Investigating Detailed Lesson Plans as Tools for Teaching Social Studies and Content Area Literacy Through Projects

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Abstract

Elementary curriculum materials often include detailed lesson plans for teachers. However, we know little about how recommendations in lesson plans can be designed to be both useful and usable to teachers working across a variety of instructional contexts. This study explores these questions by examining how teachers used the recommendations provided in a project-based social studies and literacy curriculum. Some recommendations (e.g., recommendations for explaining content) were taken up consistently across lessons and teachers, while others (e.g., recommendations for setting up lesson activities) were not. This paper explores implications of these findings for the design of curriculum materials.

Author

• Susanna Farmer, University of Michigan