Instructional Design: Action Verbs & Lesson Planning
Action Verbs in Instructional Design
IDENTIFY: To indicate the selection of an object of a class in response to its class name, by pointing, picking up, underlining, marking, or other responses.
INTERPRET: To translate information from observation, charts, tables, graphs, and written material in a verifiable manner.
LABEL: To stipulate a verbal (oral or written) response to a given object, drawing, or composition that contains information relative to the known, but unspecified structure of these objects, drawings, or compositions. Labeling is a complex behavior that contains elements of naming and identifying.
LOCATE: To stipulate the position of an object, place, or event in relation to other specified objects, places, or events. Ideational guides to location such as grids, order arrangements, and time may be used to describe location. Note: Locate is not to be confused with IDENTIFY.
MEASURE: To apply a standard scale or measuring device to an object, series of objects, events, or conditions, according to practices accepted by those who are skilled in the use of the device or scale.
NAME: To supply the correct name, in oral or written form for an object, class of objects, persons, places, conditions, or events which are pointed out or described.
ORDER: To arrange two or more objects or events in accordance with stated criteria.
PREDICT: To use a rule or principle to predict an outcome or to infer some consequence. It is not necessary that the rule or principle be stated.
REPRODUCE: To imitate or copy an action, construction, or object that is presented.
SOLVE: To effect a solution to a given problem, in writing or orally. The problem solution must contain all the elements required for the requested solution, and may contain extraneous elements that are not required for solution. The problem must be posed in such a way that the student is able to determine the type of response that is acceptable.
STATE A RULE: To make a statement that conveys the meaning of the rule, theory, or principle.
TRANSLATE: To transcribe one symbolic form to another of the same or similar meaning.
Lesson Planning Ideas
Considerations for Instructional Procedures
Usually, lesson planning is taught in schools of education as a skill that involves developing an objective based on a curriculum, or specified goals, and then sequencing a number of activities in which the teacher and students interact in some way. Following this interaction, there is an assessment and the next lesson begins in the unit or other sequence that follows a curricular structure. There are, however, some variables that relate to the instructional activities that should be considered. What follows is a brief description of some of them.
Any planned instructional procedure or teaching method for a particular lesson should also address the following questions:
Does the lesson plan permit adjustment for students with different abilities?
There probably has never been a teacher who has a class of students whose members were of equal ability. The instructional method(s) planned for a particular lesson must take into account student ability. There is no substitute for doing this.
Does the lesson plan encourage the students to become continually involved in learning activities?
Instructional activities or procedures should not be static descriptions of what the teacher and students will do. Any good teacher will tell you that he or she makes adjustments in instruction based on feedback from students. The idea is obviously to keep students focused and involved in learning.
Does the lesson provide for adequate coverage of the content to be learned for all students?
“Adequate” and “cover” are such weasel terms. They can mean almost anything, depending on whom you ask. Probably the best way to think about this is to say to yourself, “what is the least amount of content that students should learn to indicate some level of agreed upon mastery?
Does the lesson permit for monitoring of student progress?
You should consider how you will monitor the progress of your students during the lesson itself. There are ways to this, and these ways are collectively referred to in education jargon as formative evaluation. All this means is that you must determine how you will monitor the progress of your students. The purpose of this monitoring is not just to collect information about student progress.