Best Practices for TVM Lesson Design

As a best practice, any materials given to learners to be done asynchronously should include directions on how to complete and submit their work. This could include written, video, or audio directions on a slide in a slide deck, in an LMS, on class website, in an email, on a cover sheet, etc. Directions should clearly explain what the student needs to do and the sequence of tasks, and include any links necessary to complete and submit their work.

In addition to directions, if the instruction is delivered in class/synchronously, the TVM lesson must also include a summary or review of the instruction you provided in class. This should be done for several reasons.

We know that best practices in differentiated instruction ask us to provide instruction and directions for completing tasks in multiple modalities.
Students will be working on the TVM pieces independently, outside of class, so they may have forgotten the verbal and/or written directions you gave them in class.
You may also want to provide TVM activities for students who were absent, so including directions on how to complete and submit the activities AND a summary of the instruction you provided in class that they missed would help prevent clarification questions from your learners. Again, these could be written, video, or audio.
For a better understanding and review of what is meant by instruction (vs. what is not instruction), please read and download this doc.

For your practice TVM lesson plan submission at the end of this module, we request that you include directions for students on how to complete and submit any independent, asynchronous activities for which you will be collecting TVM proxy hours. Lesson reviewers will be looking for these directions to students in your materials and may request them if they’re not included.

In addition, please articulate your process for providing timely feedback to students and/or scoring of the TVM activities you will submit for review. Letting students know what, how, and when they can expect feedback on and/or scoring of their work after they've submitted it to you is a best practice every learner appreciates. TVM lesson reviewers will be looking for specifics about how feedback will be provided in your lesson template or materials. If the website or instructional/learning tool automatically scores student work or provides feedback, please note that as well.

Because we have chosen to approve or certify teachers in the TVM via this professional development process, rather than approve every lesson from any teacher in the field, the TVM lesson plan and materials you will submit at the end of this module are essential to the PD providers and lesson reviewers verifying that you have understood the TVM process and content. Your lesson submission is our one chance at quality control before you are TVM certified; therefore we will try our best to provide meaningful feedback, ask important questions, and only ask for revisions that would benefit you in your instruction, us (in our understanding of your lesson), and, most importantly, your learners in their asynchronous work and learning.

Here's a preview of the sample TVM Lesson Plan Template you will use to submit your lesson plan and materials at the end of this module. Please click on the link to open it and take a couple minutes to look it over.

Here's a Lesson Planning Best Practices cheat sheet that includes the essential elements of an exemplar TVM Lesson and links to some great related sources. Please read it, and save/download (click File>Download) a copy to keep as a reference.