Standard 5
Can Your Lesson Plans Pass the Check-Up?
One of the most important parts of your driver training program are the lesson plans your instructors follow to ensure
quality, consistency and uniformity of education. These outlines or plans are used to guide each class session and
include content, key points, objectives, evaluation activities and trainee practice or use of information. Like every other
part of your program lesson plans should be periodically evaluated and updated. The article below, “Can My Lesson
Plans Pass the Check-Up?” gives you guidelines on what effective lesson plans contain so that you can give your plans
a check-up.
Can My Lesson Plans Pass the Check-Up?
By Ann Aylward, Certified Learning Systems, Inc.
Give your lesson plans a check-up and find out .........Place a check next to each statement that applies to how you develop
your lesson plans.
______ 1. An introduction or purpose of the lesson, (which is developed to motivate students to want to
learn), is included in the lesson plan.
______ 2. Each of my lessons is taught with learning objectives clearly stated.
______ 3. The learning objectives reflect what the student will be able to do, not what I am going to do.
______ 4. The learning objectives address the areas of knowledge, skill and attitude.
_____ 5. The learning objectives are measurable (i.e. to what degree the knowledge and skill objectives
must be performed; performance criteria)
______ 6. Each item of equipment and material used by myself and/or the students is included in the lesson plan.
______ 7. A variety of teaching methods and/or learning activities to help provide students with the opportunity to
learn, practice or perform the behavior connected to the learning objectives is included in the lesson plan.
______ 8. Different types of assessment methods are used when measuring if the specific learning objectives have
been met.
______ 9. The lesson plan covers no more than 2 days of instruction.
If you did not check all the statements listed above you may want to read on ..........
Anatomy of a Lesson
O'K, you just gave yourself a check-up and have decided to read on. Great. Then this article is for those of you who have
decided to take your students' learning to a new level; for those of you who have decided to send a noticeably superior
entry-level truck driver into the industry; and for those of you who are not satisfied with just placement rate and CDL
passing. That requires the ability to develop a lesson plan where all the components are connected; the ability to look back on
the lesson plan and honestly see if it is or it isn't meeting the student and industry needs.
An effectively designed and implemented lesson plan helps makes everything come alive! Your lesson plans must
provide enough information that would allow a substitute teacher to implement the lesson with minimal preparation. Let's take
a look at the components of a good lesson plan. The following are components of a traditional lesson plan. Other formats
are acceptable just as long as all the components are included.
1.
Unit of Instruction: Here you write what is going to be taught and the time frame and dates in which the unit is going to be
taught. A lesson plan should not cover more than two days of instruction.
2.
Purpose:
Write why this unit of instruction is important. You can review the PTDI Curriculum Standards for a reference on the
purpose. This is also the introduction to the unit and the point where the learning activity you develop can help answer
the never-asked but always thought of student question: "Why should I spend my time and energy understanding,
doing and valuing what the teacher has planned?"
3.
Learning Objectives/Performance Criteria
Skill Objective - that which a trainee should learn to do
Knowledge Objective - that which a trainee should know
**Attitude Objective - that which a trainee should incorporate into their work life
Standard 5
**Note: It is difficult to evaluate attitude objectives and maybe they shouldn't even be evaluated, but if you leave them
out you leave out an important area in which you can develop some type of learning activity that will help the student value
the why behind the skill and knowledge. The values of your trainees will predict how they are likely to do their job. Your
students could score high on the ability to drive and pass all the written tests, but when on the job, will they actually do
what they've been taught? Guess we're looking at safety here and Safety is an attitude!! So, how can we leave out probably
the most important aspect of truck driving?
4.
Performance Criteria
The performance criteria are written under each objective to measure how well the objective (s) must be performed.
The objectives are measured against well-accepted standards. Again look at the PTDI Curriculum and Skill Standards as a
reference. Adding performance criteria to student objectives will also indicate for you what types of evaluations and
assessments to use.
5.
Teaching Methods/Learning Activities
This is where the methods and/or learning activities in which the actual subject matter is relayed and applied.
Remember, the learning activities are directly related to the learning objectives. This is also the area where activities
are planned for review of material taught the day before.
Note: As teachers we must begin to focus more on learning than teaching and this means learning new ways of transferring
our knowledge other than the lecture, overhead projector and the board. We also must learn the best methods when using
video, audio, case studies, field trips etc...
6. Equipment and Materials Write down everything which is used by the instructor or trainee to carry out the leaning
activities listed in the teaching methods and is related to the learning objectives. If applicable, add a copy of each to
the back of your lesson plan.
7.
Evaluation/Assessment Methods
This is the portion of the lesson plan that tells the teacher and the student whether or not to go forward. This helps
identify those having difficulty or if the teacher needs to make adjustments in the teaching methods. There must be a
means of assessment for every learning objective.
There you have it — the components of a lesson plan. Now read on to get a feel for some of the most common difficulties
that were observed at many truck driving schools relating to the development and implementation of lesson plans. The
check-up you did before reading this article and the difficulties listed below may help you identify areas in which you may
want to concentrate.
Common Difficulties in Classroom Lesson Plans:
1. Do not have measurable objectives
2. List what the teacher is going to do, not what the student will be able to do
3. Do not include learning activities that address the learning objectives
4. Do not have an effective means of evaluation or the evaluation does not address the learning objectives
5. Difficulty in connecting the lesson plan from beginning to end
Common Difficulties in Range/Street Lesson Plans:
1. Do not list teaching strategies
2. Do not use any materials on the range to accelerate learning
3. Do not give the students materials
4. Evaluation and/or reviews do not contain written comments and/or discussion formats in which the student and
teacher can interact on performance issues
5. Do not provide an effective learning activity for those students observing during the down time
I would like to close with a statement made by Herbert Kohl - I don't know who he is either but I like what he said about
teachers:
"Nobody starts out as a completely effective and creative teacher. The desire to teach and the ability to teach well
are not the same thing. With the rarest of exceptions, one has to learn how to become a good teacher."
Remember - You are not only a Truck Driver by profession, you are now an Educator by profession and that means taking
on the responsibility of learning a "bunch" of new skills. Never stop learning!