Activity Planning! Being Intentional about
Supporting Skill Development
When do you have to Plan?
• Whenever an activity is not part of the daily routine
• Whenever you are doing a new activity
• Whenever you want to pass on your great ideas to other people
Breakdown of an Activity Plan
• Objectives
• Activity description
• Supplies
• De-brief/Reflection
• Assessment
ObjectivesWhat you expect the participants to be able to do,
know or feel after the activity
Characteristics of A Good Objective
• Specific – says exactly what the learner will be able to do
• Measurable – can be observed by the end of the activity
• Attainable within scheduled time and specified conditions
• Relevant to the needs of the participant and the organization
Examples of Objectives
• demonstrate dance movements through informal presentations and share their thoughts and feelings in response to their own and others’ dances
• describe how a volcano explodes
• recognize and draw the following line styles; vertical, horizontal, diagonal, wavy, curved and zig-zag
• convince a donor to provide refreshments for the program’s showcase program
Participants will be able to
Activity Description:
Description of what you and the participants are going
to do in the activity. It should be in enough detail so that a person who did not write the lesson plan
can follow it.
Supplies
What is needed to do the activity (Don’t forget the small stuff like pencils, paper, scotch tape)
De-brief/Reflection Strategies that allows the participants a few minutes to internalize what happened during the activity or connect to their own lives.
Give the participants the opportunity to reflect on the following:
• What happened? Describe what happened or what was learned during the activity • So What? Determine what was important about what was learned/done during the activity • Now What? Think of what can be done with what was learned during the activity
Great websites for reflection strategies:
• Reflection Activity for Community Service and Service Learning Projects: http://4h.uwex.edu/pubs/showdoc.cfm?documentid=22661
• Reflection Toolkit: Northwest Service Academy, Metro Center, Portland, OR http://www1.aucegypt.edu/maan/pdf/Reflection%20Toolkit%201.pdf
•Reflection Strategies: http://www.usfca.edu/uploadedFiles/Destinations/Institutes_and_Centers/OSL/docs/Reflection%20Activities.pdf
Assessment:
Strategy that allows you to determine whether the participants met the objectives of the activity. Can be questions, a review of the products developed during the activity etc.
Assessment Strategies
• Directly ask the participant to answer questions related to the objectives for the activity. (This type of assessment can often be folded into your feedback/reflection)
• Assess a finished product to see if has met the designated criteria.
• Use KWL: a brainstorming process exploring what participants know prior to beginning an activity(s), what they what to learn about it, and after finishing what they have learned.
• Use a rubric to assess to what degree the participants has successfully mastered
the objective. This can be a time consuming process if you are going to assess individual participants’ efforts but provides a lot of information. If you want many examples of rubrics for different subjects and topics, check out RubiStar http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php. For full use you have to register for free but it has a lot of ideas and rubrics templates.
KWL
Rubric
Theme Planning Sheet