Introduction

Begin with something that describes the origin of the lesson. For example: This lesson was developed as part of the San Diego Unified School District's Triton Project, a federally funded Technology Innovation Challenge Grant.

In this second paragraph of the introduction, describe briefly what the lesson is about. Remember, the audience for this document is other teachers, not students.

Learners

Describe the grade level and course that the lesson is designed to cover. For example: "This lesson is anchored in seventh grade language arts and involves social studies and math to a lesser extent." If the lesson can easily be extended to additional grades and subjects, mention that briefly here as well.

Describe what the learners will need to know prior to beginning this lesson. Limit this description to the most critical skills that could not be picked up on the fly as the lesson is given.

Curriculum Standards

What will students learn as a result of this lesson? Describe the outcomes succinctly. Use the language of existing standards. For example:

Social Studies Standards Addressed

• Recognize the relationships among the various parts of a nation's cultural life.
• Learn about the mythology, legends, values and beliefs of a people.

Most lessons don't just teach a block of content; they also implicitly teach one or more types of thinking. In addition to describing learning outcomes within traditional subject areas, describe what kind of thinking and communications skills were encouraged by this lesson. Inference-making? Critical thinking? Creative production? Creative problem-solving? Observation and categorization? Comparison? Teamwork? Compromise?

Process

You can paste in the process description given to students on the student page and then interleave the additional details that a teacher might need.

Describe briefly how the lesson is organized. Does it involve more than one class? Is it all taught in one period per day, or is it part of several periods? How many days or weeks will it take? Is it single disciplinary, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary or what?

If students are divided into groups, provide guidelines on how you might do that.

If there are misconceptions or stumbling blocks that you anticipate, describe them here and suggest ways to get around them.

What skills does a teacher need in order to pull this lesson off? Is it easy enough for a novice teacher? Does it require some experience with directing debates or role plays, for example?

Variations

If you can think of ways to vary the way the lesson might be carried out in different situations (lab vs. in-class, for example), describe them here.

Resources Needed

Describe what's needed to implement this lesson. Some of the possibilities:

• Class sets of books
• E-mail accounts for all students
• Specific software (how many copies?)
• Specific hardware (what kind? How many?)
• Specific reference material in the classroom or school library
• Video or audio materials

If the lesson makes extensive use of specific websites, it would be appropriate to list, describe and link them here. It would also be helpful to link the names of books suggested to Amazon or other online sources.

Describe also the human resources needed. how many teachers are needed to implement the lesson. Is one enough? Is there a role for aides or parents in the room? Do you need to coordinate with a teacher at another school? With a partner in industry or a museum or other entity? Is a field trip designed in as part of the lesson?

Evaluation

How will you know that this lesson was successful? Describe what student products or performances you'll be looking at and how they'll be evaluated. This, of course, should be tightly related to the standards and objectives you cited above.

You may want to just copy and paste the evaluation section of the student page into this space and add any clarifications needed for another teacher to make use of this lesson.

Conclusion

Make some kind of summary statement here about the worthiness of this lesson and the importance of what it will teach.

Credits & References

List here the sources of any images, music or text that you're using. Provide links back to the original source. Say thanks to anyone who provided resources or help.

List any books and other analog media that you used as information sources as well.