Lesson Planning with Purpose: Five Approaches to Curriculum Design

2021 American Association for Teaching and Curriculum (AATC) O.L. Davis Outstanding Book Award

2023 Society of Professors of Education (SPE) Outstanding Book Award Honorable Mention

When teachers and students are both engaged in the educational enterprise, every day has the potential to be transformative. Lesson Planning with Purpose takes readers on a journey through many pathways to engaging and meaningful educational experiences.

The text first discusses perceptive teaching: the belief that teachers must know themselves and their students while cultivating culturally sensitive, safe, and inviting spaces for learning for all students. Next, five unique approaches to lesson planning are explored: behaviorist, constructivist, aesthetic, ecological, and integrated social–emotional learning. Each chapter provides the rationale for the approach, its theoretical background, practical applications, and critiques and considerations. Chapters end with a sample lesson that can be compared across approaches.

Book Features:

• A comprehensive examination of multiple approaches to lesson planning.
• Guidance for teachers on when to choose various approaches, as well as how they might mix and match and blend ideas.
• User-friendly lesson plan templates, sample lessons, and discussion questions.
• An appendix with lesson plan examples written by practicing teachers across content areas and age groups.

Christy McConnell is professor of foundations and curriculum studies at the University of Northern Colorado. Bradley Conrad is associate professor of education at Capital University, Columbus, Ohio. P. Bruce Uhrmacher is professor of research methods and statistics and curriculum and instruction in the Morgridge College of Education at the University of Denver.