Prepare a personal charter lesson plan

Prepare a personal charter lesson plan

Teacher: Jason Henderson

Subject: Organizational leadership

Grade Level: Adult, 11-12th grade, or 9-10^th grade gifted/talented students

Duration: 2-3 days

State Standards Texas:

To be determined.

Learning Goals:

·      Identify a mission statement

·      Identify a vision statement

·      Identify a values statement

·      Identify a strategy

·      Identify operating goals

·      Employ Web tools to collaborate on strategic thinking

·      Employ Web conferencing software to communicate with peers

·      Synthesize the elements of a charter into a strategic plan for personal development

Estimation of student interest, prior knowledge, and misconceptions:

Adults taking this class will have an interest in leadership and/or have leadership experience. Their primary desire is to become better leaders or move up in their organization. Some may have an interest in training other leaders within their organization. Some of them will have participated in writing mission and vision statements for their organizations or departments. Others will be completely new to the idea of charters. This specific lesson may not be of particular interest to them, but it is key to their leadership development. This lesson will help them clarify and articulate where they are going as leaders.

If used in a high school class, prior knowledge will be limited to student organization experience, sports teams, and school clubs. Some may think of charter planes or charter schools when approaching the term. Once they understand it is a collection of foundational statements, they will understand the task before them.

Strategy to grab attention and address misconceptions:

In order to get their attention, I will need to emphasize the importance of visioning and developing a personal plan of action for their lives. I will need to clearly illustrate the benefits of working through a personal charter. They will need to see it more than a gimmick exercise in a leadership class.

Required materials, technology, and resources:

Computers with high-speed Internet connections, Google accounts, access to Google Docs, Skype, Skype accounts, Illuminate, lesson handouts, and Google forms.

Clawson, James G. (2009). Level three leadership: Getting below the surface (4th ed.). NJ: Pearson.

Introduction:

A charter consists of several statements that give direction and identity to an organization. It is revised and clarified over time as the organization grows and as the environment changes. A charter can also be developed for an individual. The elements of a charter my lesson will cover are mission, vision, values statement, strategy, and operating goals. We will begin with an individual charter because it precedes an organizational charter. A leader must know where they are going before they can successfully lead an organization or team.

Guiding Question/Motivator:

How do you know if you are or are not exactly where you need to be in your professional career/life paths?

Lesson Description and Activities:

I prefer the hybrid approach to technology in the classroom; mix live, interpersonal active learning with Web environment interactions. Students will record their brainstorming ideas on Google Docs, because it is a free, Web based application that allows for real-time observation and feedback on work. Google Docs facilitates collaboration. The students will present their charters using Skype, because it illustrates a real world activity of presenting to a universal audience through Web conferencing software. This task will be likely repeated many times over in the corporate world with many different messages. Adobe connect requires a paid subscription (cost-prohibitive) or a 30-day free trial request. Illuminate is only used in academic settings (limited use). Skype is free and readily used by a number of industries. Students will give presentation feedback using Google Forms.

Prior to class, the student will be required to read Clawson (2009), Chapter 8, Personal, Workgroup, and Organizational Charters (15 pages).

Day 1: Identify the elements of a charter

Students will discuss the initial concepts presented in the book through facilitated discussion. (3-5 minutes)

Videos and active learning exercises

(38-40 minutes)

Identify a mission statement

Students will watch a 4-minute video from YouTube and take notes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtyCt83JLNY

They would then be given 3 minutes to reflect personally and write out initial thoughts on Google Docs. The teacher will call “time” at the end of the 3-minute interval and play the next video.

Identify a vision statement

Students will watch a 5-minute video from YouTube and take notes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioY-YSOKBtY

Again, they would then be given 3 minutes to reflect personally and write out initial thoughts. The teacher will call “time” at the end of the 3-minute interval and play the next video.

Identify a values statement

Students will watch a 5-minute video from YouTube and take notes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCDlozomQiY

Again, they would then be given 3 minutes to reflect personally and write out initial thoughts on Google Docs. The teacher will call “time” at the end of the 3-minute interval and play the next video.

Identify a strategy

Students will watch a 4-minute video from YouTube and take notes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inBaHOPZREQ

Again, they would then be given 3 minutes to reflect personally and write out initial thoughts on Google Docs. The teacher will call “time” at the end of the 3-minute interval and play the next video.

Identify operating goals

Students will watch a 5-minute video from YouTube and take notes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uThBb3kGf4k
Again, they would then be given 3 minutes to reflect personally and write out initial thoughts on Google Docs. The teacher will call “time” at the end of the 3-minute interval.

Small group active learning exercise

(16-18 minutes)

Next, students would be broken down into groups of three. Each student would present/share their ideas for their five statements to the other two group members using Google Docs. They will give editing rights to their group members on their Google document. The other group members would have 5 minutes to give feedback and suggestions for their ideas directly in the document using a different color font. The teacher will call “next statement” at the end of each minute and time at the end of each 5-minute interval. This ensures equal time and opportunity for each student.

Homework for Day 1

For homework, the students would refine their initial thoughts based on peer feedback and prepare a PowerPoint or Google Docs presentation for the next class period. They will be required to keep the original document with the feedback and create a separate revised document so the evolution of ideas can be traced.

The students would rate their peers constructive comments using Google Forms with each question on a Likert-type scale.

The students will be provided additional links to websites through my Delicious stack for the lesson. The stack includes:

Sample charters

http://flowchainsensei.amplify.com/2010/06/24/helping-people-my-own-personal-charter/

Sample personal mission statements
http://www.wou.edu/education/faculty/mahaffy/Personal%20Mission%20Statement.html

Sample vision statements

http://www.skills2lead.com/vision-statement-examples.html

Sample life purpose

http://www.riches-for-teachers.com/lifepurpose.html

Sample teaching philosophy statement (for educational leaders)

http://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching/philosophy.html

Students will be prepared to present, they will have tested their technology prior to class.

Day 2: Synthesis and presentation of a personal charter

(45-60 minutes)

Each student will have 3 minutes to present his or her charter. The students will bring their laptops with built-in cameras on the day of the presentation, or they can prerecord the message and deliver the video over the Web in a blog. The students would watch each other’s presentation on their individual monitor.

Homework for Day 2

Students will create blog posts on their personal blogs that include their presentations and/or final documents. Each student will be required to provide constructive feedback on 3 peer presentations (150 words minimum).

Assessment:

Student learning will be assessed through their final written charters and their presentations. It will be very clear if the students learned the concepts when it is time for them to synthesize them and present their own ideas. Their ability to use technology will be assessed through observation of the live presentations. The group will quickly realize if a peer is uncomfortable with or is unprepared to use technology when it is their time to present to the class. I will focus on the apparent level of confidence using technology as well as their ability to present their statements with conviction.

Sample survey questions:

How well did the group member give clear feedback and suggestions?

How helpful was their comments?

How interested were they in your ideas?

Accommodations and Modifications:

Since this is a hybrid class, I would not require a student’s physical presence in my class. They would have the opportunity to participate remotely through Skype, FaceTime (Mac and iPhone), or another Web conferencing tool such as Adobe Connect. If there are more than 20 students, the presentations can be broken into a 2-day time period.

Grading Scale:
90 – 100          = A
80 – 89            = B
75 – 79            = C
70 – 74            = D
0 – 69              = F