Table of Contents

AY 375 - Fall 2014: First Day Lesson Plan

Preface

Class begins as a real day-one discussion section in 264 Evans. Students are broken into groups and lead through an activity that emphasizes group work and student-student interaction. The remainder of the discussion section will discuss what happened and overarching themes of running a discussion section, teaching at Berkeley in general, and teaching an astronomy class in particular.

Notes for instructors:

  1. During all group activities, instructors are circling the room and seeding ideas in the groups, identifying groups with good ideas for the discussion, and modeling good teaching practices.

Goals for the First Day of Any Section

Goals for Bootcamp

Lesson Plan

Walk over to 264 Evans (15 min)

Introductions (15 min)

On the board

Introductory talking

Pass Out and Fill Out Index Cards

(Front of Card)

(Back of Card)

Getting this information from students is important for any first-day. Don't make it too long, but you could also include questions like

Instructors: Poll the class to see who's enrolled in AY 375, Imke's section. The number of credits is variable, but technically it's two credits for the course plus one discussion section and three credits for the course plus two discussion sections. If you get waitlisted in the class, E-mail Dexter Stewart (dstewart@astro) and ask to be added to the course.

Syllabus

Icebreaking Activity (30 min)

Taken from Modelling Discourse Management by Desbien

Concluding Remarks (2 mins)

Section is “closed” off as if a real day one section.

BREAK (few mins)

General classroom setting (10 mins)

Depending on whether or not this was discussed before the break:

Syllabus: Ours and Yours (15 mins)

General Resources (5 mins)

Your First Day (20 min)

Assignment #1: assigned 8/24, due 8/25 (Last 5 min)

1. Draft a syllabus for your section. Bring a copy with you to Bootcamp Day 2.

2. Draft (at least a skeleton) lesson plan for your first-day. Think about introductory materials/statements, icebreakers, activities, assessments, and the time each activity takes. What atmosphere do you want to create? How will you accomplish your goals?

3. Write out your learning objectives for your first day lesson plan. Also include how you will assess whether these objectives were accomplished or not.

4. The next time we meet will include a board work activity. Think of how you might explain the answer to the following questions if they were asked by one of your students. We will randomly assign one of these questions to you next time we meet. Aim to answer the question in 2-3 minutes.

Other Reminders