My 21st Century Lesson Plan

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In my blog post last week, 21st Century Learning, I started a discussion on what comes to mind when thinking about 21st Century Learning. Although interpreted in different ways, the article How do you define 21st-century learning?: One question. Eleven answers, first describes 21st Century Learning as “certain core competencies such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving that advocates believe schools need to teach to help students thrive in today’s world” (Rich 2010).

Originally thought to be only the use of technology or or digital resources, I was very interested to find out 21st Century Learning is much more about gaining skills with the help of technology and resources that help students prepare for the outside world.

This week I put this theory into action by planning my first ever lesson plan, and one that was based around 21st Century Learning. Being an educator, teaching and learning is something that I am passionate about, but I have found through my personal experience that teaching and learning is much more indirect in my field as a Residence Hall Manager. Most days I work in a 1:1 dynamic with college students, directing them where they need to go and answering questions. However, each semester I work specifically with a group of Resident Assistants (RAs) to prepare them for the semester ahead of helping residents.

For my first lesson plan, I decided to focus on Program Preparation with an activity that promotes collaboration, communication, and creativity. I first looked into the resources recommended by The Center for Learning and Performance Technologies list of the 200 Best Tools for Learning. My attention was drawn to Mentimeter, a tool that lets you engage and interact with your audience in real-time. When I plan training sessions, they tend to be long-winded and all day for several days. I am always looking for more ways to get information to my RAs. In the past we have used Kahoot to quiz information we learn from Google Slides. The thing I loved the most about Mentimeter, was that it melded together the presentation of Google Slides and the interactive bits of Kahoot.

21st Century Lesson Plan - DeLoach.pdf

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My lesson plan first explores the prior knowledge of my students through several questions which my RAs can answer using their smart phones, laptops, or tablets with open ended questions, word clouds, and voting. Through getting these answers of prior knowledge, I have a better understanding of how in depth I need to go with the rest of my presentation and activity.

After the baseline knowledge is established, I get into the very basics of program planning such as what a program is, the steps taken to planning, and tips and tricks to remember. The RAs then vote for a theme or learning objective for their activity.

In the main activity, my 18 RAs have 15 minutes to work in groups of 3 and can use their smartphones, tablets or laptops. They must use the theme voted on to create a program for the Residence Hall they will present to the group via Google Slides. The Group will vote on the one they would attend at the end. RAs are given guidelines of how many will be attending and what items they can use.

This presentation has key factors that I look for when planning training sessions for my RAs. I want them to collaborate, communicate and be creative. I also want them to feel engaged, not bored. By using this format of instruction I hope to set the precedence for how I want them to interact with each other when planning programming in the future, not only how to plan one. I want to give them the confidence and the voice they need, and the hands-on approach of this lesson plan is a great example.

My only pushback to this lesson plan is it takes a lot more time than the way I would typically teach this lesson, and I have to make sure the program is accessible to all my learners. This doesn’t make it impossible but it poses a challenge. Either way, I’m eager to continue using tools to promote 21st Century Learning with my learners.

Let's keep the conversation going! I encourage reflection and comments by email or follow me on Twitter @kdeloachMSU.

References:

Rich, E. (2010, October 11). How do you define 21st-century learning?: One question. Eleven answers. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/how-do-you-define-21st-century-learning/2010/10