Constructing a Mini-Lesson: A 4 Part Framework

When my oldest daughter was four, she went through a dinosaur phase. All dinosaurs, all the time; it was impossible to discuss anything else. Throughout the year, we traveled as a family and she learned to read. Slowly, her interests began to broaden and develop, and now at the age of nine, while she is still fascinated by dinosaurs, she has an open mind about new information. New experiences and ideas allowed her to explore and, ultimately, find an appreciation for varying topics.

Mini Lesson Framework:

The same is true in our classrooms because students cannot think critically about nothing. Even in a learner-centered classroom, the teacher fills the critical role of content infuser, providing students new information to question, ponder, challenge, and, ultimately, learn. Direct instruction, however, has developed a bit of a negative connotation, because it is inaccurately associated with long, time-consuming lectures. Restructuring direct instruction into mini-lessons allows for brief bursts of new information, while still preserving time for students to collaborate or independently practice their craft. Keeping the lesson concise can be tricky, and I have found that implementing a basic framework assists in maintaining timing.

The Hook

Your hook does not need to be flashy. Your goal is to engage students in the lesson, but most importantly you want to ensure students can connect the new information to their past and future work. Starting with a question is often effective, especially if that question forces students to reflect on their work. “I noticed many of you have decided to build your housing structure on a bank of a river. What potential risks may this pose?” Through my observations, I already know that the students do not have an understanding of erosion, so after allowing them to discuss for a minute or two, I segue into my direct instruction.

On a slightly grander scale, you may choose to create a whole group experience to generate background knowledge. In the erosion example above, the whole class interacted with sand and water tubs for a few minutes to establish background related to water’s impact on the land. In a language arts classroom, this experience may involve exploring mentor texts to identify a specific component of an author’s craft such as word choice or foreshadowing.

Sometimes, students uncover the phenomenon on their own during their explorations (woo hoo – teacher win!). Under these circumstances, additional direct instruction may not be necessary, which is ideal because an experience of this nature will typically take longer than the 2-3 minutes set aside for the hook. Be sure to celebrate this discovery and encourage students to document the new learning in their journals or course notes.

The Content

Keep in mind, each of these content components will not happen in each lesson, and they do not need to be implemented in a linear fashion.

Modeling

When presenting students with a new strategy or process, it is often necessary to model the steps for the whole group. In a language arts classroom, this may be a think-aloud analyzing the development of a character throughout a portion of text, or a social studies teacher may walk students through evaluating a primary source document. The purpose of modeling specific procedures and strategies is to ensure students perform effectively during their independent/group work. Modeling should not remove the productive struggle or curiosity from the experience. A science teacher may need to model the safe, appropriate method for preparing chemicals, but then allow students to experiment and iterate to develop their own non-Newtonian fluid.

Story

At some point, it will be necessary for the instructor to weave the experiences and academic vocabulary together into the story our work is attempting to relay to our students. While our past experience would have us tell this whole story at one time and at the onset of a lesson or unit, breaking the story into parts makes it more approachable for our students. This may include a concise presentation regarding researchers in the field, additional models of the phenomenon, or extended examples. Embedding the lecture at the right time during student work (whether a written piece, research, or project) ensures they can, in most cases, use the new information right away and deepens their understanding of the new content or strategy.

Vocabulary

After the experience, students are ready to learn the academic vocabulary related to their new learning. Leading with the experience provides students context with which to attach new language and, therefore, create a more lasting memory of the terms. If students constructed a learning model (illustration, concept map, etc) in their journal or course notes, they may add the vocabulary as labels. Terms that require more detailed definitions may elicit an in-depth conversation. In most circumstances, it is most effective to simply provide the definitions for the students and use instructional time to discuss, explore, and challenge the new information.

The Closure

The purpose of the closure time is to ensure students know exactly what to do with their new learning. After modeling strategies to integrate textual support into a character analysis, a language arts teacher may extend this invitation: “Review your writing so far and decide on at least one area your analysis could use the support of textual evidence. Use this time to revise. I will be around to check in on your work and offer feedback.” Extending the subsequent erosion example: “Based on our new understanding regarding erosion and weather, take out your journals and reflect on the impact these processes may have on your housing structure? What might you do?”

The Follow Up

After your carefully crafted mini-lesson students dive into their independent practice or group work, and this is where the rubber really hits the road. Your mini-lesson content becomes the focus of your conferencing. As you circulate the room, it will be tempting to comment on various components of student progress. However, to leverage your instructional time and emphasize the importance of the new content, use the mini-lesson focus as the driver for your conversations. It may be beneficial to document these conferences, which will serve as a formative assessment of individual student progress.

What mini-lesson tips or strategies do you employ? 

My co-author, Ross Cooper, shares steps to turn a traditional textbook lesson into a mini-lesson in his post, How to Transform Common Textbook Activities into Project Based Mini-Lessons.

Some resources which shaped my thinking on mini-lessons: