01 / Backward design
Results → evidence → experiences
Choose the learning before choosing the activity. A visually impressive simulation or an enjoyable game earns its place only when it helps learners practice the intended performance.
- Desired results: Select the Michigan competency statement, identify the portion this lesson addresses, define the unit goal, and write an essential question.
- Acceptable evidence: Decide what an individual learner will produce or demonstrate, under what conditions, and what successful performance looks like.
- Learning experiences: Plan the explanation, modeling, guided practice, feedback, independent application, and opportunities to revise.
Unit versus lesson: A unit connects several lessons around a broad goal. A lesson addresses a manageable part of that goal. One introductory case does not establish an entire competency.
02 / Goals and learning objectives
Make the intended performance visible
Goal: Develop a repeatable, evidence-based approach to supporting people and their technology. This broad direction can support several lessons.
Objective: Given the independent support case and the lesson reference, an introductory IT learner will classify four case statements as observations or hypotheses, with all four correct and an evidence-based explanation for one observation and one hypothesis.
- A · Audience
- Who will do the learning? An introductory IT learner.
- B · Behavior
- What observable performance? Classify statements and explain the distinction.
- C · Condition
- With what resources or constraints? The case record and lesson reference.
- D · Degree
- What constitutes success? Four correct classifications and two supported explanations.
I can tell the difference between evidence and a possible cause.
Keep the “I can” target short and understandable. Display its success criteria alongside it so that student-friendly language does not hide the assessment expectation.
Choose the performance, not just a verb
Distinguish recall, explanation, application, analysis, evaluation, and creation where they help you plan. A verb alone does not establish difficulty: the task, conditions, and evidence matter. Include physical performance and observable professional conduct when relevant, not merely to fill every domain.
- Cognitive: Analyze a diagnostic record and justify the next test.
- Psychomotor: In a future supervised cabling lesson, perform the termination and test it using the approved procedure. Identifying a cable in a quiz is not that performance.
- Professional/affective: Ask for authorization, report an error honestly, or give respectful feedback. Assess observable behavior, not private feelings or personality.
Use meaningful criteria instead of an arbitrary percentage. Safety-critical requirements must not be averaged away by unrelated correct answers. Any modified expectation must be deliberately planned and documented privately.
03 / Aligned assessment
Practice what you will assess
| Objective | Practice | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Distinguish fact from hypothesis | Annotate a worked case; sort a second case with a partner. | Individually classify a new case and explain the distinction. |
| Propose a safe next test | Compare test choices and discuss permission boundaries. | Write a plan with expected outcomes and an escalation point. |
| Document an accurate handoff | Draft a ticket and use peer feedback to revise it. | Submit a new six-field ticket with no invented results. |
Checks during learning
Use a short response, demonstration, explanation, or observation to decide what happens next. Write the response rule: if learners confuse a hypothesis with a fact, model that distinction again before independent practice. Asking “Any questions?” alone gives little evidence.
Evidence after practice
Evaluate each objective against its published criteria. Use descriptive feedback: identify what the evidence shows, what is missing, and the next practice step. Do not use a group product as the only evidence of individual performance.
Three useful feedback states
- Not yet evidenced: The required performance is missing. Provide an accessible opportunity to attempt it.
- Needs revision: The attempt shows part of the skill, but one or more stated criteria are unmet. Identify the specific gap and reteach it.
- Demonstrated for this task: The submitted performance meets the stated criteria under the stated conditions. Broader competency requires additional evidence across appropriate situations.
These describe instructional feedback, not a new district grading policy. The site’s self-checks do not record grades, award badges, or verify certification readiness.
04 / Lesson procedures
Model, practice, apply, revisit
- Hook and prior knowledge: Use a meaningful problem. Ask a question that reveals what learners already know, then share the targets and why the work matters.
- Explain and model: Teach the essential vocabulary and reasoning. Show a complete worked example and make uncertainty, safety checks, and decision points explicit.
- Guided practice: Give a similar task with prompts and feedback. If working in groups, assign and rotate roles so everyone practices the skill.
- Independent application: Use a fresh case or performance task aligned to the objective. Make the resources and conditions explicit.
- Closure and reflection: Return to the essential question and the learning targets. Ask students to cite their evidence and identify a next step.
- Reteaching and transfer: Provide another route to the same target, then another opportunity to demonstrate it. Offer extension through a new situation, not just more of the same work.
Give each phase a teacher action, learner action, and a check that changes instruction. The instructor sets the pace; lesson durations are not displayed on the site.
Unit-level review using WHERETO
- Where and why: Are the destination and purpose clear?
- Hook and hold: Does the problem sustain interest in the learning?
- Equip: Are the knowledge, tools, and practice available?
- Rethink and revise: Can learners use feedback to improve?
- Evaluate: Can learners assess their progress using evidence?
- Tailor: Does the plan respond to actual access needs and readiness?
- Organize: Does the sequence prepare learners for increasingly independent work?
This is a planning review, not a requirement to attach every label to every activity.
Build the prerequisites, then deepen the task
For computer components: recognize names and visual clues, add functions, connect the functions in a file-use task, then apply them to another device and justify a next test. Use a check and a return path at each step; keep the student labels brief.
Bloom’s, Webb’s DOK, and Gagné in the lesson design
Revised Bloom’s: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, Create describe cognitive processes. Select the processes required by the objective; a short lesson need not include all six. Iowa State CELT reference.
Webb’s DOK: classify the complexity of the whole task. Recalling a taught job can be DOK 1; explaining a relationship can be DOK 2; a justified test strategy with competing explanations can be DOK 3. Extended inquiry with synthesis and revision can support DOK 4. A verb alone cannot assign DOK. These categories are separate from lesson order, learner ability, and ISD 0–4 proficiency. WebbAlign guidance.
Gagné: plan attention and purpose, recall, content, guidance, practice, feedback, evidence, and retention/transfer. These functions support the existing lesson sequence. Northern Illinois University reference.
Framework mappings are local drafts for instructor review, not certifications. Familiar photo quizzes support practice; use new cases and observed performance for the corresponding individual evidence.
05 / Access and context
Design for the learners in front of you
- Readiness: Name prerequisites and include a quick diagnostic. Offer a vocabulary reference, worked example, or partially completed organizer as needed.
- Access: Provide readable text, structured instructions, and a paper route when feasible. Do not make home internet or expensive equipment an unstated prerequisite.
- Expression: Allow an appropriate way to show the same skill. A dictated ticket can demonstrate reasoning and documentation; describing a cable termination cannot replace a required physical demonstration.
- Individual plans: Apply approved accommodations and modifications in private teaching records. Do not collect or publish student diagnoses, grades, demographics, or IEP/504 information here.
- Belonging: Use relevant, varied contexts, avoid assumptions about prior access to technology, and normalize reporting mistakes without blame.
Make the cross-curricular connection specific
Identify where learners read technical documentation, justify a conclusion, calculate a quantity, or communicate with a customer. List a formal academic, ISTE, or SEL standard code only after verifying the exact current source and the fit. A plausible topic connection is not a verified standards mapping.
Use technology for a learning purpose
State what the teacher does with the tool and what learners do. An optional simulation may prepare learners for a lab; the lab’s physical performance still needs its own observation. Flipped preparation should have an in-class access option and should not replace feedback.
06 / A repeatable quality check
Before a lesson reaches the classroom
- Read the three opening statements with the title hidden. Each must name the subject: what students will learn, what they will actually do, and what successful independent work will show. “Name it” and “finish the quiz” are not enough. Keep the wording brief without removing its meaning.
- Verify the competency source and version; clearly label partial coverage and local interpretations.
- Check every objective for audience, behavior, condition, degree, and a matching “I can” target.
- Confirm that instruction, practice, and assessment measure the same performance.
- Prepare the actual cases, examples, task directions, evidence checklist, and feedback—not just a list of activities.
- Review safety, authorization, privacy, accessibility, equipment, and individual access arrangements.
- Confirm technical claims against primary sources. Do not imply exam readiness, college credit, or regulatory compliance from a lesson completion.
- After teaching, record actual timing, evidence of learning, misconceptions, feedback, and changes for the next version. Keep student-specific records in the approved school system.
Check a meaningful lesson opening
For Computer Components, students identify the CPU, RAM, storage, graphics, and motherboard; rehearse names with photos before explaining jobs; and independently name all five and explain their functions. Physical handling requires a separate teacher observation.
Trace each claim to a real lesson activity and its success criteria. Read the projected board at presentation size. Automated checks can catch missing subjects, generic wording, and broken objective links; an educator must still judge whether the statements and tasks mean the same thing.
Current status: The opening IT support and AI lessons are original drafts ready for instructor review. Hands-on hardware work, cable termination, fiber splicing, server labs, and full exam-objective coverage remain future development. The AI course map now references Pearson’s numbered objectives and identifies partial draft practice.
Source-to-practice connections
How EDUC 338 informs this approach
The supplied Fall 2026 course materials informed the structure below. This is an original IT Essentials planning guide, not the Ferris assignment template, a completed course submission, or a statement of Ferris endorsement.
| Course material | Application in the site |
|---|---|
| Units 1–3 · Goals, objectives, alignment | Separate unit goals from measurable ABCD objectives; pair “I can” targets with matching practice and evidence. |
| Units 4–6 · Standards and integration | Anchor learning to Michigan competency statements and make academic and career connections explicit. |
| Unit 7 · Competency and mastery approaches | Provide feedback, targeted practice, and fresh attempts; do not equate time spent with mastery. |
| Units 8–12 · Activities and learning domains | Mix modeling, cooperative practice, and independent performance; use scenarios and assess the actual intended skill. |
| Units 13–14 · Unit and lesson planning | Plan results and evidence before activities, then sequence the lesson with purpose and closure. |
| Unit 15 · Lesson plan elements | Include readiness, materials, alignment, teacher/learner actions, access, technology use, extension, and post-teaching reflection. |
The original course files stay outside the public site. Source examples, contact information, classroom demographics, and third-party course excerpts are not republished. Formal standard identifiers are checked separately rather than copied from unrelated course examples.