WVC-Northern Panay Mission

Professional Development Center

Of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church
Osmeña Ave., Estancia, Kalibo, Aklan

5 Step Lesson Plan

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."—Chinese proverb. The
same holds true for students. Give students a lesson, and they will learn for a day. Teach students a lesson, and they will
learn for a lifetime.

With so many teaching theories available, which one should a teacher choose for lesson planning? The wise teacher knows
that the best lesson plans must be simple, effective, easy to plan, easy to deliver, fun, and dynamic. One may wonder if there
even exists such a lesson plan technique, and the answer is a resounding Oh Yeah! This technique is one of Whole Brain
Teachings essential elements, the Five Step Lesson Plan.

The Five Step Lesson Plan is made up of the following 5 parts:

1. Question: Ask a question

2. Answer: Give the answer with a gesture
3. Expand: Expand the answer with details and examples
4. Test: Test for comprehension using, in order, Yes/No Way, QT, and Prove it!
5. Critical Thinking: An open ended task in which students demonstrate what they have learned

Any information can be taught using the Five Step Lesson Plan template, and any method of delivery can be incorporated
into the lesson such as using technology, books, writing, etc. The teacher has complete control of the lesson.

A typical lesson using the template would be similar to the following about pictographs:
1. Question: Teacher asks, “What is a pictograph?”
2. Answer: Teacher answers, “A pictograph is a graph with pictures in it that show how many,” while at the same time
making a gesture using both hands to represent little picture frames side by side (see below for the associated Power Pix).
Teacher uses Teach/OK to have students repeat what was just taught.
3. Expand: The teacher will:
a. Use interactive whiteboard to display an example of a pictograph pointing out the labels, units, legend, picture,
title, etc.
b. Model the gathering of data (how many boys in the class and how many girls in the class) by using tally marks
and writing them on the interactive whiteboard.
c. Show students the Pictograph Power Pic, use Teach/OK, place pictograph power pic on the Math Power Pix wall
d. Use a blank chart, label the rows boy and girl, and draw in boy or girl stick figures to represent the number of
tally marks for each row (this can be a fun and silly drawing).
e. Pair students who will work together to create their own pictograph from a list of suggested ideas: favorite color,
favorite fruit, favorite holiday, school lunch or home lunch. Students may submit their own ideas for teacher
approval. Teacher walks around and monitors student progress, and if desired, can use Red/Green Marker where
appropriate.
f. Show more examples of pictographs and discuss them: more than one picture in a pictograph, a columnar
pictograph.
g. Again show students the Pictograph Power Pic, review using Teach/OK, place Pictograph Power Pic on the Math
Power Pix wall
4. Test:
a. Yes/No way: Teacher asks questions that student answer with Yes for true and No Way for false:
i. Does a pictograph use pictures to show how many? (Yes!)
ii. Could I use a pictograph to show the number of sunny days and the number of rainy days this month? (Yes!)
iii. Do I have to use the same picture for every row? (No Way!)
iv. Do you think I could make a pictograph that uses columns (Yes!)
 i. Once 90% of students correctly respond to Yes/No Way, use QT. If not, go back to step three and re-teach the
lesson.
b. QT: Students cover their eyes. Teacher gives statements. Students decide whether statements are true giving
thumbs up or false giving thumbs down. Teacher says:
i. Pictographs are the same as calendars. (false)
ii. More than one picture can be used in a pictograph (true)
iii. A pictograph can be used to show what time of day it is right now. (false)
iv. Pictographs can show how many are in a column or a row using lines. (false)
v. If 90% of students answer correctly, move on to Prove It, otherwise, re-teach from step 3.
c. Prove it: Teacher uses questions from state standardized testing about pictographs. Students must prove which
statement is true by explaining why, and must prove which statements are false by explaining why.
5. Critical thinking: Teacher asks students to draw a pictograph and describe it by writing to Shrek.

The benefits of the Five Step Lesson Plan include no grading of papers, students being corrected during learning and the
built in reviewing of standardized testing. Since the plan uses summative assessment, the teacher is not saddled with grading
a lot of papers and can spend more time on instruction. Correcting students during learning instead of a day or more later is
a very powerful way to help students think critically and grasp the material, before they have forgotten it. It is difficult for
teachers to find time to practice for standardized testing. With the Five Step Lesson Plan, teachers use copies of state test
questions that correlate with the lesson and practice the questions with students. This gives students a familiarity and
understanding of what will be expected of them.

A challenge of the Five Step Lesson Plan, or any lesson plan for that matter, is how to get students to remember lessons in
the future. The answer is by using Power Pix on the classroom wall. Power Pix are used in the Whole Brain Teaching
classroom to support learning, provide practice, and utilize different memory centers in the brain.

The Five Step Lesson plan is simple, concise, effective and reliable. Students retain what they have learned. Parents are
happy and teachers are happy. Armed with the Five Step Lesson Plan technique, the Whole Brain Teacher has the tools
needed to teach a whole fleet of “fishermen” how to catch fish for life.

5 STEP LESSON TEMPLATE

1. QUESTION: Ask a question.

What is a fraction?
What is a paragraph?
What is an amphibian?
Who was George Washington?
How do we line up for lunch?
What is the proper heading on your paper?

1. Question: What is an essay?

2. Answer: An essay is three or more paragraps (Hold up three fingers) about one big subject (hold up one finger)

1. Question: What is a noun?

2. Answer: a noun is a person (point at yourself) a place (point at the room), or a thing (knock your fist on a desk).

1. Question: How do we line up?

2. Answer: We line up quickly using the 3-peat (hold up one, then two, them three fingers) and the woo fingers (point
10 finder upward and say “woo!”).

1. Question: what is multiplication?

2. Answer: Multiplication (make an X with your arms) is repeated addition (make a plus with your fingers).

1. Question: What is a sentence?

2. Answer: a sentence is a complete message (hold an imaginary phone to your ear)
3. EXPAND:

1. 4

2. TEST:

A. Yes – No way
B. QT
C. Prove it!

YES – NO WAY: Ask questions about the concept. If the answer is “yes!” your students asnwer “yes!,! and pump
one arm vigorously. If the answer is “No!,” student point their fingers at their forehead, then shoot them outward
and exclaim “No way!”

Example = Yes – No way questions

Is car a noun?
Is run a verb?
Do we line up slowly?
Is a sentence a complete message?

If 90% of your students answer all the Yes-No Way questions correctly, go on to the QT test … if not, go back to
step 3 and reteach the lesson.

QT: An abbreviation for QUICK TEST. When you say “QT,” your students say “QT!” and cover their eyes with
their hands. Then, you make a series of statements about the concept. If the statement is true, students silently give
a thumbs up; if the statement is false, they silent give a thumbs down.

QT samples:
Dog is a noun.
Tree is a verb.
When we line up, we use the 2-peat
Multiplication is repeated addition.

If 90% of your student answer all the QT question correctly, go on to the Prove It! Test … if not, go back to step 3
and reteach the lesson.

THE QT ADVANTAGE
Yes – No Way involves choral response, some students may simply mimic the answer of others. QT is individual ..
students can’t hide their lack of understanding … and, because their answer is private, they aren’t embarrassed by
being wrong.

PROVE IT! Show student sample questions on the concept from DepEd tests. Students write statement that
prove the correct answer is right and that each incorrect answer is wrong. When possible, make the questions
harder, creating wrong answer that reproduce typical student errrors… for example, multiplying sides when asked to
calculate a perimeter.

NOTE; HTS - How to solve POE = Power of elimination

Example 2nd Grade Math

A number has nine ones, six tens, and eigh hundreds. What is the number?
869 896 968 986
A B C D
HTS: underline. Make columns, ones, tens, hundreds. Hundreds = 8, tens = 6, ones = 9. POE

Example:

What is the value of the five in five hundred twenty-six

526 / 5 50 500 5000

A B C D

HTS: UNDERLINE, Make columns, ones, tens, hundreds. Hundreds = 5, tens =2, ons = 6. Just look at hundreds.
POE

Example:
Which number sentense is true?
259>375 259<275 259<359 259>359
A B C D

HTS: > means greater than. < means less than. Read the answer like it was a sentence. POE#

Example:

What is the decimal 0.7 written as a fraction?

1/7 ¾ 3/7 7/10

A B C D

HTS: .1 IS TENTHS. .01 IS HUNDREDS. Must be 10 in denominator. POE

EXAMPLE:

At a school, there are 704 desk to place into 22 classrooms. Fi the same number of desk is placed in each
classsroom, how many desks will be in each room?

32 34 42 44
A B C D

HTS: Can’t be add, subtract or multiply. Divide little into big. Dirty Monkey Smell Bad. POE

Example:

Find the word that has the same sound as the uderlined letter or letters in the firs word

Find the word that has the same sound as the underline letter or letters in the first word.
BOARD

Scared card boat tore

A B C D

HTS: Drop letters, find a rhyme. POE

READ THIS LINE FROM THE POEM.

A SEED IS SO SMALL.

The line from the poem gives you information about:

A. The way a seed feels.
B. How a seed grows.
C. Where is a seed is planted.
D. The size of a seed.

HTS: Underline key words. Crazy Professor. POE

CRITICAL THINKING
a. Ask students to write a letter to the aliens on planet zork, explaining the concept…and using lots of great
examples.
b. Ask students to write their own prove it! Question on the concept.
c. Give students sentence and paragraph frames that employ the concept.
d. Ask students to compare and contrast the concept with other concepts.
e. Ask students to write sentences using the concept and the word “because.”

CRITICAL THINKING: BECAUSE SENTENCES

______ is a noun because _______.

______ is not a noun because _______.
______ is the right way to line up because ________.
_______ is the wrong way to line up becaue ________.
Multiplication is easy because ________.
Multiplication is hard because ______.
Muultiplication is fun because _______.
Essays are ______ because _______.