facilitate it.

Be mindful to identify each unique task so that you can assign responsibilities to various team members. At this point in your research plan development, you’ll also want to assign priority to those smaller, more manageable steps and phases that require more immediate or dedicated attention.

Select research methods

Research methods might include any of the following:

User interviews: this is a qualitative research method where researchers engage with participants in one-on-one or group conversations. The aim is to gather insights into their experiences, preferences, and opinions to uncover patterns, trends, and data.

Field studies: this approach allows for a contextual understanding of behaviors, interactions, and processes in real-world settings. It involves the researcher immersing themselves in the field, conducting observations, interviews, or experiments to gather in-depth insights.

Card sorting: participants categorize information by sorting content cards into groups based on their perceived similarities. You might use this process to gain insights into participants’ mental models and preferences when navigating or organizing information on websites, apps, or other systems.

Focus groups: use organized discussions among select groups of participants to provide relevant views and experiences about a particular topic.

Diary studies: ask participants to record their experiences, thoughts, and activities in a diary over a specified period. This method provides a deeper understanding of user experiences, uncovers patterns, and identifies areas for improvement.

Five-second testing: participants are shown a design, such as a web page or interface, for just five seconds. They then answer questions about their initial impressions and recall, allowing you to evaluate the design’s effectiveness.

Surveys: get feedback from participant groups with structured surveys. You can use online forms, telephone interviews, or paper questionnaires to reveal trends, patterns, and correlations.

Tree testing: tree testing involves researching web assets through the lens of findability and navigability. Participants are given a textual representation of the site’s hierarchy (the “tree”) and asked to locate specific information or complete tasks by selecting paths.

Usability testing: ask participants to interact with a product, website, or application to evaluate its ease of use. This method enables you to uncover areas for improvement in digital key feature functionality by observing participants using the product.

Live website testing: research and collect analytics that outlines the design, usability, and performance efficiencies of a website in real time.

There are no limits to the number of research methods you could use within your project. Just make sure your research methods help you determine the following:

What do you plan to do with the research findings?

What decisions will this research inform? How can your stakeholders leverage the research data and results?

Recruit participants and allocate tasks

Next, identify the participants needed to complete the research and the resources required to complete the tasks. Different people will be proficient at different tasks, and having a task allocation plan will allow everything to run smoothly.

Prepare a thorough project summary

Every well-designed research plan will feature a project summary. This official summary will guide your research alongside its communications or messaging. You’ll use the summary while recruiting participants and during stakeholder meetings. It can also be useful when conducting field studies.

Ensure this summary includes all the elements of your research project. Separate the steps into an easily explainable piece of text that includes the following:

An introduction: the message you’ll deliver to participants about the interview, pre-planned questioning, and testing tasks.

Interview questions: prepare questions you intend to ask participants as part of your research study, guiding the sessions from start to finish.

An exit message: draft messaging your teams will use to conclude testing or survey sessions. These should include the next steps and express gratitude for the participant’s time.

Create a realistic timeline

While your project might already have a deadline or a results timeline in place, you’ll need to consider the time needed to execute it effectively.

Realistically outline the time needed to properly execute each supporting phase of research and implementation. And, as you evaluate the necessary schedules, be sure to include additional time for achieving each milestone in case any changes or unexpected delays arise.

For this part of your research plan, you might find it helpful to create visuals to ensure your research team and stakeholders fully understand the information.

Determine how to present your results

A research plan must also describe how you intend to present your results. Depending on the nature of your project and its goals, you might dedicate one team member (the PI) or assume responsibility for communicating the findings yourself.

In this part of the research plan, you’ll articulate how you’ll share the results. Detail any materials you’ll use, such as:

Presentations and slides

A project report booklet

A project findings pamphlet

Documents with key takeaways and statistics

Graphic visuals to support your findings

• Format your research plan

As you create your research plan, you can enjoy a little creative freedom. A plan can assume many forms, so format it how you see fit. Determine the best layout based on your specific project, intended communications, and the preferences of your teams and stakeholders.

Find format inspiration among the following layouts:

Written outlines

Narrative storytelling

Visual mapping

Graphic timelines

Remember, the research plan format you choose will be subject to change and adaptation as your research and findings unfold. However, your final format should ideally outline questions, problems, opportunities, and expectations.

• Research plan example

Imagine you’ve been tasked with finding out how to get more customers to order takeout from an online food delivery platform. The goal is to improve satisfaction and retain existing customers. You set out to discover why more people aren’t ordering and what it is they do want to order or experience. 

You identify the need for a research project that helps you understand what drives customer loyalty. But before you jump in and start calling past customers, you need to develop a research plan—the roadmap that provides focus, clarity, and realistic details to the project.

Here’s an example outline of a research plan you might put together:

Project title

Project members involved in the research plan

Purpose of the project (provide a summary of the research plan’s intent)

Objective 1 (provide a short description for each objective)

Objective 2

Objective 3

Proposed timeline

Audience (detail the group you want to research, such as customers or non-customers)

Budget (how much you think it might cost to do the research)

Risk factors/contingencies (any potential risk factors that may impact the project’s success)

Remember, your research plan doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel—it just needs to fit your project’s unique needs and aims.

Customizing a research plan template

Some companies offer research plan templates to help get you started. However, it may make more sense to develop your own customized plan template. Be sure to include the core elements of a great research plan with your template layout, including the following:

Introductions to participants and stakeholders

Background problems and needs statement

Significance, ethics, and purpose

Research methods, questions, and designs

Preliminary beliefs and expectations

Implications and intended outcomes

Realistic timelines for each phase

Conclusion and presentations

How many pages should a research plan be?

Generally, a research plan can vary in length between 500 to 1,500 words. This is roughly three pages of content. More substantial projects will be 2,000 to 3,500 words, taking up four to seven pages of planning documents.

What is the difference between a research plan and a research proposal?

A research plan is a roadmap to success for research teams. A research proposal, on the other hand, is a dissertation aimed at convincing or earning the support of others. Both are relevant in creating a guide to follow to complete a project goal.

What are the seven steps to developing a research plan?

While each research project is different, it’s best to follow these seven general steps to create your research plan:

Defining the problem

Identifying goals

Choosing research methods

Recruiting participants

Preparing the brief or summary

Establishing task timelines

Defining how you will present the findings

Should you be using a customer insights hub?

Do you want to discover previous research faster?

Do you share your research findings with others?

Do you analyze research data?

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Scaffolding Methods for Research Paper Writing

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

Students will use scaffolding to research and organize information for writing a research paper. A research paper scaffold provides students with clear support for writing expository papers that include a question (problem), literature review, analysis, methodology for original research, results, conclusion, and references. Students examine informational text, use an inquiry-based approach, and practice genre-specific strategies for expository writing. Depending on the goals of the assignment, students may work collaboratively or as individuals. A student-written paper about color psychology provides an authentic model of a scaffold and the corresponding finished paper. The research paper scaffold is designed to be completed during seven or eight sessions over the course of four to six weeks.

Featured Resources

• Research Paper Scaffold : This handout guides students in researching and organizing the information they need for writing their research paper.
• Inquiry on the Internet: Evaluating Web Pages for a Class Collection : Students use Internet search engines and Web analysis checklists to evaluate online resources then write annotations that explain how and why the resources will be valuable to the class.

From Theory to Practice

• Research paper scaffolding provides a temporary linguistic tool to assist students as they organize their expository writing. Scaffolding assists students in moving to levels of language performance they might be unable to obtain without this support.
• An instructional scaffold essentially changes the role of the teacher from that of giver of knowledge to leader in inquiry. This relationship encourages creative intelligence on the part of both teacher and student, which in turn may broaden the notion of literacy so as to include more learning styles.
• An instructional scaffold is useful for expository writing because of its basis in problem solving, ownership, appropriateness, support, collaboration, and internalization. It allows students to start where they are comfortable, and provides a genre-based structure for organizing creative ideas.
• In order for students to take ownership of knowledge, they must learn to rework raw information, use details and facts, and write.
• Teaching writing should involve direct, explicit comprehension instruction, effective instructional principles embedded in content, motivation and self-directed learning, and text-based collaborative learning to improve middle school and high school literacy.

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
• 2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
• 7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
• 8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
• 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

Computers with Internet access and printing capability

• Research Paper Scaffold
• Example Research Paper Scaffold
• Example Student Research Paper
• Internet Citation Checklist
• Research Paper Scoring Rubric
• Permission Form (optional)

Preparation

Student objectives.

Students will

• Formulate a clear thesis that conveys a perspective on the subject of their research
• Practice research skills, including evaluation of sources, paraphrasing and summarizing relevant information, and citation of sources used
• Logically group and sequence ideas in expository writing
• Organize and display information on charts, maps, and graphs

Session 1: Research Question

You should approve students’ final research questions before Session 2. You may also wish to send home the Permission Form with students, to make parents aware of their child’s research topic and the project due dates.

Session 2: Literature Review—Search

Prior to this session, you may want to introduce or review Internet search techniques using the lesson Inquiry on the Internet: Evaluating Web Pages for a Class Collection . You may also wish to consult with the school librarian regarding subscription databases designed specifically for student research, which may be available through the school or public library. Using these types of resources will help to ensure that students find relevant and appropriate information. Using Internet search engines such as Google can be overwhelming to beginning researchers.

Session 3: Literature Review—Notes

Students need to bring their articles to this session. For large classes, have students highlight relevant information (as described below) and submit the articles for assessment before beginning the session.

Checking Literature Review entries on the same day is best practice, as it gives both you and the student time to plan and address any problems before proceeding. Note that in the finished product this literature review section will be about six paragraphs, so students need to gather enough facts to fit this format.

Session 4: Analysis

Session 5: original research.

Students should design some form of original research appropriate to their topics, but they do not necessarily have to conduct the experiments or surveys they propose. Depending on the appropriateness of the original research proposals, the time involved, and the resources available, you may prefer to omit the actual research or use it as an extension activity.

Session 6: Results (optional)

Session 7: conclusion, session 8: references and writing final draft, student assessment / reflections.

• Observe students’ participation in the initial stages of the Research Paper Scaffold and promptly address any errors or misconceptions about the research process.
• Observe students and provide feedback as they complete each section of the Research Paper Scaffold.
• Provide a safe environment where students will want to take risks in exploring ideas. During collaborative work, offer feedback and guidance to those who need encouragement or require assistance in learning cooperation and tolerance.
• Involve students in using the Research Paper Scoring Rubric for final evaluation of the research paper. Go over this rubric during Session 8, before they write their final drafts.
• Strategy Guides

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Princeton University Library

Toolkit for teaching research at princeton.

• Toolkit Home
• All Things Canvas
• Teaching for the Writing Seminars
• Remote Teaching
• Faculty Collaboration Checklist

General Orientation to the Library

Database/catalog searching, developing and narrowing a research topic, teaching how to evaluate sources, citing sources/citation management, orienting departmental majors to library resources, lesson plans for teaching remotely.

• Bank of Exit and Learning Assessment Surveys
• Bibliographic Management (Zotero, Endnote, Etc)
• Models, Standards, etc.
• Professional Resources & Bibliography
• Discussion Board ~[392]~
• User-facing Instruction Pages @PUL
• extended access

(These were created for writing seminars but can be used for other courses)

• The Great Library Treasure Hunt Created by Kachina Allen and Audrey Welber for a Writing Seminar
• Library Treasure Hunt (Created by Audrey Welber for "Celebrity" Writing Seminar)
• You Love the Library Treasure Hunt created by Raf Allison
• First and Second Session Lesson Plans by Darwin Scott for "Decoding Dress"
• Library "Jeopardy" by Elana Broch
• Slavery WRI; library research & assessing sources R. Friedman w/N. Elder
• Intro to the Library Collaboration and Search Techniques
• Developing a Research Topic (Shannon Winston)
• Topic Formation in Library (Caswell-Klein)

(These were created for writing seminars but can be used for other courses.)

• Finding Your Dream Source Created by Greg Spears and Audrey Welber for "Music and Madness"
• Dream Source Sample Exercise Created by Sam Garcia and Audrey Welber
• Library Discovery Session Exercises Created by Writing Seminar Faculty member Cecily Swanson
• Advanced searching tips for Articles+ and the Library Catalog Intended as a Pre-draft assignment for Unit 3; it can easily be split up into two separate assignments/lessons.
• WRI 146 - session 1 R. Friedman w/instructor E. Ljung; exploring library resources and museum objects
• Narrowing Your Topic
• CRAAP Test for Evaluating Sources Created by Alex Davis for "Politics of Intimacy"
• Evaluating resources UC-Berkeley LibGuide: General, Scholarly vs. Popular, Primary and Secondary
• Evaluating Sources Created by Raf Allison
• Zotero Libguide (created by Audrey Welber)
• A short "getting started" video tutorial A 5 minute crash course on using Zotero at Princeton. Zotero can save you hours of frustration because it enables you to quickly import and organize your materials as you do your research and easily insert citations into Word (and google doc, Scrivener, Latek, etc) as you write. Zotero also generates a bibliography based on the sources you've cited (but can also create a standalone bibliography.)
• Endnote, Basic
• MolBio Junior Tutorial
• MolBio Tutorial Reflection reflection of how the lesson went

Preparation for your Zoom session:

A 10 minute getting started video from Zoom company

Preparation for your Zoom session for the Writing Seminars/important details about using Zoom with a class (culled from brainstorm session with many teaching librarians on 3/20)

Lesson plans/exercises:

Research Clinic

Outline Session #1

One of Audrey's lesson plans for first session

Elana's plan (4 short sessions)

Denise's plan for a Freshman Writing Seminar

Research Clinic             Research clinic sample plan

Mini exercises

Videos created for flipped classroom  ("asychronous" learning)

Thomas Keenan: 5 videos for a Writing Seminar Discovery Session

Wayne Bivens-Tatum: Zoom video creation tutorial (for a subject area class)

Audrey Welber: Articles+, Catalog, and Zotero

• Last Updated: Mar 28, 2024 11:08 AM
• URL: https://libguides.princeton.edu/teachingtoolkit

For immediate release | October 5, 2021

Ready-to-use lesson plans for scholarly research topics

CHICAGO — The world of scholarly research is uncharted territory for undergrads, but with the right approach you can quickly get them up to speed. With 33 time-saving lesson plans, Toni Carter’s “ Introducing Scholarly Research: Ready-to-Use Lesson Plans and Activities for Undergraduates ,” published by ALA Editions, will assist you in moving your instruction beyond basic skills to include topics such as how to use a library database and the reasons scholars use them, to why peer review is important. Inside, you’ll find:

• modular lessons designed for 50-minute timeslots that include individual and group activities with 25 worksheets, quick in-session assessment, conversation starters, and learning outcomes;
• a variety of mix-and-match tools and activities that can be easily adapted for one-shots;
• concepts that are grounded in the ACRL Framework;
• topics that include the infrastructure that supports the scholarly research process;
• warm-ups using the lingo of favorite hobbies to launch a discussion of scholarship terminology;
• an exercise that brainstorms the factors leading to authority, then asks students to apply them to a well-known campus professor;
• an activity using visualization to examine the characteristics of a scholar to check biases and explore diversity;
• factors to consider when choosing a scholarly journal for publishing research;
• QUAN and QUAL worksheets to teach the two type of research; and
• discussion on the categories, disciplines, and crossovers within liberal arts.

Carter is Director of Kares Library at Athens State University in Athens, Alabama. The first 15 years of her career in academic librarianship focused on information literacy instruction, including service as both an instruction librarian and instruction coordinator. She has published peer-reviewed articles and has presented related topics at local, regional, and national conferences, including ACRL, ALA, and LOEX.

Many book retailers and distributors are experiencing service disruptions or delays, including Amazon. For speediest service, order direct from the ALA Store. ALA Store purchases fund advocacy, awareness and accreditation programs for library and information professionals worldwide. ALA Editions | ALA Neal-Schuman publishes resources used by library and information professionals, scholars, students, and educators to improve programs and services, build on best practices, enhance pedagogy, share research, develop leadership, and promote advocacy. ALA authors and developers are leaders in their fields, and their content is published in a variety of print and electronic formats. Contact ALA Editions | ALA Neal-Schuman at [email protected].

Related Links

"Introducing Scholarly Research: Ready-to-Use Lesson Plans and Activities for Undergraduates"

"The Culture of Digital Scholarship in Academic Libraries"

"Using Context in Information Literacy Instruction: Beyond Basic Skills"

Rob Christopher

Marketing Coordinator

American Library Association

ALA Publishing & Media

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The Lesson Study Group

at Mills College

Identify and Examine the Research Lesson

Examine the unit plan, design the flow of instruction.

Now that you have designed the unit flow, decide which lesson will be the research lesson.

30-50 minutes

• Choose the lesson and identify lesson goals
• Remind yourself of your long-term goals and theory of action
• Do the lesson task and anticipate student thinking

Choose the Research Lesson

Identify one lesson from within your unit to serve as a research lesson.

Choose one lesson within the unit as a research lesson, to be planned in detail by your team and observed by them (and by other educators, if you so choose). Your research lesson choice may be determined by practical concerns such as timing–the date your team members can be freed up to observe.  Your team’s desire to study a particular element of the unit may also shape your choice of lesson–for example, you may be eager to try out a new unit introduction.

The most valuable research lessons provide ample windows into student thinking, through students’ writing, small-group discussion and/or whole-class discussion, and through use of tasks that reveal students’ thinking. Once you have chosen the research lesson:

Add the  Title of the Lesson  (#1) to your Teaching-Learning Plan.

Clarify Lesson Goals

Use this opportunity to revise and fine-tune your goal statement.

Your unit plan specifies a goal(s) for the proposed research lesson. Tweak your lesson goal(s) as needed to make sure they capture your thinking about the following questions:

• What is the new learning this lesson expects from students?
• What do we want students to understand or know by the end of the lesson?
• What is important about this lesson?

Write out your  ( working )   Goals of the Lesson  (#8) and add them to the Teaching-Learning Plan. Feel free to revisit and revise the goals as your team’s thinking about the lesson evolves.

Consider Your Long-Term Goals

Will your lesson bring you and your students closer to the long-term goals you identified in your Research Theme?

Just before you dive into lesson design is a good time to remember the long-term goals represented in your research theme, and your theory of action about how to get there. Some teams create a visual reminder, like the one below, that the research lesson supports nested layers of goals.

Math: Example of Four Layers of Lesson Study Goals

If your team would find it useful to have a graphic that shows your own layers of goals, you can create one using the downloadable template in the Resources section.

Four Levels of Lesson Study Goals – Template

Do the Task and Anticipate Student Responses

Consider the central task of the lesson.  Does it seem well-designed to support the goals of the lesson, unit, and research theme?  Will all your students be able to find an entry point, and progress toward the lesson goals? Or do you need to modify the task in some way? Once your team has tentatively arrived at a lesson task, have each member of the team:

• Independently do the task, as if they were a student
• Imagine several students in their class, and anticipate how each one of them would respond to the task

Then share and discuss your responses to the task, using your own and colleagues’ experiences to expand your thinking about how students might respond.

The Value of Anticipating Student Thinking

Anticipating student thinking is a core teaching skill that allows teachers to notice student thinking and build bridges from it to new understandings.  Anticipating student thinking and comparing your expectations with the actual student thinking during the lesson will help your team develop this core skill, which is so helpful in the “swiftly flowing river” of daily classroom life.

However, as teacher Heather Crawford notes, anticipating student thinking may initially be hard.

It is challenging – to try and think about the students’ solutions to the problem before they do it, and to try and get all of the answers they might come up with.… Before we did Lesson Study, we really didn’t think about what the student responses would be to the questions…. It was, ‘Well, we hope they get the right answer and if they don’t then we will deal with it.’ Now we are really thinking about, ‘Well, what if this answer were to come up? How would we deal with it?’ We think a lot more about the motivation for the lesson and making sure that the kids have the prior knowledge that they need before we teach each lesson.

Capture your ideas about anticipated student responses in your team notes.   These will be used to design the flow of instruction, so that it builds from anticipated student responses.

• What is Lesson Study?
• Why Lesson Study?
• Teacher Learning
• Content Resources
• Teaching Through Problem-solving (TTP)
• School-wide Lesson Study
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• International Networks

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• Make an Appointment
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Service Alert

Research 101

• ACRL Framework Alignment
• Before You Begin...
• Lesson 1: Choose a Research Topic
• Lesson 2: Develop a Research Strategy
• Lesson 3: Conduct Ongoing Research
• Lesson 4: Analyze & Review Sources
• Lesson 5: Use Information Effectively
• After You Finish...
• Acknowledgements

Text: 336-308-8801

Email: [email protected]

Call: 336-633-0204

Schedule: Book-a-Librarian

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Links on this guide may go to external web sites not connected with Randolph Community College. Their inclusion is not an endorsement by Randolph Community College and the College is not responsible for the accuracy of their content or the security of their site.

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Lesson 1: Choose a Research Topic  

In this chapter, you'll learn to: 

• Formulate questions for research, based on information gaps or on reexamination of existing, possibly conflicting, information.
• Recognize that you, the researcher, are often entering into an ongoing scholarly conversation, not a finished conversation.
• Conduct background research to develop research strategies.
• Instructions
• 1) Scholarly Conversations
• 2) Research Topic
• 3) Research Question

Click on the numbered tabs to complete each activity.

Activities include videos, tutorials, and interactive tasks.

Questions about this lesson will be included on the Research 101 Quiz.

*It is recommended that you take notes while you complete each activity to prepare for the Research 101 quiz.

*If you have to take a break, make a note of your last activity so that you can pick up where you left off later.

"Choosing a Topic" Video by Amanda Burbage

This introductory video explains how when you choose a research topic, you are actually joining an ongoing academic conversation.

• "Choosing a Topic" Video Transcript
• CC BY-SA 4.0

"Scholarly Conversations" Tutorial by New Literacies Alliance

"In this lesson, students will discover how research is like a conversation that takes place between scholars in a field and will investigate ways they can become part of the conversation over time."  -NewLiteraciesAlliance.org

"Scholarly Conversations" Tutorial

1. Click on the tutorial link above.

2. Click the green "Sign In" button to login to your New Literacies Alliance account before beginning the tutorial .

*Go to the "Before You Begin" page of Research 101 if you have not yet registered for an account. 

3. Click the green "View Course" button.

4. Click the plus sign beside "Lesson".

5. Click the link that appears below to begin the tutorial.

• CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

"Picking Your Topic IS Research" Video by NC State University Libraries

This video explains that before you begin a project, you should do some preliminary research on your topic. This is a cyclical process, involving collecting background information and tweaking, to construct an interesting topic that you can further explore in your paper.

• "Picking Your Topic IS Research" Video Transcript

"Using Wikipedia for Academic Research (CLIP)" Video by Michael Baird

Although Wikipedia is not a suitable source for an academic research paper, it can still be very helpful! This video explains how this online encyclopedia can serve as a treasure trove of topic phrases, keywords, names, dates, and citations that you can use throughout the research process.

NOTE: Audio begins at 0.18 seconds.

• "Using Wikipedia for Academic Research (CLIP)" Video Transcript

"How to Develop a STRONG Research Question" Video by Scribbr

This video explains how to turn your research topic into a research question that is focused, researchable, feasible, specific, complex, and relevant.

• "How to Develop a STRONG Research Question" Video Transcript
• Scribbr Video Citation

"Ask the Right Questions" Tutorial by New Literacies Alliance

"In this lesson, students will explore what it takes to narrow a search in order to find the best information."  -NewLiteraciesAlliance.org

"Ask the Right Questions" Tutorial

• ~[123]~: Feb 13, 2024 4:11 PM
• ~[124]~: https://libguides.randolph.edu/R101

Research Based Lesson Design

Here is the presentation used at the Dig Deeper into RBLD training .

In Anaheim Elementary School District, our core audience is English learners.  Tier one instruction must be designed to meet the needs of at least 80% of students which typically includes English learners.  While all students benefit from Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI), English learners need EL scaffolds in conjunction with EDI.  With Research Based Lesson Design (RBLD), English learner strategies are planned for every instructional phases of EDI.  For a one page printable handout of the EL scaffolds in RBLD,  click here .

Both Concept Development and Guided Practice are taught using  a gradual release of responsibility .

For lesson planning, the  sequence that RBLD phases are planned  differs from the order in which they are taught.  Grade level teams are encouraged to collaborate in planning lessons.  A lesson using RBLD can be planned using different formats.  Some possible options are in a  PowerPoint , on paper and pencil, on a poster, or using this optional  template  (Click “File,” then “Make a copy.”)  Contact your Curriculum Coach for any support.

Learning Objectives

Activate prior knowledge, lesson importance, concept development, skill development, guided practice, lesson closure, independent practice, strategies used throughout a lesson.

Content objective is defined, displayed, and reviewed orally.

Visuals/TPR as appropriate for clarification

Highlight, circle, color code

Academic language restated in more comprehensible language

Sentence stem

Prior lesson visual support

Primary language connections (e.g. cognates)

Write, draw, share, TPR during Interact Step

Bridge Map to connect new learning

Multi-Flow Map that shows the effects from learning the lesson’s objective

Examples are visually displayed

Sentence frames or stems

Contextualized definitions  and  vocabulary charts

Discovery Education clips (Web 2.0 support)

Visual indications for examples v. non-examples

Pictorial support ,  TPR ,  realia

Highlighting, circling, underlining, color coding

Thinking Maps

Flow Map for procedure

Note-taking/process grids

Partner support

Sentence frames

Visual support/TPR

Color coding

Access to visuals from the lesson

Structured Think Pair Share

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Strategies for Effective Lesson Planning

Stiliana milkova center for research on learning and teaching.

A lesson plan is the instructor’s road map of what students need to learn and how it will be done effectively during the class time. Before you plan your lesson, you will first need to identify the learning objectives for the class meeting.  Then, you can design appropriate learning activities and develop strategies to obtain feedback on student learning. A successful lesson plan addresses and integrates these three key components:

• Objectives for student learning
• Teaching/learning activities
• Strategies to check student understanding

Specifying concrete objectives for student learning will help you determine the kinds of teaching and learning activities you will use in class, while those activities will define how you will check whether the learning objectives have been accomplished (see Fig. 1).

Steps for Preparing a Lesson Plan

Below are six steps to guide you when you create your first lesson plans. Each step is accompanied by a set of questions meant to prompt reflection and aid you in designing your teaching and learning activities.

(1) Outline learning objectives

The first step is to determine what you want students to learn and be able to do at the end of class. To help you specify your objectives for student learning, answer the following questions:

• What is the topic of the lesson?
• What do I want students to learn?
• What do I want them to understand and be able to do at the end of class?
• What do I want them to take away from this particular lesson?

Once you outline the learning objectives for the class meeting, rank them in terms of their importance. This step will prepare you for managing class time and accomplishing the more important learning objectives in case you are pressed for time. Consider the following questions:

• What are the most important concepts, ideas, or skills I want students to be able to grasp and apply?
• Why are they important?
• If I ran out of time, which ones could not be omitted?
• And conversely, which ones could I skip if pressed for time?

(2) Develop the introduction

Now that you have your learning objectives in order of their importance, design the specific activities you will use to get students to understand and apply what they have learned. Because you will have a diverse body of students with different academic and personal experiences, they may already be familiar with the topic. That is why you might start with a question or activity to gauge students’ knowledge of the subject or possibly, their preconceived notions about it. For example, you can take a simple poll: “How many of you have heard of X? Raise your hand if you have.” You can also gather background information from your students prior to class by sending students an electronic survey or asking them to write comments on index cards. This additional information can help shape your introduction, learning activities, etc.  When you have an idea of the students’ familiarity with the topic, you will also have a sense of what to focus on.

Develop a creative introduction to the topic to stimulate interest and encourage thinking. You can use a variety of approaches to engage students (e.g., personal anecdote, historical event, thought-provoking dilemma, real-world example, short video clip, practical application, probing question, etc.). Consider the following questions when planning your introduction:

• How will I check whether students know anything about the topic or have any preconceived notions about it?
• What are some commonly held ideas (or possibly misconceptions) about this topic that students might be familiar with or might espouse?
• What will I do to introduce the topic?

 (3) Plan the specific learning activities (the main body of the lesson)

Prepare several different ways of explaining the material (real-life examples, analogies, visuals, etc.) to catch the attention of more students and appeal to different learning styles. As you plan your examples and activities, estimate how much time you will spend on each. Build in time for extended explanation or discussion, but also be prepared to move on quickly to different applications or problems, and to identify strategies that check for understanding. These questions would help you design the learning activities you will use:

• What will I do to explain the topic?
• What will I do to illustrate the topic in a different way?
• How can I engage students in the topic?
• What are some relevant real-life examples, analogies, or situations that can help students understand the topic?
• What will students need to do to help them understand the topic better?

(4) Plan to check for understanding

Now that you have explained the topic and illustrated it with different examples, you need to check for student understanding – how will you know that students are learning? Think about specific questions you can ask students in order to check for understanding, write them down, and then paraphrase them so that you are prepared to ask the questions in different ways. Try to predict the answers your questions will generate. Decide on whether you want students to respond orally or in writing. You can look at Strategies to Extend Student Thinking , http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/P4_4.php to help you generate some ideas and you can also ask yourself these questions:

• What questions will I ask students to check for understanding?
• What will I have students do to demonstrate that they are following?
• Going back to my list of learning objectives, what activity can I have students do to check whether each of those has been accomplished?

An important strategy that will also help you with time management is to anticipate students’ questions. When planning your lesson, decide what kinds of questions will be productive for discussion and what questions might sidetrack the class. Think about and decide on the balance between covering content (accomplishing your learning objectives) and ensuring that students understand.

(5) Develop a conclusion and a preview

Go over the material covered in class by summarizing the main points of the lesson. You can do this in a number of ways: you can state the main points yourself (“Today we talked about…”), you can ask a student to help you summarize them, or you can even ask all students to write down on a piece of paper what they think were the main points of the lesson. You can review the students’ answers to gauge their understanding of the topic and then explain anything unclear the following class. Conclude the lesson not only by summarizing the main points, but also by previewing the next lesson. How does the topic relate to the one that’s coming? This preview will spur students’ interest and help them connect the different ideas within a larger context.

(6) Create a realistic timeline

GSIs know how easy it is to run out of time and not cover all of the many points they had planned to cover. A list of ten learning objectives is not realistic, so narrow down your list to the two or three key concepts, ideas, or skills you want students to learn. Instructors also agree that they often need to adjust their lesson plan during class depending on what the students need. Your list of prioritized learning objectives will help you make decisions on the spot and adjust your lesson plan as needed. Having additional examples or alternative activities will also allow you to be flexible. A realistic timeline will reflect your flexibility and readiness to adapt to the specific classroom environment. Here are some strategies for creating a realistic timeline:

• Estimate how much time each of the activities will take, then plan some extra time for each
• When you prepare your lesson plan, next to each activity indicate how much time you expect it will take
• Plan a few minutes at the end of class to answer any remaining questions and to sum up key points
• Plan an extra activity or discussion question in case you have time left
• Be flexible – be ready to adjust your lesson plan to students’ needs and focus on what seems to be more productive rather than sticking to your original plan

Presenting the Lesson Plan

Letting your students know what they will be learning and doing in class will help keep them more engaged and on track. You can share your lesson plan by writing a brief agenda on the board or telling students explicitly what they will be learning and doing in class. You can outline on the board or on a handout the learning objectives for the class. Providing a meaningful organization of the class time can help students not only remember better, but also follow your presentation and understand the rationale behind in-class activities. Having a clearly visible agenda (e.g., on the board) will also help you and students stay on track.

Reflecting on Your Lesson Plan

A lesson plan may not work as well as you had expected due to a number of extraneous circumstances. You should not get discouraged – it happens to even the most experienced teachers! Take a few minutes after each class to reflect on what worked well and why, and what you could have done differently. Identifying successful and less successful organization of class time and activities would make it easier to adjust to the contingencies of the classroom. For additional feedback on planning and managing class time, you can use the following resources: student feedback, peer observation, viewing a videotape of your teaching, and consultation with a staff member at CRLT (see also, Improving Your Teaching: Obtaining Feedback , http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/P9_1.php and Early Feedback Form , http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/earlyfeedback.pdf).

To be effective, the lesson plan does not have to be an exhaustive document that describes each and every possible classroom scenario. Nor does it have to anticipate each and every student’s response or question. Instead, it should provide you with a general outline of your teaching goals, learning objectives, and means to accomplish them. It is a reminder of what you want to do and how you want to do it. A productive lesson is not one in which everything goes exactly as planned, but one in which both students and instructors learn from each other.

Additional Resources

Video clips of GSIs at the University of Michigan actively engaging students in a practice teaching session: https://crlte.engin.umich.edu/engineering-gsi-videos/ 

Plan the First Day's Session: How to create to a lesson plan for the first day of class:  http://gsi.berkeley.edu/gsi-guide-contents/pre-semester-intro/first-day-plan/

Fink, D. L. (2005). Integrated course design. Manhattan, KS: The IDEA Center. Retrieved from https://www.ideaedu.org/idea_papers/integrated-course-design/

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