Checklist For A Terrific Tech Integrated Lesson Plan

Technology likely plays a daily role in your classroom.  Unfortunately, simply opening up a laptop doesn’t magically result in student learning.  So what does “effective” tech integration look like?  In this article, you’ll read about four steps to create an engaging and rigorous tech integrated lesson plan. 

Tech Integrated Lesson Plan Checklist

Level 1: Beginner

First, determine if technology is beneficial and practical for your lesson.

With any lesson, weigh the cost versus the benefit.  Here are three questions to think about before creating a tech lesson.

Will technology improve learning?

Remember your primary goal as a teacher is to help students achieve their learning objectives. If you feel that adding a layer of technology merely muddies those learning goals, it’s often best to leave technology out.  

You’re busy!  Is the technology worth your time and effort?

Bold experimentation in the classroom is great. But you should consider the amount of time you’ll need to invest in the technology. That includes both teacher prep time and the class time needed for students to learn how to use the tool.  Will you use the program again during the year, or are you teaching the students a new app every time?

What benefits do I hope to gain from technology?

It is generally accepted that technology has the potential to improve learning outcomes in several ways:

1. Grant access to information not available to previous generations

2. Offer flexibility for teachers to adapt to student needs

3. Boost student engagement

4. Promote real-world connections and relevance to your content

5. Increase ease of collaboration

Level 2: Novice

Utilize technology while adhering to the traditional principles of lesson planning.

It’s easy to enthusiastically embrace the latest tech gadget, especially if it is highly engaging for students.  “The class is on auto-pilot,” you’ll mutter to yourself from the back of the room.  At times, it can feel like the technology does the heavy lifting for us.

However, even with technology playing an important role in our classrooms, the teacher’s job is to focus all of that engaged student activity toward a desired learning objective.  It’s helpful to keep basic lesson planning principles in mind.

Four Parts of a Lesson Plan

#1 Identify the Learning Objectives

“What new concepts, knowledge, or skills do I want my students to learn today?”

The addition of objectives shifts the focus away from a website, activity, or app and back to the students themselves and their learning.  A class full of students engaged with an online task is great as long as they are working toward your learning objective.    

#2 The Lesson “Hook”

How will I introduce the topic? How can I get students interested in what they’re about to learn?

This is the “gotcha” part of the lesson.  A lesson introduction should:

• Provide brief context and background information on the topic while engaging interest
• Compel the class to want to know more about the topic
• Explain the relevance of the topic to the larger unit or course 
• Provide a clear link between today’s objectives and the student’s prior knowledge

#3 The Learning Activities

What will the students do in order to achieve the lesson objective?  

In a general sense, the learning activities can be divided into two parts: Guided Practice and Individual/Group Practice

Guided Practice – Guided practice gives students an opportunity to participate in the learning activity under supervision and with direct feedback from the instructor.  

From a teacher’s perspective, guided practice is a key form of formative assessment.  Teachers use guided practice to determine whether students are ready to successfully complete the activity without scaffolded support.  

Individual/Group Practice – Individual/group practice is the time for students to demonstrate proficiency on their own.  Independent practice can include homework assignments.

#4: Assessment and Closure

“How do I know if students have met the learning objective?”

Lesson closure gives teachers the chance to briefly conduct one final review of the lesson and check to ensure that the intended student learning has occurred.

Go back to your original lesson objectives.  Create questions to ask students that address your learning goals.  You can place those questions on a homework assignment, an exit ticket, a quiz, or simply ask the questions in the form of a discussion.

Level 3: Intermediate

Incorporate 21st Century Skills

The 21st Century Skills were created to focus the work of educators as we prepare students for the modern job market.  All skills are relevant today in the digital age.

The 21st Century Skills  

Critical Thinking

Work to create tech-based lessons that require students to think deeply and analytically about your content.  A lesson that asks students to hunt down answers on a website (like a web quest) doesn’t require much thinking.

Creativity

Ask students to generate original ideas, solutions, and opinions about the course content.  Students are fairly adept at looking up answers online — a respectable information-gathering skill.  However, they often need teacher guidance to construct unique understandings or perspectives that require original thought. 

Collaboration 

Ideally, students should interact not only with the technology but with each other.  Student collaboration can be achieved in many ways.  If you taught during the pandemic, you likely had students working together from separate houses – a huge bonus when increased isolation contributed to mental health problems for students.

Communication

Seek out opportunities for students to convey meaning (both verbally and in writing) in a clear, concise manner to a variety of audiences for a variety of purposes.

Level 4: Advanced

Apply the SAMR model for measuring transformative tech integration.

Created by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, the SAMR model seeks to classify technology integration in education into a hierarchy.  

“Substitution” is where many teachers start.  At this level, the technology in a lesson is a mere substitute for traditional classroom methods.  Not surprisingly, substitution results in minimal improvement in the lesson. 

Example: If a student takes notes on a Google Doc, that is essentially the same task as taking notes on paper.

The “Augmentation” level offers a slight improvement in the learning experience by adding an element that cannot be achieved without technology. 

Example: Students take notes on a Google Doc and also ask them to insert hyperlinks to related outside sources such as articles or videos. 

The third level is “Modification” which involves significant task redesign. 

Example: Groups of students create a proposal to solve a social issue.  The students then send a digital survey out to their peers to gather feedback on their group’s proposal. 

Finally,  the “Redefinition” level is when technology allows a complete transformation of what is possible in education.

Example: Students create a class blog about social issues in the United States and network with international schools overseas to compare social issues by country.

Brad has taught history at the middle and high school levels for 19 years, almost exclusively in American public schools.  He has a master’s in educational technology and is passionate about elevating the status of professional educators.