Purposeful planning requires you to think about the following things as you begin to map out the lesson:
- What is the concept or skill I want my children to learn?
- Where are my children in their language development as it relates to this concept or skill?
- What vocabulary do they need to know around this concept or skill?
- What do they need to learn about grammar and sentence structure as it relates to this concept or skill?
After you know what it is that you want to teach, it is important to think through the process that you will use and what instructional strategies to use. Some of the things that you will want to think about may be:
- Do I use rich or simplified language when I am introducing this skill or concept?
- What are the vocabulary words that I need to teach?
- How will I know when my children KNOW what I have taught them?
- What visuals, demonstrations, and supplementary materials could I use?
- How can I connect the lesson to students’ experiences?
- How will I allow students to practice new skills?
- What technology resources could I use to enhance the lesson?
- How can I incorporate cultural diversity into my lesson?
- First, tell them what you want them to learn.
- Then model the concept or skill.
- Always practice with your children many times.
- Finally, provide lots of independent practice throughout the day – in centers, during recess, at lunch, during transitions.
Language, Communication, and Emergent Literacy
- Listening and Understanding
- Follows multi-step directions.
Benchmark a: Child achieves mastery of two-step directions and usually follows three-step directions, with teacher support and multiple experiences over time.
- Follows multi-step directions.
- Vocabulary
- Shows an understanding of words and their meanings
Benchmark b: Child has mastery of functional and organizational language of the classroom (e.g., same and different, in front of and behind, next to, opposite, below).
Benchmark c: Child understands or knows the meaning of many thousands of words including disciplinary words, (e.g., science, social studies, math, and literacy) many more than he or she routinely uses (receptive language).
- Shows increased vocabulary to describe many objects, actions, and events
Benchmark b: Child uses category labels (e.g., fruit, vegetable, animal, transportation, tools).
- Shows an understanding of words and their meanings
- Sentences and Structure
- Uses age-appropriate grammar in conversations and increasingly complex phrases and sentences
Benchmark a: Child typically uses complete sentences of four or more words, usually with subject, verb, and object order.
- Uses age-appropriate grammar in conversations and increasingly complex phrases and sentences
- Emergent Reading
- Demonstrates comprehension of text read aloud
Benchmark b: Child asks and answers appropriate questions about the story (e.g., “What just happened?” “What might happen next?” “What would happen if…?” “What was so silly about…?” “How would you feel if you…?).
- Demonstrates comprehension of text read aloud
Cognitive Development and General Knowledge
- Scientific Inquiry
- Investigation and Inquiry
- Examines objects and makes comparisons
- Investigation and Inquiry
The following printable documents will help you when planning a unit of study. This lesson plan was developed around a Weather Unit. Weather is a concept that appears in most Prek curriculums and includes learning about the seasons as well as weather conditions like hot, cold, rain and snow. Even though our children in Florida may not experience snow, we want them to know about all weather conditions to help build their background knowledge. We will use this unit in several additional lesson plan examples throughout this section. This lesson also includes information about Tier 1 and Tier 2 words, this concept will be explained later in this section on vocabulary.
Purposeful Planning Lesson Template
Purposeful Planning Sample Lesson
Pictures of the Seasons
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