EXAMPLE LESSON PLAN

Heather Baird
hbaird@wgu.edu

LEARNING THEORIES
There has been debate about the best learning theories for education within classrooms.
Behaviorist, Cognitive, and Constructivist experts have studied the impact of each to highlight
the strengths of their preferred teaching strategy. Pedagogy within the classroom can make all
the difference in student learning and choosing the correct learning theory for the activity can
aid in learner mastery and deeper, more meaningful learning in the classroom. The theories are
as follows:

Behaviorism
This learning theory utilizes reinforcement to increase appropriate learning
behaviors.
The instructor is the source of all knowledge and focuses on direct instruction
to increase memorization of facts by reinforcing correct responses.
Cognitivism
This is a teacher directed learning theory in which students connect past
knowledge and learning experiences to new information.
Students make connections to prior knowledge in order deepen learning.
Constructivist Theory
In this learning theory, students lead learning while instructors act as mentors.
Students create their own interpretations of content.

BEHAVIORIST THEORY
The behaviorist learning theory is researched as a very appropriate tool in
special education. The ways in which behaviorism is beneficial are as
follows:
Direct Instruction
Teaching vocabulary
Teaching basic facts in math, reading, and writing in order to illicit correct
responses.
Corrective feedback can assist students with special needs and disabilities
in gaining correct information.
Direct instruction can help to build fluency and can be used to increase
reading fluency and fluency in math facts.
Behaviorism is also a valuable learning theory in teaching correct
classroom and social behaviors by chaining challenging tasks by breaking
them into smaller chunks.

COGNITIVE THEORY
Cognitivism has many wonderful uses in the classroom. The following are very
appropriate opportunities to utilize them in the special education classroom.
Modeling: Modeling is often a very useful tool for teaching abstract or complex
content to learners with disabilities. Some students may require seeing the content in
action before they are able to practice the new skill that they are learning
Using mnemonic devices to teach concepts is a great way to assist students in
learning new concepts. Common mnemonics would include Please Excuse My Dear
Aunt Sally or PEMDAS to teach order of operations in math.
Include in-class activities that link to prior knowledge such as introducing students to
books themes similar to things they may be experience. (Example: Crucible, which
was written during the cold war about the government performing witch hunts in
Salem could be connected to the common thought that any person from the Middle
East is Muslim or a terrorist.) The ability for students to find themes that they can
recognize will enable them to connect more easily to what they are learning and
increase deeper level learning.
Another tool that cognitivism offers are graphic organizers or other organizational
tools.

CONSTRUCTIVIST THEORY
Think-Pair-Shares are a great in-class activity that allow learners
to for their own conclusions independently and in groups.
Teachers begin the conversation, but then encourage students
to draw their own conclusions.
Group research activities are another way to utilize
constructivism. Students could be assigned an overall topic to
research, and as a group can develop their own understanding
of the subject.
Students could be assigned to create a Padlet presentation and
include research and pictures that they have discovered about
an assigned topic.

LESSON PLAN
Warm Up: 15 minutes
Students will respond to a padlet question with information that
they
have been researching about WWII.
Close Reading Strategies: 60 minutes
1. Create prior knowledge with vocabulary worksheet with
vocabulary words from the short story The Monkeys Paw
-Model first 3 problems together to assist students in looking up definitions of
in context, then have
independently.

vocabulary words and answering questions that use the words

students answer the final 3 questions

2. Introduce students to graphic organizer that will be used to list

plot
points features such as rising action, climax, and falling
action.
3. Read The Monkeys Paw aloud as whole group. Use ROPE
mnemonic device to teach close reading strategies.
4. Begin filling out plot graphic organizer
Writing a Thesis Statement: 15 minutes
Present a powerpoint presentation about writing a thesis
statement and the various parts of a 5 paragraph essay.
-Ask students about other times that they have written a thesis statement or
informational paper.

LESSON PLAN LEARNING THEORY

The learning theories used in the lesson plan are as follows:
1. Warm-UP: This portion of the lesson uses constructivism in
that it encourages students to create their own
understanding of WWII. Students led the discussion by
commenting on a Padlet presentation.
2. Close Reading Strategies: This part of the lesson uses
cognitivism. Assignments and instruction are modeled and
then students are required to complete unfinished work
independently. It also included the use of a mnemonic
device in order to teach a close reading strategy
3. Thesis Statement Presentation: This portion of the lesson
uses direct instruction and requires students to respond on
signal in order to determine understanding and mastery of
content.

ADAPTING THE LESSON

The original lesson plan uses the 3 learning theories listed
earlier in the presentation in various different ways, but in order to
make the lesson stronger for students with disabilities, the
students would benefit if some of the activities were given
differently.
Adaptations: The first change to the lesson that would have
increased student mastery would be to use cognitivism and model
the Warm-Up. When the lesson was given in class, students
seemed confused as to how to complete and/or participate in the
warm-up on the Padlet assignment. More prior knowledge about
how to navigate the website would have greatly benefitted
learners. Another adaptation that would have benefitted learners
would be to increase direct instruction when going over the
different elements of a story plot such as rising action, climax, and
falling action.

ADAPTING THE LESSON

Because of the special education learner population within
my classroom setting, the lesson plan with adaptations would
be the best option for increasing learner mastery of content.
While giving the original lesson, students did not have a full
understanding of how to respond to the Padlet assignment.
Students that do not have full mastery of basic skills often
respond best to situations in which modeling and corrective
feedback assist students in performing tasks correctly.*

LEARNER THEORIES AND ADAPTATIONS

Within special education, learning theories play an extremely
important role in adapting curriculum to best fit specialized
instruction. In Wiggins Backward Theory of Design, this can be
equated to a curriculum based assessment in special education,
in which the outcomes are chosen first, in order to assess
student performance and direct instructional goals. Backwards
design allows the instructor to create specialized, differentiated
instruction based on pre-determined instruction outcomes that
are assessed for learner understanding. Special education
curriculum and pedagogy is specifically based on multiple
learner theories so that it can reach students with learning
difficulties and disabilities most effectively.

WIGGINS THEORY OF BACKWARD DESIGN

Strengths
Predetermined outcome expectations are
essential to teaching skills to the mastery level.
In special education, this enables instructors to
identify essential skills and develop instruction
to most effectively address skills that students
are lacking.
This form of instructional design allows for the
instructor to pre-assess where learners are
performing, and to address where more
instruction might be needed to make sure
students are performing on-target.
This form of instructional design works parallel
to the new Common Core curriculum, in that
student learning outcomes are pre-determined
by the mandated curriculum so that teachers
can write instruction and assessments
accordingly

Weaknesses
This theory may not work as well with
the constructivist learning theory
because learner outcomes are
predetermined, and learners are not
given as much autonomy during
instruction.

GAGNES NINE EVENTS OF INSTRUCTION

Strengths

Gaining learner attention builds

momentum for students and
keeps learner engagement.

This theory is great for teaching

to mastery because it takes into
account the environment in
which students learn and then is
designed for generalization.

Providing feedback and

reinforcement to students with
learning disabilities increases
student retention and
understanding.

Providing learner guidance

makes this a great theory for
behaviorism, cognitivism, or
constructivist learning theories.

Weaknesses
Overall, this is a great theory
because the entire goal of the
events of instruction is to teach
concepts to mastery. This is a
learner theory that can be used
in all learner environments.

(Gagnes Nine Levles of Learning,

2014)

ELEMENTS OF TEACHING FOR UNDERSTANDING

Weaknesses

Strengths

This is a constructivist learning theory in

which students lead their learning
experiences and apply their
understanding. For students with
disabilities, this is a beneficial theory, in
that students master and maintain
knowledge that they can apply and
connect to (Bremer, C. 2010).

This theory allows students to customize

their instruction and academic experience
to their own interests and understanding.

Since special education instructional

design decisions are based completely
on learner understanding and
assessment data, this could cause
issues in creating assessments that
demonstrate learner understanding of
content. It may also prove difficult for
instructors in special education to
write assessments and guide learners
without a complete content
knowledge.

JUSTIFYING THE DESIGN PROCESS

Due to the fact that I teach in a co-taught or resource setting
with students that require specialized and differentiated instruction,
it is important to recognize that students may need more teacher
led instruction. The use of Gagnes 9 events of instruction is a great
way to design instruction because it focuses on teaching to mastery
and generalizing over multiple environments. The 9 events of
instruction start off a lesson with learner momentum and continue
throughout the lesson to increase learner success. The other theory
that is beneficial for students with disabilities is backward design.
Since there are certain standards that students need to
demonstrate success in, backward design is essential in
determining the most effective and efficient way to deliver a lesson
plan in order to instruct learners to the required level of proficiency.

RESOURCES
1. Bremer, C., & Morroco, C. (2010). Teaching for
Understanding.
Research to Practice Brief Improving
Secondary Education and Transition Services through
Research, 2(4).
2. Gagne's Nine Levels of Learning. (2014, January 1).
Retrieved
October 8, 2014, from
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/gagne.htm