3. Aiming for Change

21st century lesson planning

Getting Started

Pre-Assessment

Welcome and Overview

Unit Goal: Supplement the resource you are using with the information your young people need to achieve the goal

Unit Objectives:

Recognize that a learner centered “goal” or aim for the lesson is not always apparent from a workbook or online chapter.
Recognize that a learner centered goal is a faith based action response AFTER the session and must be unique to your topic and audience.
Imagine how you might choose a statement that summarizes a faith based action response AFTER the session, that is unique to your topic and audience.
When abstract topics arise, use Krathwohl’s Taxonomy as a resource to choose an appropriate high level action verb to use for your goal statement.
Imagine the steps a young person might need to take to complete a high level value based goal.

Organizer for Your Notes

Click here to download the Organizer for Your Notes.

Vocabulary

Affective Skill (An Attitude)

A choice or action based on beliefs and values

Attitudes

Attitudes include beliefs and values that influence how we live and the broad decisions we make.

Instructional Goal or Learner (Person) Centered Goal

A general statement of results; what you are aiming for with the session. A goal identifies what you want your young people to do AFTER the session. In the case of a faith topic, it is how they will APPLY the topic in their lives, RESPOND to God or live their lives differently because of what they have learned from the session.

Krathwohl's Taxonomy

A representation of the different levels that one goes through as they develop values. This taxonomy can be used to help you identify action verbs that are appropriate for your topic and audience when you are choosing a learner centered goal for your session.

Prayer

The Big Idea

Pick Up Your Resource

Choose a Value Based Goal

Rich Brainstorms a Goal

Slice Through the Goal

Applications in the Field

Rich Shares His Goal

Summary Infographic

Whether you are using a textbook, curating resources from other Ministers or writing your own lesson plans, identifying a learner (person) centered goal will help guide your aim for the entire session and have a greater impact on your young people. Don’t take textbook resources at face value, assume that you will need to supplement what they have provided by identifying your own learner (person) centered goal based on the needs of your young people and your topic. Once you’ve identified your goal, take the next step and list out the things your young people would need to Know, Believe, and Do to accomplish the goal.

Click here to view this unit’s summary.

In the next unit, we’ll take that goal, and the Know, Believe, and Do list and write statements of intent that you can evaluate so that you know your young people have the ability to complete the goal, before they leave your session.

A Template to Use

Until the process of backwards lesson planning becomes second nature to you, we encourage you to use a template when you plan your sessions.

Create or Revise. Create your own template, revise someone else’s template, or use ours. We’ve included links below. Feel free to use it or revise it to meet your needs.

Finishing Up

Extension (Optional)

We recognize this is a lot of new information, and in the online setting, we aren’t able to divide you in groups and provide support as you work through your own lesson plan. Nonetheless, we encourage you to take a few moments now and give this step a try for a lesson you will be teaching at least one month down the road. After you’ve given it a go, share what you’ve accomplished in the discussion forum and provide feedback for someone else.

A: Apply. While this phase is still fresh in your mind, we encourage you to take the extra minutes to choose a learner centered goal for a topic you will be teaching in the future.

B: Extend. If you wish, extend your understanding by sharing goals with someone else in the discussion. Provide some context and post your goal in the class thread here for a peer to consider. Review another peer’s post and add a helpful comment.

Prayer

Post-Assessment