Instruction Planning and Reflection Template

The template below is adapted from the USER Method Planning Template (citation below) and from the
Backward Design planning framework.
 
 

1. Context

Type of library: Middle School

General topic area or focus of instruction: We Need Diverse (Comic) Books!
Format of session: Examples include one-shot, drop-in workshop, professional development,
afterschool program, club meeting, etc.
Duration of instructional session: over the course of a semester or year

 
Setting Characterize: What do I know about the instructional environment, and how
can it be shaped to create a positive learning experience?

A medium space with seating and the ability to move around furniture. I would
like to decorate the space (after the first meeting) with posters of diverse
comic book characters (which could be provided from our artistic students!)

Confront: Does additional troubleshooting or information gathering need to

occur? Are any elements of the setting likely to cause challenges or problems
during the instructional period?

If there is not comfortable seating or enough engagement, then students

might stop paying attention

 
Learners Characterize: Who are my participants (basic information such as age range,
likely number of participants, hypothetical demographics)? What are my
participants’ needs, strengths, and potential areas of motivation?

Middle School: 6 - 8 graders, 15 – 20 students, majority white and black and

th th

Hispanic students.

Participants needs: the ability to assess comic book content in the lens of
diversity in a predominately white society.

Strengths: already reading (or maybe just interested) in comic books

Motivation: seeing themselves and others in comic books

2011).
 Confront: a) What are my participants’ potential barriers to learning? b) What
assumptions am I making about their prior knowledge related to the content I
will teach?

They might not have picked up a comic book in their life. Assumptions are that
they have not read diverse comic books because white media dominates
popular culture.

 
Educator Characterize: What is my previous experience with this content, learner
group, and/or setting?  

Not very much experience besides being a middle schooler myself and
someone who is interested in reading diverse comic books.

Confront: Are there knowledge, skills, or attitudes that I need to acquire?

Realizing that these middle schoolers experience is different than my own.

Need to know their background and attitudes toward comic books. I need to
read more diverse comic books and speak to someone who is an expert.

2. Structure

Create
Learning Objective(s): Learner-focused, action-oriented statements that
Targets provide concrete criteria to evaluate if learning has occurred. Use Bloom’s
Taxonomy action verbs to create these. Keep in mind that you should plan to
assess each learning goal listed below.

1) Students will read and identify the diverse characters in the

comics/graphic novels. (overarching program goal)

2) Students will create a comic collectively with diverse characters.

(end product goal)

3) Students will reflect on what characteristics make a comic book

character (for this specific lesson)

Standards: What learner standard(s) from AASL, YALSA, ACRL, or

elsewhere align with these learning goals? For an average-length lesson, you
will want to identify no more than 2 of these - the ones you will focus on and
assess.

1) Grow/Collaborate: Learners actively participate with others in

learning situations by actively contributing to group discussions

2011).
 2) Create/Include: Learners adjust their awareness of the global
learning community by representing diverse perspectives during learning
activities

Goal(s): What are YOUR goals for the instructional experience? What do you
hope to achieve in this interaction? These could be personal or organizational
goals.

I want to be able to get more diverse comic/graphic novels into the school
library. By creating this program, I will have a reason to request more of these
materials.

I want to become more knowledgeable about diverse texts.

Outcome(s): Actionable, real-world results of the interaction; what will the

learners be able to do with this knowledge / skill outside of your lesson?

Students will be able to recognize diversity across a variety of media.

3. Engage

Learning
Engage: How will you engage learners in your content? You can think of this
Activities as the “hook” that pulls learners into the instruction, and/or as an opportunity
to engage their prior knowledge related to your topic.

I will start by giving students paper and drawing utensils and ask them to draw
a comic book character. This can be of their own invention or of a comic book
character already created.

Elaborate and Explore: Describe the main instructional activities here.

Indicate how long each will take.

 Students will draw (if they have a laptop or want to use the computers to
create a graphic digitally or just list characteristics of a comic book
character) a comic book character (20 minutes)
 (Depending on how many students) Think-pair-share with a partner on
why they created their character this way (15 minutes)
 Whole group discussion about what makes a comic book character (10
minutes)
o Brief poll on the demographics of the characters (gender,
ethnicity, disabled/abled, sexuality (if applicable))
 Examine briefly the demographics of comic book characters (5 minutes)
o Statistics on popular comics and how many protagonists are
diverse
 Introduce first comic being read for this after school program, “Spider-

Adapted From Reflective Teaching, Effective Learning, by Char Booth (Chicago: American Library Association,
2011).
 Verse” and tell the students how to access the comic (10 minutes)
o In this ideal world, the school and public library have an online
subscription to ComiXology and there are print copies available

End: How will you wrap up the lesson?

I will end the lesson with telling the students that we will be examining diverse
characters in comic books. 

I will also point out the suggestion box that I will have every meeting for those
who want to suggest a comic book.

My last task would be to inform my students how to get their comic (as stated
above) and to read as much of it before the next meeting (either in two weeks
or a month).

Extend: Will you provide analog or technology-facilitated support prior to,

during, and/or after the interaction?

This will be an event in the school library so I will be available before, during
and after the program for students who have questions or comments.

Materials: What physical or digital materials will you need to create or have
available?

The program will be in the library which will have computers for those who
want to create a character digitally. I will bring paper and drawing utensils for
students and they can use their own materials.

4. Assess

Assess
Formative: How will you assess learning as it occurs (in the moment)?
Learning Assessment should be aligned with learning objectives set in Step 2.

I will assess whether students are able to reflect on what characteristics make
a comic book character. If each student is able to either draw/create/list or
discuss these characteristics with a partner or in the group aka if a student is
able to contribute something in the lesson, that will be my assessment.

Summative: How will you assess learning at the end of or after the learning
experience? Assessment should be aligned with learning objectives set in
Step 2.

Adapted From Reflective Teaching, Effective Learning, by Char Booth (Chicago: American Library Association,
2011).
 Since this is a semester long program, the assessment will be on-going. The
students will read more diverse comic books and then at the end of the
semester, will create a comic of their own based on what they have learned
about diverse characters.

Assessment of my two other learning objectives will be done throughout the

semester. Identifying diverse characters will come through discussions the
students will have as they read their current comics.

The final product (creating their own comic/diverse character) will apply their
understanding of (and the need of) diverse characters into their own work.
Along with being able to work collaboratively to create something they are
proud of and what they believe reflects what they learned throughout the
program.

Assess
Reflect: What parts of the lesson went well, and how do you know? What
Teaching parts of the lesson went less well, and how do you know?  

If the students are participating in identifying characteristics of a comic book

character, I will be satisfied with this first part. 

If someone is not that participating in the activity, but is still contributing to the
discussion, I will be satisfied.

If there are pairs who are silent, I might need to rethink what went wrong
there.

If the whole group discussion is silent, I will also need to rethink how to
approach this topic with everyone.

Overall, if students are participating in the drawing portion and think-pair-

share I will be satisfied that we are off to a good start with the after-school
program.

Revise and Reuse: How might you revise the experience in the future to
improve its impact? What elements of the planning and/or learning experience
might you reuse in the future?
 

If the stretch to sketch exercise is a bust, I might think about showing clips
from comic book based shows or movies and compare and contrast the
diverse characters.

It might even be more effective to have a brainstorm session on what makes a

comic book character successful. What characters are usually shown in comic
books and what the students want to see more of.

This would be determined if the students are more interested in discussion

rather than the drawing portion. 
 
Adapted From Reflective Teaching, Effective Learning, by Char Booth (Chicago: American Library Association,
2011).
Adapted From Reflective Teaching, Effective Learning, by Char Booth (Chicago: American Library Association,
2011).