Lesson design

  • 7 minutes

In the primary-age hybrid classroom, lesson design revolves around interactivity and engagement. Educators must be innovative and creative in designing their lessons. Educators can prepare students for online learning by introducing the digital tools used. Limiting the number of tools used and establishing routines with primary-age students sets up the class for success. Developing consistency, such as daily announcements and expectations in the same place with the same font at the same time each day, sets the precedent for an easy start to the school day. To assist students, families, and caregivers with navigation and a positive user experience, create tutorials and guides in multiple forms, including written, audio, and video.

Giving primary-age students a choice and voice in their learning, as well as distributing lessons that are personalized, individualized, and differentiated supports early learners and meet the needs of students. For more information on differentiation, see Differentiation in the classroom using the built-in tools in Office 365 and Windows.

Educators can easily create opportunities for differentiation by adding choice boards for students in the directions of a Team assignment. Educators can also insert an accessible PDF of a PowerPoint or Word document with activities that students answer with type or dictation, inserting an audio file, or adding a Flipgrid response. Educators can also pre-record a lesson or record a live lesson, then upload the files into a Stream channel, with automatic closed captions, to give students options to pause and review the videos when learning asynchronously.

Backward design allows educators to develop learning goals by working backwards and by placing focus on the learning rather than the teaching. Lessons, projects, assignments, and assessments have clear expectations when planning backwards. Creating a primary-age hybrid classroom requires looking at multiple modes, methods, and tools. Utilizing the Teacher-Only section of OneNote in Teams, educators can develop lesson ideas to build a content library. A great way to develop lessons is by common planning with grade level and subject matter educators, and having focused discussions with school leaders.

Universal design for learning (UDL) is a valuable method to guide lesson design to incorporate accessible media and learning equity into the classroom. Designing multi-sensory and multi-modal learning assists all students in learning. Designing lessons in Teams allows for the use of the accessibility checker, where digital materials are analyzed for accessibility and exposes potential problems. Teams meetings, PowerPoint Live, and Stream are a few tools where there's the opportunity to deliver instruction with closed captioning and translation.

When planning and designing lessons, continuity of academic learning is important. Establishing routines within the face-to-face school day assists with the transitions students need at home. To assist the students, families, and guardians as they transition between in-school and online learning, be consistent in the naming and distribution of student work. When developing lessons, focus on the skills that students need, but also those that their families, guardians and caregivers need as well. Providing tutorials for students and families assists them in the transition to hybrid learning.

Tools and features for lesson design

  • Teams
  • Organize resources with the Files section and class materials folder
  • Create assignments with learning in mind through backward design planning
  • Simplify assignments by adding the materials students need in one place. For example, if the assignment requires adding a Word document, educators can add it directly to their resources so everything is at hand
  • View upcoming and turned in assignments by class or view them across all classes
  • OneDrive
  • Create video and audio instructions in OneDrive and link to assignments and lessons
  • Develop and organize lessons and content in Word, PowerPoint, or Excel and share via Teams files or assignments
  • OneNote
  • Build content and lessons in the teacher-only section
  • Distribute content and lessons to students via assignments
  • Guide students to use immersive reader and dictate features to aid with reading and responding to assignments
  • Office Lens and OneDrive app
  • Easily scan in any document, whiteboard, or image to the digital classroom and store it in OneDrive or send it directly to OneNote
  • Stream
  • Record live meetings, which automatically save to Stream with closed captioning for students to revisit and pause when necessary, if unable to attend live events
  • Pre-record lessons and easily add Forms for interactive learning
  • PowerPoint
  • Develop lessons for students that can be exported in numerous ways, including video
  • Create interactive choice boards and templates and export to PDF or embed directly for students to view in OneNote or Teams
  • Encourage students to use presenter coach to learn effective techniques and methods of delivery