Lesson Planning Strategies for 4-H Project Leaders

The nonformal instruction of many 4-H youth today continues to be the responsibility of lay educators often called project leaders. Careful planning of one's lesson is an important step in becoming an effective educator, particularly in the nonformal setting of a 4-H project meeting. Manternach and Pfeifer1 believe lay educators overlook the importance of lesson planning, even when adequate teaching materials are unavailable. This means poorly executed lessons and a failure to achieve the intended learning outcomes.

To study effective lesson planning by lay educators, 35 4-H project leaders in Ohio were selected. These volunteers all lacked formal classroom training, yet had proven ability to plan and deliver project instruction. Indepth interviewing was used to determine similarities in effective lesson planning strategies.

The most significant lesson planning strategies were:

• Prepare. The project leaders believed that when planning a lesson, the lay educator should thoroughly understand the subject. Professionals should be consulted or additional reading done if further understanding is needed. At least one hour of preparation was recommended for every hour of teaching.

• Establish Learning Outcomes. Desired learning results should be established based on the cultural background, needs, and abilities of the participants.

• Internalize the Lesson. Effective project leaders developed their own teaching outline from the material provided in the leader's handbook. This helped the project leader internalize the lesson based on what they knew about themselves, the subject, the learners, and the learning environment.

• Sequence the Lesson. Sequencing was highly regarded in the lesson planning process so concepts were introduced in an appropriate order.

• Evaluate Performance. Addressing questions such as what did the members learn, what went right, what went wrong, and how can I do better next time were considered important by the project leaders.

We can't assume volunteers share the same instructional knowledge as the Extension professional. This study suggests county 4-H professionals modify current project leader training to emphasize the lesson planning process. Therefore, we developed a two-hour training module to help project leaders understand and use proper lesson planning strategies.

1. Janaan Manternach and Carl J. Pfeifer, Creative Catechist (Mystic, Connecticut: Twentythird Publications, 1983).