**A Blueprint Lesson Plan is a framework or guiding template for adding specific information unique to each grade or subject. It is a multistep process that may take several days to accomplish. It can be done entirely or only one portion used to meet specific student needs.
A Blueprint targets key thinking skills and abilities that should be revisited until they are mastered.
BLUEPRINT LESSON PLAN**
TOPIC: TEST-DRIVE TRANSITIONS
AUTHOR: D. Lee Tincher, Ph.D.
TO CCSS: MAKING THE SHIFT
DESIRED OUTCOMES (Goals & Objectives)
DIRECT ASSESSMENTS (Connected to Goals & Objectives)
 Experience the complex process of a system approach to
learning
 Transition known components and strategies into new
content
 Apply an analogy to shift current knowledge into a new content
area
FOCUS/KEY QUESTIONS
RESOURCES
(Directly related to Outcomes)
(Ways to find responses to Key Questions)
 What steps are required to consider the scope of a
system?
 How can we shift the learning to enable students to
become empowered drivers of the learning?
COMPONENTS
(Flow of the Lesson)
 Brainstorm, generating additional ideas
 Support understanding by using a range of perspectives
 Use an analogy to bridge the known to the unknown
CTIVITIES
PROCESS EXAMPLES (Modeled) A
(Age level examples/recommendation)
PRE-PLANNING
Teacher Activities:
Select an analogy
Driving a car is like using one’s brain
to learn.
Determine “big ideas”
Thinking processes drive mental
learning progress.
Step 1: Brainstorm a collection of terms used within a given analogy,
i.e. drive, steer, brake, stop, accelerate
Step 2: Identify qualities or characteristics of the analogy students
already know. Uncover qualities they may need to know to
relate new content.
Step 1: Examine the scope of the topic under study.
Step 2: Identify threads weaving throughout the topic.
Step 3: Label the “big idea” identified from the thread.
RETRIEVAL
What does a driver need to know?
Known from memory
[Thinking Skill (TS):
Association]
What are the characteristics of the 21st
Century Learner?
Developed by Dr. D. Lee Tincher, American College of Education
Step 1: Plan a Concentration game for the whole class using
questions and answers. [Construction paper covering
responses on the white board; post-its covering answers on
the Smartboard].
Step 2: Divide the class into teams, designating a lead who
responses for the team.
Step 3: The goal is to match the question with the answer. (See
Resources for more details).
1
Shift perspectives
[TS: Point-of-view]
Change from driver’s seat to
passenger.
“How can I teach verbs?” to “How can
students experience verbs?”
Step 1: Identify the possible perspectives in target material. For
example, the views of the villain in a story; the family of a
famous scientist; the teacher of a yet-famous musician, or
consider the bird’s-eye view to a worm’s view.
Step 2: What way can the question be asked to generate a different
perspective?
MAPPING
Identify known
qualities
Compared similar standards
[TS: Observation]
Examine for depth
[TS: Evaluate]
Illustration
[TS: Visualize]
Deconstruct or
disassemble
[TS: Reasoning]
Graphic of process
[TS: Relationships]
Illustration
[TS: Connections]
Examined state standards verbs in
relation to the CCSS
Interstate versus country roads to
illustrate density of thought
Step 1: Identify the focus (big idea), beginning with what is already
known and familiar, i.e. cycles, physical bridges with the
abstract idea of a bridge.
Step 2: Brainstorm or identify known qualities.
Step 3: Research or provide additional support to uncover new
characteristics or qualities by using visuals, verbal
descriptions, interviews, documentaries, and/or articles and
textbooks.
Step 1: Examine identified characteristics to understand structure,
purpose, or different ways to function, i.e. an aspect of the
big idea.
Step 2: Determine how other structures, purposes, or functions could
be created by change. For example, word families are
created by changing an initial letter or cluster of letters. Can
new words be created the same way? What rules or
principles have to be identified for this to work? Do the new
words meet the principle?
Step 1: Select an informatic format, i.e. map of pandemics, which is
relevant to the current content.
Step 2: Remove the information, providing students with the skeleton
of the visual.
Step 3: Ask students to use resources to create information/data
which could be presented in this way.
Step 4: Construct a model of the new visual.
Step 1: Begin with the complete product, i.e. map of pandemics with
the data.
Step 2: Identify how the information was conveyed or assembled.
Step 3: Deconstruct the pieces to determine if the information was
Focused on components of one CCSS
accurate and how it influences understanding.
Step 4: What specific information about each “piece” can be located
to evaluate the accuracy of the complete product?
Turns in Learning
Steve Jobs Illustration
Cycles
Developed by Dr. D. Lee Tincher, American College of Education
Step 1:
Step 2:
Step 3:
Step 4:
Provide data on a selected topic.
Sort the data into smaller groups by using common traits.
Add new information to the smaller groups.
Translate the data into a visual representation.
Step 1: Share stories, illustrations, images, political cartoons, drawing
related to a selected topic and other approaches.
Step 2: Compare and contrast how this information relates to the
previous “graphic of process” visual representation.
2
Bridge
Concrete/Specific
Abstract/General
Defined analogy
[TS: Connections]
Step 1: Analyze one aspect of a selected topic.
Step 2: Identify the desired destination, connecting known to
unknown.
Step 3: What common traits do each possess which could potentially
create an analogy or an aspect of an identified analogy?
[Related to pre-planning step].
Step 4: What illustrations, words, terms, concepts or ideas can
convey the analogy?
TRANSFER
Graphic of new
process
Analogy Process (horizontal)
[TS: Relationships]
Review
[TS: Associate]
Assemble
[TS: Reasoning]
Determine
[TS: Transform]
Mapped the cognitive processes
Progression of Learning
Utilize the Analogy Process in a
different way (vertical)
SUMMARY
(Key ideas to remember)
CONNECTIONS
(Transition to next lesson)



Step 1: Using the structure of a previous graphic, introduce new
information by adding to the graphic.
Step 2: Identify relationships.
Step 3: Analyze how these relationships are alike and different.
Step 1: Using analyzed relationships, what new or additional
information can be added through research, shared
experience, or discovery?
Step 2: How can this new information be synthesized? For example:
Comparing word families. Use the root words to add prefixes
and suffixes. This requires knowing the previously learned
word families while also associating affixes.
Step 1: Brainstorm or identify all the key components required to
accomplish the task.
Step 2: Prioritize what has to be accomplished in a sequence, a
given order, or pattern.
Step 3: Share or convey this understanding in a visual manner. For
example: Creating new words using prefixes and suffixes
may mean changing the root word. Is this consistent with all
the words in the family? Can a general rule-of-thumb be
identified and applied to new words?
Step 1: Utilize previous information presented in one form and
convert it to another. For example: Change visual
information into narrative form.
Step 2: In what ways can this information be used in a new process,
new product, or new content?
A system approach requires all the pieces to be identified and positioned in order to accomplish its
function.
Known pieces of a process can be assembled in a different way to achieve a different perspective.
Processes of thinking drive learning just as assessment should drive instruction. By knowing which
process is effectively used for a range of topics, the process can be used repeatedly in new ways to
build density of thought.
**A Blueprint Lesson Plan is a framework or guiding template for adding specific information unique to each grade or subject. It is a multi-step process
that may take several days to accomplish. It can be done entirely or only one portion used to meet specific student needs. A Blueprint targets key
thinking skills and abilities that should be revisited until they are mastered.
Developed by Dr. D. Lee Tincher, American College of Education
3
RESOURCES
Concentration. This game approach asks individuals or teams to find matching answers when presenting them in
different locations on a grid. For younger students, pictures are matched by remembering where they are on the grid. This
can be changed to include pictures and the beginning sound, to pictures and their words, words and their meaning.
For older students who can read, the question/answer approach works as a post-assessment, review of material, or a
scavenger hunt for the answer in their textbook or other resource before finding it on the grid. Once modeled, students
can be given the task of creating the Concentration game for a new unit or a review of previously learned information.
Grids can be created in multiple sizes, for the whole class as a large display, to small groups made in file folders, to
individuals on gameboards. The intended purpose is to help students remember the location of matching information and
pair the responses. The “winner” is the individual or team with the most matched responses.
TURNS IN LEARNING GRAPHIC
Developed by Dr. D. Lee Tincher, American College of Education
4