Ways in which your lesson should be the same as the one described in the teacher's manual:

• it should teach the same concepts and skills
• it should prepare the children to do the same work

Ways in which your lesson may be the same as the one described in the teacher's manual

• you may use (some of) the same activities
• you may use the same worksheets
• you may use (some of) the same examples

Ways in which your lesson must be different from the one described in the teacher's manual

• you must use different language to describe the activites and explanations you will be using and giving (you may not copy the teacher instructions directly from the teacher's manual
• you must create or significantly adapt at least one teaching segment for each of the full length lessons you are writing. For example, if the teacher's manual describes 4 segments in the lesson, you may follow the teacher's manual plan for 3 of those segments, but the fourth segment should show significant critical thought on your part of how to teach that part of the lesson. This segment can be something completely new that you believe will teach the same concept or skill in an appropriate way, or you can take the idea from the teacher's manual and personalize it to the students will be teaching.

Check list of things to discuss with your cooperating teacher:

__ You must report on 5-8 days of a unit, so you need access to a copy of the textbook (ideally the teacher's manual) for an appropriate unit.

__ The ideal time frame for the unit is between March 17 and May 4. You must have the textbook resources by 2 weeks before the unit begins. It would be helpful to get the textbook resources even earlier than that.

__ You will need to teach 2 lessons from the unit to the class.

__ Your cooperating teacher should be looking at your lesson plans before you teach the lessons. Discuss when and how you will submit these to him or her.

__ You will need to be video taped while teaching one of those lessons, and I will be watching that video tape. The video will be deleted by me at the end of the semester, and will be used only for grading purposes for this class. (Make sure that if extra permission slips need to be obtained, that you get that process started early).

__ You will need some flexibility in adding to or personalizing the lessons you teach. You may want to discuss the need for an inquiry/discovery learning segment in one of the lessons.

__ Once your cooperating teacher has selected the unit you will be working on, you should discuss with him or her what prior knowledge students have from earlier in the year that is relevant to the unit.