By Mae Casey
Introduction1
Requests for instructional sessions are common in special collections libraries, but archivists with teaching experience are often not. The idea of instructing can be daunting, and it is normal to feel overwhelmed. How do I start planning? What should I do and what should I ask learners to do? How will I know that learning is happening? I have found the best solution is to add writing a formal lesson plan to your instructional workflow. The process may be unfamiliar, but it does not require a background in education to be effective.
What is a lesson plan?
A lesson plan is a guide that directs and structures instruction to achieve learner goals. It identifies the instructional goals for the session, the steps instructors will take to achieve those goals, and the tasks required of both the instructor and the students. It also includes a list of methods and a breakdown of activities that will be completed during the session. The lesson plan creates a boundary around what materials to include and which ones to leave out. Targeting specific primary source materials prevents an instructional session from going off track and becoming a “show and tell.” Plans also guide the creation of teaching aids like PowerPoints and activity sheets. They can even help you to determine the best set-up for your instructional space; for example, if you know ahead of time there will be small group activities, you can prepare stations with staged materials before class begins. Students benefit from planned instruction because it requires an archivist to consider their background and needs in lesson preparation, ensuring students are appropriately challenged. A lesson plan prevents accidental gaps in the instruction that might create confusion for them and builds in active learning opportunities.
Components and Structure of a Lesson Plan
A useful lesson plan includes goals, planned activities, and instructional materials, as well as a simple agenda.2 The basic components in this template include the topic (the vocabulary and concepts to be covered), instructional goals, planned activities, and selected primary source materials. The first two – topic and goals – should be provided by the requesting instructor.
This template breaks the session into five steps: introduction, direct instruction, guided practice, independent practice, and closure.
Once you understand the instructor’s outcomes, you can focus on creating the agenda of activities. This template breaks the session into five steps: introduction, direct instruction, guided practice, independent practice, and closure. A simple way to draft a plan is through “backwards design.” What is it the instructor wants a student to know or be able to do by the end of the instructional session? Consider the concrete products you want from students and work backwards, making a list of the smaller steps you need to take so students can work independently. This list will evolve into your agenda of activities.
This template’s agenda is particularly helpful for two reasons. First, it requires a time breakdown for each activity so you can be sure your activities fit the time constraints. Second, it centers student engagement by requiring both instructor and student actions for each point on the agenda. Every step in the lesson plan requires a response from instructor and student.
Planning in Practice: Issues in 19th Century Photography
Creating Instructional Goals
The first step in our library’s instructional workflow is completing a request form that gathers baseline data. In August 2023, our Special Collections Library received a request for a three-hour graduate level seminar covering the evolution of photography in the 19th century. The course’s focus was broad, and we had several primary source materials that could be selected. The instructor’s learning objectives specified the areas she wanted addressed: different photographic formats and techniques. The request form included examples of terminology to help us narrow down the scope of instruction.
The professor also directly requested items she located in our finding aids and catalog. The information from this request form was sufficient for me to begin completing the lesson plan template.
In the learning objective on the request form, the most frequently used word was “different,” indicating I needed a variety of photographs as the lesson’s foundation. In this case, I knew I wanted students to not only describe the components of a photograph and communicate the development timelines of photographic technologies, but also independently evaluate example photographs. Understanding the end goal helped me determine the steps to get there. I needed to break the 19th century into distinct sections based on the most common photograph of the time period; each section should include information on the components of a photograph, its creation process, and identifying features. It would also be helpful to show the photographic processes and finished products. Finally, I wanted students to have a hands-on experience.
Developing the Agenda
The introduction to our instructional sessions included special collections norms; information on handling materials with nitrile gloves; and our planned topics, goals and agenda.
Given the breadth of the topic, direct instruction needed to be a major component of the lesson; however, too much direct instruction affects students’ attention and retention. How could I find the balance in a three-hour lesson? This is where the teacher versus student action comes into play. Always consider instruction from both sides of the coin – teacher and learner – to ensure engagement. When I created the PowerPoint, I embedded several videos demonstrating photographic techniques to provide stopping points for class discussion and questions (student output). These planned opportunities for verbal interaction via conversation were very fruitful. In two instances, we selected displayed examples to discuss the photographic techniques and properties just covered in instruction, giving students a chance to connect new terminology with physical items. These instructional pauses prevented the intense flow of information provided over the lengthy class period from overwhelming students or causing them to disengage.
Following a short break, we transitioned to guided practice to allow students to directly interact with primary source materials, applying their new knowledge with the support of the instructor. I set up both sides of a table with examples of different photographs, placing them in chronological order. Students moved around the table, seeing the development of photography and the juxtaposition of formats. Most importantly, students were not passively receiving instruction. They were free to explore primary source materials. As we moved around the table, we engaged in an open discussion with students making observations and asking questions.
It was time for students to apply their knowledge independently. We placed students in groups of three, providing each group with a selection of photographs. We asked them to identify the format and photographic method. Once again, students engaged in hands-on interaction with materials, comparing notes, evaluating materials, and drawing conclusions. One person from each group shared their conclusions. This activity transitioned nicely into closure because students had a final opportunity to ask any questions, whether it was about their examples or a larger topic.
Conclusion
Using this lesson plan template allowed me to narrow content to fit the instructor’s requirements, provide instruction appropriate to the students’ background knowledge, and support them as they independently applied new information. The lesson was targeted and complete. As the instructor, I felt comfortable following the agenda I created, maximizing every moment of instructional time. Writing the plan was simple, but it had a tremendous effect on my ability to instruct and the students’ ability to learn. Any archivist can apply a similar workflow to create lesson plans, making what was once a baffling or nerve-racking experience a smooth one.
Mae Casey is a second-career archivist, having spent the first thirteen years of her professional life as a secondary education teacher, gaining extensive experience in curriculum and lesson plan development. Today she is the Accessioning and Collections Management Archivist at Pennsylvania State University’s Eberly Family Special Collections Library.
- This post was developed from the lesson planning portion of the workshop Teaching & the Archives: Creating a toolkit to guide instruction about and with archival materials; the workshop was offered at TPS Fest 2025. ↩︎
- A blank copy of this lesson plan template is available. ↩︎