Working with Lesson Plans

1. Creating a Lesson Plan
2. Linking a Lesson Plan to an Observable Set
3. Linking a Lesson Plan to an Assignment
4. Organizing Lesson Plans
5. Editing Lesson Plans
6. Deleting Lesson Plans and Folders
7. Printing Lesson Plans

Learner Profile includes a built-in lesson planner which enables you to easily create and organize the activities for a course or school year. Use it when you're planning your lessons to describe the objective and activity of the lesson. Refer back to it before the lesson is taught. Evaluate and improve the lesson once it's complete.

You can link lesson plans directly to a set of observables and/or an assignment(s) in the Gradebook. This makes it a place to start planning your course work for the school year.

1. Creating a Lesson Plan

To create a new lesson plan, follow these steps:

1. Click on the LESSON PLANS tab.
2. Click on the NEW PLAN button in the lower-left of the screen.
3. In the text field labeled "Lesson Plan:" you will see the word "Untitled." Place your cursor in this text field and enter a name for your lesson plan.
4. Place your cursor in the field labeled "Dates:" (or use the TAB key to navigate there). Enter the dates that your lesson plan will begin and end (like all areas of the Lesson Planner, this is optional--if your lesson plan doesn't have a set date, you can leave these fields empty).
5. Below the Dates fields, you'll see five tabs. The first tab is labeled "Obj..." for "Objective." Place your cursor in the space below the tab and type in the objective of the Lesson Plan.
6. Do the same for the Materials ("Mat...") and Activities fields.
7. In the "Eval..." (Evaluation) field, you have the option of linking your lesson plan to a observable set and/or an assignment(s) in your Gradebook. For help on this, see Linking a Lesson Plan to an Observable Set and Linking a Lesson Plan to an Assignment.
8. The last field is called "Notes." Here you can assess how well the lesson plan met your objectives, and jot down how you think it could be improved.

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2. Linking a Lesson Plan to an Observable Set

You may wish to use certain observables to help assess your students' performance of an activity during a lesson plan. To facilitate this, Learner Profile enables you to include observable sets in your lesson plan, ensuring that you use the appropriate observable sets when the lesson is being taught and assessed. To include observable sets in a lesson plan, follow these steps:

1. Be sure that the observables you want to use are in their own observable set. You cannot associate a lesson plan with individual observables.
2. Click on the LESSON PLANS tab.
3. From the column on the left, select the Lesson Plan to which you'd like to link an observable set.
4. Click on the tab labeled "Eval..."
5. Click on the ADD/REMOVE OBSERVABLE SETS button.
6. From the column on the left, select the observable set you wish to include with the lesson plan and click the ADD >> button.
7. To include additional observable sets, repeat Step 6.
8. When you have finished adding observable sets to your lesson plan, click the DONE button. The observable set(s) you selected will be displayed in the "Eval..." tab for this Lesson Plan.

NOTE: To remove an observable set from a lesson plan, follow Steps 1 - 5, then select the observable set you want to remove from the column on the right and click the REMOVE button. Click DONE when you are finished.

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3. Linking a Lesson Plan to an Assignment

If your lesson plan relates directly to a homework assignment, quiz, or other activity that will be assessed in the Gradebook, you can link that assignment to the lesson plan.

1. Click on the LESSON PLANS tab.
2. From the column on the left, select the Lesson Plan to which you'd like to link an assignment.
3. Click on the tab labeled "Eval..."
4. Click on the ADD/REMOVE ASSIGNMENTS button.
5. In the window that appears, select the Gradebook which contains the desired assignment from the pull-down menu.
6. From the column on the left, select the assignment you wish to include with the lesson plan and click the ADD>> button.
7. To include additional assignments, repeat Step 6.
8. When you have finished adding assignments to your lesson plan, click the DONE button. The observable set(s) you selected will be displayed in the "Eval..." tab for this Lesson Plan.

NOTE: You can create assignments directly from the Add/Remove Assignments window. Click the NEW ASSIGNMENT button, and you will be prompted to create a new assignment. The assignment will be added to the selected Gradebook in the Add/Remove Assignments widow.

NOTE: To remove an assignment from a lesson plan, follow Steps 1 - 5, then select the assignment you want to remove from the column on the right and click the REMOVE button. Click DONE when you are finished.

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4. Organizing Lesson Plans

You may find it helpful to organize your lesson plans by course, subject, term--whatever works best for you situation. To facilitate this, create folders and place your lesson plans in them:

1. Click on the LESSON PLANS tab.
2. Click on the NEW FOLDER button in the lower-left of the screen.
3. Enter a a name for the folder in window that appears. Click OK.
4. The new folder is placed in the your Lesson Plans directory.

• To create a new lesson plan in this folder, select the folder, then click the NEW PLAN button.
• To create a folder within this folder, select the folder, then click the NEW FOLDER button.

To move an existing lesson plan into a folder:

1. Select the lesson plan you want to move.
2. Choose COPY from the EDIT menu.
3. Select the lesson plan's destination folder.
4. Choose PASTE from the EDIT menu. The lesson plan will be moved to the destination folder.

To move an existing folder and its contents into another folder:

1. Select the folder you want to move. We'll call it "Folder 1."
2. Choose COPY from the EDIT menu.
3. Select the destination folder for "Folder 1."
4. Choose PASTE from the EDIT menu. "Folder 1" and its contents will be moved into the destination folder.

To rename a lesson plan folder:

1. Select the folder you want to rename.
2. Click the RENAME FOLDER button on the bottom of the screen.
3. Edit the name of the folder in the dialog box that appears, then click OK.

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5. Editing Lesson Plans

Lesson Plans may be edited in much the same way they are created. To edit the contents of a Lesson Plan, follow these steps:

1. Click on the LESSON PLANS tab.
2. Select the Lesson Plan you want to edit from the column on the left.
3. On the right, choose which aspect of the lesson plan you wish to edit by clicking on the appropriate tab.
4. Place your cursor in the text field to edit the contents.
5. Your changes are saved automatically

NOTE: To remove assignments and observable sets from lesson plans, see Linking a Lesson Plan to an Assignment and Linking a Lesson Plan to an Observable Set, respectively.

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6. Deleting Lesson Plans and Folder

To delete a lesson plan or a folder containing several lesson plans, follow these steps:

1. Click on the LESSON PLANS tab.
2. Select the Lesson Plan or folder you want to delete from the column on the left.
3. Click the DELETE button in the lower left corner. You will be asked to confirm that you want to delete the lesson plan or folder.

NOTE: If you delete a folder which contains other lesson plans and folders, the entire contents of the folder will be deleted.

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7. Printing Lesson Plans

To print out a lesson plan, simply select the lesson plan you wish to print, then choose PRINT from the File menu. You can print out all of the lesson plans in a folder by selecting the folder, then choosing PRINT from the File menu. Note that if you have associated the lesson plan with observable sets, the names of the observable sets will be printed out, but the observables within the set will not. You can print out the observables in an observable set by printing the observable set from the Observation tab.