Who am I?
I'm Elizabeth Blythe-Lee, known as Freydís zum Ainkürn in the SCA. I reside within the Barony of Twin Moons in the Kingdom of Atenveldt.
More importantly, for this workshop, I am an educator and Sr. Instructional Designer at Arizona State University. I have a Bachelor of English in Early Modern Lit and a Masters degree in Curriculum Development and Teaching from NAU. I also hold a number of professional certificates with Quality Matters, the institution that sets standards for course development worldwide. I also hold a certification from the state of Arizona in Adult Teaching and Learning.
Much of the content for this workshop will be based on the Quality Matters 7th Edition Rubric of Standards for Higher Education (full rubric) courses directed at adult learning and the Peralta Equity Rubric for Inclusion. Many of these resources and standards are directed towards online courses and education for adult learners. However, many of these principles can be easily adapted to in person or online workshops and webinars.
What are we doing here today?
As teachers within the SCA, we all have something important to share with others. We have a set of skills or knowledge that we want to pass on to other to support the growth of our craft and the community.
Learning Objectives
Like any good class or workshop, we're going to start be defining our goals for this session. Below is a list of clear goals we've set for this workshop and skills that you should leave this session with.
- Define lesson plan
- Identify the importance of using a lesson plan for both teacher and learners
- Recognize clear and measurable learning objectives
- Identify aligned knowledge checks and assessments
- Curate learning materials that clearly support meeting your teaching and learning goals
- Apply to your own course by identifying clear objectives and determining how to know if this goal has been met
Why Lesson Plans?
Benefits to Educators:
- Enhances teaching effectiveness: Planned lessons allow educators to deliver content in a clear, organized manner, therefore increasing learner understanding.
- Promotes student engagement: Well-structured lessons are more likely to capture learner attention and maintain their interest.
- Supports differentiation: Through careful planning, educators can tailor instruction to meet the diverse needs of learners.
- Facilitates assessment: Planned lessons align with assessment methods, enabling educators to gauge student learning and provide timely feedback accurately.
Benefits to Learners:
- Clarity of expectations: Clear objectives - a part of effective lesson plans, and organized class or workshop structure helps the learner understand what exactly they will get out of the class or workshop such as what specific skills they will gain or be able to do.
- Increased retention: When learners understand what and how they will learn a skill in a class or workshop and how they will use this information afterwards, they are more likely to retain the information.
What is a Lesson Plan?
A lesson plan, at its core, is the process of outlining the structure and content of a lesson to achieve specific goals. When you set out to teach a class, in your mind, you likely have a specific goal or set of skills you're looking to impart. The purpose of creating a lesson plan is to ensure that:
- What you're teaching is clear
- Engaging
- Maximizing your instruction time
- Providing direction and coherent activities
I like to use this owl meme as an example of creating lesson plans. In this image, we see a clear goal of drawing an owl. We have step 1, and then we skip all the other meaningful steps actually to draw an owl. We want our classes and workshops to avoid being this meme! This why thinking about learning goals or learning objectives, the steps to achieving them, and clear content before we enter the classroom.
An essential part of any lesson plan is the learning objectives or the goals. What is a learning objective? It's a clear and measurable statement that tells the learner exactly what they will be able to know or do when they leave you. Learning objectives are the foundation of our lesson plan - a sort of north star or guiding principle of the class or workshop. These objectives help us ensure that everything in our class or workshop makes sense and aligns with meeting these goals. This concept of our objectives as a guiding light for our course planning process to ensure that we only include the necessary content and experiences is known as alignment. Clearly aligned classes support learners by making clear how the learning materials support meeting the objectives which, especially in adult learners, is an important factor to engagement and motivation.
In higher ed, we definite learning objectives as "measurable objectives that precisely and clearly describe what learners will be able to do if they successfully complete the course. These describe learner acheivement in terms that are specific and observable enough to be measured by the instructor."
This means that our class or workshop should always start by clearly defining what exactly folks will gain when they join us.
Start with the end in mind. What students should be able to do at the end of your class or workshop? Start with broad goals, then break them down into smaller, specific learning goals.
Use action verbs to describe specific skills that learners will gain. You want to choose verbs that align with how they might use these skills or be assessed. They should also align with the level of understanding your aiming for using Bloom's Taxonomy.
Make it specific and measurable. Each objective should focus on one particular skill or knowledge area. Objectives should also be framed in a way that allows you and the student to easily assess whether the goals have been met. For example, instead of saying "understand X," say "describe X" or "apply X in Y context," which are observable actions.
Ensure relevance and achievability. Ensure that each objective is relevant to the overall class or workshop goals and will be useful to the student. Consider the time available and the student's starting skill levels to ensure your objectives realistic.
Incorporate diverse learning needs. As you plan your class or workshop, you may want to think about the diverse needs of those attending. You might consider how your objectives can be achieved by everyone, potentially through different paths or methods.
Example Objectives for SCA Courses:
Let's say you're planning a course on medieval garment construction. Here are some examples that follow the guidelines above:
- Knowledge: List the common types of fabric used in medieval European clothing.
- Comprehension: Explain the significance of color and fabric choice in medieval European clothing by participating in a class discussion.
- Application: Apply basic embroidery stitches used in decorating medieval garments on a practice cloth.
- Analysis: Compare and contrast clothing styles of 12th-century France and England.
- Evaluation: Provide constructive feedback on a classmate's medieval garment project by assessing the historical accuracy of the materials, design, and construction techniques used, as well as the overall quality of craftsmanship, in a written review.
- Creation: Construct a historically inspired piece of medieval clothing, incorporating at least three skills or techniques learned in the class.
A quick note about knowing your audience: when establishing your class or workshop goals, it is essential to know who you aim to reach or teach to assess skill level. If we know who you are teaching or aiming to teach newer folks or folks new to a skill, we want to focus on lower-level skills - the basics. Jumping from knowing nothing to being an expert can be very challenging and dissuade or scare off new and inexperienced folks. However, on the opposite end, if you're teaching or aiming for more experienced folks, starting at the basics may also be boring and not helpful to their learning journey. You would want to design a class that builds on their previous knowledge to help them reach new heights with their skills.
Module Objectives
After establishing your larger class or workshop objectives, also known as CLOs, you'll want to consider the smaller, more manageable steps one would need to know to level up into those skills. These smaller, more discrete objectives are known as module objectives. This process of breaking down larger goals into smaller goals is often referred to as "chunking." This helps both instructors and students by providing clear, incremental steps towards achieving the broader class or workshop goals.
Identify your CLO. Start with a clear understanding of the CLO you want to break down. Let's take CLO "Apply basic embroidery stitches used in decorating medieval garments on a practice cloth" as our example CLO - the skill we want folks to leave our class with, as an example.
Break Down into Modules. Divide the steps of achieving your CLO into smaller parts. To "Apply basic embroidery stitches used in decorating medieval garments on a practice cloth," we must first understand some basics. Such as identifying the significance of embroidery in medieval garments so we can understand why before applying it.
Then we need to know the materials, so we might say, "List the types of threads, needs, and fabric used in medieval embroidery."
Next, we can apply some of this knowledge by performing low-level skills, such as "perform basic embroidery stitches such as the running stitch, back stitch, and chain stitch." As these are stitches, you will want to know and be skilled in before attempting to embroider a pattern.
Finally, we can take all these various skills we've built up and apply them. We can set a smaller goal of "apply basic stitches to create a simple medieval motif on a practice cloth." This allows the learner to take all the smaller skills we've taught them regarding embroidery and "do the thing." We've provided all the foundational knowledge to support their success on application. This process can also be known as scaffolding. Consider a set of stairs, you can't get to the top (successfully) by skipping all the steps in between.
How do we know if we've met our goals?
This is the question we must ask ourselves to create assessments or knowledge checks. By no means do these assessments or knowledge checks need to be formal assessments. These can be simple oppertunities to check in with ourselves and our learners to ensure they are on track for meeting these larger goals.
Because we have set clear and measurable goals at the course and module level, establishing some kind of assessment will be a breeze! We can even use our LOs to help establish and craft what these informal verifications of knowledge will look like.
Taking our examples from above, if we want to check that our learners have understood the importance and history of embroidery uses in medieval garment construction, we can simply engage in discussion. This can come in the form of open discussions or by asking specific questions to the group. In larger group settings, it can be more challenging to assess each learner, but you can pause for questions and clarification at each module, or step in the learning process.
Learning materials refer to the information we provide to support each step in the learning process. These learning materials should be directly aligned to the various steps we've outlined in the module objectives section.
Introduction to Medieval Embroidery: We would want to come prepared with information on the historical basis for medieval embroidery including historical examples, books, or articles that overview embroidery work in the medieval period. This can include its significance in society, common motifs, and techniques. This can be a great time to show off your own work! Provide examples of work you've previously completed or may have in progress.
Understanding Embroidery Materials: For this, we might want to include a guide or set of examples of the types of thread, needles, and fabric that would be used in medieval embroidery. We may also want to include examples of modern equivalents to support the learning journey.
Basic Embroidery Stitches: For this, we would want to have clear examples of what these stitches are, how they are used, and how to accomplish them. This could include visual examples within completed works to enhance the understanding of how each is used. You would also want to provide clear instruction on how to complete each of these stitches. This can include demonstrations by the instructor and could be followed by hands-on instruction, allowing the students to to practice these stitches with your guidance. For this type of learning material and activity, you may consider providing the necessary materials to the students or encouraging them to bring their own materials to the class.
Resources and Supplementary Materials and Support: Consider what other helpful resources and materials you can share or provide that will support their learning journey beyond the class. This can include handouts with more detailed information and support resources students can take with them after the class. This can span from glossaries to simple guides or a list of sources and resources used throughout your class or workshop. This can help support the learner by encouraging them to engage with additional learning beyond your course and prepare them for the next step in their learning journey.
Accessibility and Engagement: Like many formal institutions, the SCA has a diverse population with diverse needs, which can be physical or in terms of learning needs. As you create your materials, whether for an in-person presentation or online, consider the various needs of your students. If using video in your presentation, ensure your videos are captioned. Provide or present materials in a number of formats that can include text, images, or video to cater to different learning needs. Whenever possible, provide interactive elements to support practice, understanding, and enhance engagement.
Alignment and Relevancy
Alignment refers to the coherence between learning objectives, the teaching methods employed (including storytelling), and the assessments used to gauge learning. Relevancy involves ensuring that the content, including stories, directly supports the learning objectives, making the material meaningful and applicable to students.
Storytelling has a deep value in teaching and learning - especially with the SCA. This can make our lesson both engaging and memorable so long as they directly support the meeting the stated goals. Storytelling has always been a vital part of human culture, serving as a means to convey values, traditions, and knowledge. In the SCA and historical education, storytelling is not just a method of teaching; it's an immersive experience that connects learners to the past in a deeply personal and impactful way. The power of storytelling extends beyond mere engagement. It acts as a bridge between the learner and complex concepts, making challenging content more accessible and relatable. For SCA educators, stories are a tool to transport students back in time, allowing them to experience the sights, sounds, and emotions of the medieval period. This immersive quality can significantly enhance learning, sparking curiosity and inspiring a deeper exploration of historical contexts and crafts.
Start with Objectives: Stories can only be a benefit and impactful if they are aligned with our objectives. When considering what SCA stories to tell as a part of your lesson and teaching, choose stories that will help achieve the objectives.
Stories with Purpose: Choose stories that will help illustrate your key points, demonstrate an application of skills, or provide historical context. Ask, "what do I want students to learn from this story?"
Integrate Stories and Skills: Directly connect your story to skill development. For instance, is teaching about embroidery stitches use in medieval garments, use stories about the garments' social significance or in the lives of people who made them.
Reflect: Ask yourself "did the story help students grasp a key concept more effectively?" or was this just a fun story? Telling a story that doesn't align to your core goals can cause learners to disengage. Whereas a story with purpose and alignment can help provide important context to the skills and provide examples of real-world application, thereby increasing learner engagement and retention.
Conclusion
- What do you want learners to be able to do or know at the end of this course?
- What are the steps a learner needs to take or know in order to do that thing?
- How do I know they have met these goals?
- What information do you need to share to get them there?
- What resources can I share to deepen the learning after the class or workshop?
- Did everything I provide and share align to support meeting the stated goals?