So, we talked about how a curriculum plan gives us that long range goal of what we want to accomplish with our students.
We talked about learning styles and that even though students might be dominant on a single one, using a variety of teaching methods enhances learning and retention for all students, as well as catering to different preferences and strengths found in the group.
Let’s talk about creating an effective lesson.
An effective lesson should have a learning objective. What are you trying to teach? Too many times I’ve seen instructors with broad learning objectives. Don’t confuse the curriculum plan with the lesson plan.
Teaching a student about woodworking is a curriculum plan.
Teaching a student how to cut dovetail joinery with hand tools is a lesson plan within the curriculum plan.
Teaching a student about trees is part of the curriculum plan.
Teaching a student how to identify the different parts of a tree is a lesson plan within the curriculum plan.
Teaching a student to be able to describe the differences between hardwoods and softwoods and identify their uses is a lesson plan within the curriculum plan.
Teaching a student how to identify common trees in your area is a lesson plan within the curriculum plan.
Be specific. You don’t want your lesson turning into one of Aunt Mable’s stories at Thanksgiving that takes three and a half hours and two refills of your rum and coke to get through all of the bumps, twists, and turns that she takes you through. You and the student(s) want a clear path to the objective of the lesson. With that information, you’ll be able to branch from the WHAT they’re learning to the WHY they’re learning it.
This is where we have an advantage over many academic classes. While students are sitting in biology, chemistry, math, or other school subjects, wondering when they’re going to use it, my students know why. It’s directly related to what we’re doing in the shop. We learn something and then we apply it.
I had to laugh when I heard two students from a different class walking down the hallway, complaining about having to sit through algebra, not knowing when they were going to need it in life. My carpentry students know why and use it frequently in the shop.
Once we get through the WHAT and the WHY, we target the Success Criteria. How do we and the student know that they’ve understood the lesson? This can be difficult because the outcome isn’t always going to be perfect or “successful”. Can they measure to a 1/16 of an inch, 95% of the time? Can they accurately cut a board into two pieces using a handsaw with no more than 5 degrees off of 90 in the two axis (vertical and horizontal), 90% of the time? Can they identify the parts of the tree with 95% accuracy? Choose a success criteria that you feel is appropriate for the age and skill level.
Remember, when you teach a new concept, keep your expectations low and then over time, take them higher. Not that we want sloppy work, but just like our first few dovetails or attempts at making something, we expect it to not be very good at first.
When it comes to projects, I like having a grading rubric to help keep us and the students honest. It gives us success criterias and a focus for the project. And when a student comes up to me after they’ve rushed through their project, I can refer them to the rubric to see what they’re missing.
The rubric includes the following areas, adapted to the project and their level:
Material preparation (square, appropriate thickness,... )
Overall construction (tight joints, parts measured accurately,... )
Sanding (we have to have this a separate category or students will skip over this)
Finish (smooth, even,... )
Safety (again, we have this as a separate category to help students remember this aspect)
Plans/sketches (if this applies)
Effort (we grade a lot by the effort they put in, especially in group projects)
When we go through the rubric, I like to ask them their opinion on how well they’ve done. Most students are pretty honest and I’ve noticed that they’ll give themselves a lower grade than they really deserve.
Is this totally necessary for you and your informal shop? Meh, it could be depending on your and your student’s personality. Some people need a reference to keep themselves focused. Some people don’t need it. Do whatever suits you, your situation, and your student.
While I use the grading rubric to explain to a student why they got a certain grade, I also explain how it’s a checklist for us to gauge our craftsmanship. Sometimes, students will try to BS me and tell me “It’s fine, people will buy it.” when it’s clearly something of poor quality. The grading rubric gets reviewed again and they’re sent back to their work table to improve the quality of their project.
Don’t make lesson plans overly complicated. Please, don’t use the interwebz to look at the ones that some teachers create, you’ll never get that time back and you’ll over complicate things. You can create this on a notepad or a piece of cardboard, it really doesn’t matter. All you’re trying to do is give yourself and your student a direction and purpose for the lesson and a “success criteria” of when they’ve learned it. That’s it.
One more thing though… One thing that I was made aware of early in my teaching was the unpredictability of the students. Several times I’ve spent a considerable amount of time on a project while smiling and patting myself on the back thinking that the students were going to absolutely love it. I envisioned it would be discussed at family dinner tables across the county with excitement. I think you can guess where I’m going with this… The project wasn’t a success. There was no excitement behind it other than my own. Thankfully I recognized it and cut it short. Of course I felt defeated and frustrated but that’s reality. The flip side of that is sometimes you’re going to throw a lesson or project together quickly or bring up a topic that you feel is fairly insignificant but it will resonate with the student(s) and take off and become a hit. You just never know sometimes.
This isn’t an excuse to just walk into the classroom/shop and wing it every day but a warning of the unpredictability of the minds (or lack of) teenagers so you don’t take it personally and quit when a lesson that you spent hours on isn’t a hit. Use it as a teaching moment and move on.
Hopefully the information that I’ve shared with you lately has given you some thought on your instructing style and methods. As always, let me know if there’s anything I can do for you.
Here’s a sample of a grading rubric. Feel free to copy and adapt. If you want it as a Google document so you can edit it, I can send you a copy.
Great article. I enjoy your teaching articles as most are a mirror of what I also experience.
I have my students either first self-evaluate or we evaluate their projects together. I appreciate their honesty, and usually I look like the nice guy bumping up the grade they thought they deserved.
I will introduce rubrics as you described and posted though. Currently I use a evaluation sheet with pretty much the same criteria. But a rubric would lay out more criteria at once and probably be easier to mark.
Are you in Ontario? I am.
I’ve been reading your stuff for a few months now and really enjoy it. I teach small classes occasional here in Brooklyn, NY. The classes are hand tool focused and I am always struggling how to get a thorough yet to the point class curriculum and lesson plan. Most are one day or two day classes so that makes it more complicated. Students are usually all complete beginners so a lot of it tends to skew into. I’ve been dialing it in and hope I can continue to evolve the overall structure. Thanks for sharing your tips and advice on teaching. It’s all very helpful.