Thinking Through a Lesson Protocol (TTLP) Planning Template1

(Revisions for future tracked in blue and red)

Task
What is the main activity that students will be working on in this
lesson?

Instructional SupportTools, Resources, Materials

Students will be designing and carrying out an investigation to try to

answer the guiding question can you get a sunburn from a lightbulb.
The students are given a range of equipment and are scaffolded
through the design process (see task). Once students have carried out
the investigation they will design a whiteboard presentation based on
the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning structure to share their evidence-based
arguments for the answer to the question with the class.

Students will be given a handout with the scenario and scaffolds to

guide them through the investigation.
The students will also be given access to the following

Prior Knowledge
What prior knowledge and experience will students draw on in their
work on this task?

Task Launch
How will you introduce and set up the task to ensure that students
understand the task and can begin productive work, without
diminishing the cognitive demand of the task?
The students will be introduced to the guiding question in the context
of the headline from the NPR article Energy-Efficient Lightbulbs May
Have a Dark Side When It Comes To Health:
Teacher: I came across an NPR article titled "Energy-Efficient
Lightbulbs May Have a Dark Side When It Comes to Health" (pull up
headline on screen). The health effect it was talking about was skin
damage and sunburn. This led me to consider the question: "Can you
get a sunburn from a lightbulb?" (write question on the board, draw a
lightbulb with a person underneath it). Over the next two days we will
be designing and carrying out an investigation into this question.
However, before we launch into that part, let's take a moment to
brainstorm this question.

In the pre-assessment students showed knowledge of light having a

wavelength and frequency as well as energy playing a role in skin
damage.
The students also showed favor for experimentation and observation
as a means of investigating a question. Most also showed a link
between the factor they identified as being responsible for skin
damage and testing this factor in the experiment.

What tools or resources will be made available to give students entry to, and help them
reason through, the activity?

UV light bulb, flashlight, laser pen (red light

source), stop watch, meter stick, thermometer, spectra of a light
bulb, spectra of the sun, magnifying glasses, cardboard with
slits, ice, glow in the dark stars, and sunglasses.
equipment:

The launch is then followed by a think-pair-share to brainstorm the

guiding question and share ideas. The main goal here is to make
student thinking visible and to create the foundation for the
investigation. The exact sequencing is, therefore, not so crucial. More
important here is pressing the students with questions such as "What
makes you think that?", "Do you have any observations or evidence to
back that up?", "Can you say more about that?" and "Why might that
be?". During the sharing of ideas the teacher will note various factors

Based on Smith, Bill, and Hughes (2008)

Modified version of the template that was developed and used by Dr. Margaret Smith in her Teaching and Learning in Secondary Mathematics
course at the University of Pittsburgh.

Thinking Through a Lesson Protocol (TTLP) Planning Template1

(Revisions for future tracked in blue and red)
on the board. In particular given the student answers to the preassessment and possible knowledge facets the following may arise:
energy, wavelength, frequency, intensity, temperature, distance, time
exposure, speed.
Anticipated Solutions
What are the various ways that students might complete the activity?
Be sure to include incorrect, correct, and incomplete
solutions/approaches/explanations

Instructional SupportTeacher
What questions might you ask students that will support their
exploration of the activity and bridge between what they did and
what you want them to learn?
These questions should assess what a student currently knows and
advance her/him towards the goals of the lesson. Be sure to
consider questions that you will ask students who cant get started as
well as students who finish quickly.

Use the monitoring tool to provide the details related to Anticipated Solutions and Instructional Support
Sharing and Discussing the Task
Selecting and Sequencing
Which solutions do you want to have shared during the lesson?
In what order? Why?
The sequencing of solutions will depend on two pieces: the factor
being investigated and the strength of the explanation, in particular
the extent to which it is backed up by evidence.
For the factors being investigated, the sequencing will begin with
factors that did not change the star glow: temperature and distance in
particular. It will then move to factors that did change the star glow:
light source and hence wavelength and/or frequency. This choice of
sequencing is to move from knowledge facets that dont explain the
phenomena to those that do, allowing the solutions to build towards
the most scientifically aligned solution.
For the strength of explanation, in general within a set of factors, start
with the weaker solution, i.e. those with less evidence or less
reasoning and build to the stronger solution. In this way the evidence
is accumulated piece by piece and each new addition can be
considered in turn rather than starting with lots of evidence, which
may be overwhelming.

Connecting Responses
What specific questions will you ask so that students
- make sense of the scientific/mathematical ideas that you want
them to learn
- make connections among the different strategies/solutions that are
presented
For factors:
- Why might it be that this factor wasnt important?
- Is there a relationship between wavelength and frequency?
- Are there any patterns you noticed?
- Can you describe these patterns in terms of proportionality?
- Can you make sense of the differences by considering the spectra?
- What patterns did you notice?
- What did you think made those patterns?
- What was changing in each of your tests?
- What is the difference between these light sources?
- Why might the star glow for a different amount of time?
- What might the star glowing represent?
- What does intensity/power mean? What does intensity/power tell
you about?
- What does your data tell you about the intensity/power?
- Is there a relationship between intensity/power and light source?

Based on Smith, Bill, and Hughes (2008)

Modified version of the template that was developed and used by Dr. Margaret Smith in her Teaching and Learning in Secondary Mathematics
course at the University of Pittsburgh.

Thinking Through a Lesson Protocol (TTLP) Planning Template1

(Revisions for future tracked in blue and red)
- What might that relationship be?
For evidence-based reasoning:
- How does your evidence back up your statement?
- Where in the data is *** shown?
- Can you say more about the patterns you are seeing?
- What is similar/different about these two
claims/datasets/reasoning?
- Is there more data you would have liked to collect?
For comparing between groups:
- How do your results/reasoning compare to group ***?
- Do you results/reasoning support group ***?
- Can you connect your results/reasoning with that from group ***?

Based on Smith, Bill, and Hughes (2008)

Modified version of the template that was developed and used by Dr. Margaret Smith in her Teaching and Learning in Secondary Mathematics
course at the University of Pittsburgh.