Method and apparatus for customizing lesson plans

• US 7,974,569 B2
• Filed: 11/17/2004
• Issued: 07/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The New England Center for Children, Inc.
• Original Assignee: The New England Center for Children, Inc.
• Inventors: Foster, Katherine Elizabeth, DeGregory, Karen Theresa, Mansfield, Renee Carolyn, Dudley, Laura Larsen
• Primary Examiner(s): Thai; Xuan M
• Assistant Examiner(s): PAGE, EVAN RANDALL
• Application Number:
  US10/991,133
• Publication Number:
  US 20060105313A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,421 Days
• Field of Search: 434/350
• US Class Current: 434/350
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/00 Electrically-operated teaching apparatus or devices working with questions and answers mechanically operated G09B3/00; computing arrangements G06F

Abstract

Computer method and apparatus enable customization of lesson plans per student. The invention method and apparatus include a curriculum data store holding a plurality of curriculum records, a student record data store and a processor routine coupled to the student record data store and the curriculum data store. Each curriculum record indicates a respective teaching activity and implementation details of the activity as part of a lesson plan. There are different activities for different domains. The processor routine enables, for a given student, educator-user selection of a curriculum record with its respective activity, as a function of assessed skill level in a subject domain and/or learning profile of the student. The processor routine generates a custom lesson plan, for the given student, that includes the activity of the user-selected curriculum record. The processor routine may suspend or otherwise hold the custom lesson plan pending supervisory review at various times.

Claims

1. A computer system for generating educator lesson plans customized per student, comprising:

in computer memory, a data store of teaching activity records and respective teaching activities, each teaching activity record including step-by-step teaching instructions enabling educator-user implementation of a respective activity that addresses a certain skill, the step-by-step teaching instructions being other than student testing instructions and comprising instructions for the educator-user'"'"'s use to progress with the teaching activity, the teaching activities of the teaching activity record being configured to develop each activity relating to a respective skill at a certain skill level, different activities relating to development of different skills at different skill levels, to allow for varying levels of learning across domain areas of academics, life skills and social skills;

a student information module coupled to the memory and configured to hold, for each student, a set of student information including assessed skill level in each of the domain areas, the assessed skill level being based on an initial skill assessment and on going skill assessments of skills in the domain areas, such that using the assessed skill level, the student information module effectively identifies a core set of skills needed for independent functioning of the student;

a processor operatively coupled to the memory, the processor configured to execute a routine, the routine being responsive to educator-user interaction and (i) determining, for a subject student, a subset of teaching activities in the data store as a function of assessed skill level and corresponding identified core set of skills per domain area for the subject student from the student information module, (ii) selecting at least one of the teaching activities in the determined subset, (iii) for the selected at least one teaching activity, generating one set of step-by-step teaching instructions enabling educator-user implementation of a respective activity individualized to the subject student, wherein the routine forms the one set of step-by-step teaching instructions by generating instructions how to implement the respective activity with visual modeling where the student is a visual learner and alternative instructions how to implement the respective activity with manual guidance, (iv) generating from the one set of step-by-step teaching instructions, an educator lesson plan customized for the subject student and individualized to the subject student'"'"'s varying levels of learning across different domain areas and across different skills per domain area, the routine modifying the step-by-step teaching instructions for the educator lesson plan to be modified as a function of other lesson plans in progress and the routine using the subject student'"'"'s performance from the one set of step-by-step teaching instructions to generate a next set of step-by-step teaching instructions for a next developmental level, wherein the teaching activity records are serially or hierarchically ordered within a same skill and same skill level, as well as serially or hierarchically ordered across skill levels, and wherein the corresponding teaching activities of the teaching activity record are ordered or sequenced within domain areas; and

(v) outputting to the educator-user the customized and individualized educator lesson plan, the educator lesson plan being customized and individualized in subject matter content and teaching instructions; and

a lesson progress reporting module tallying running trials and progress of the subject student on the one set of step-by-step teaching instructions implementing respective teaching activities in the customized educator lesson plan, the lesson progress reporting module being coupled to the processor and triggering a next set of step-by-step teaching instructions according to the criteria for progressing with the respective teaching activity.

2. A computer system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the domain areas include categories of communication, academics, social skills, leisure/recreation, vocational, self-help, health and reduction of maladaptive behavior.

3. A computer system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the skills addressed by the teaching activities of the data store range from skills for children through skills for adult functioning.

4. A computer system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the set of information for each student further includes indications of past and current lesson plans and student performance of corresponding lesson sessions, such that the student information provides a running history of skill development of the student;

and

the processor routine allows display of the set of student information during user selection of the at least one teaching activity, in a manner enabling user consideration of the running history of skill development of the student, during selection of a teaching activity and subsequent generation of the lesson plan based thereon.

5. A computer system as claimed in claim 4 further comprising a reporter coupled to the student information module and enabling aggregation and output of (i) student performance data across plural students, (ii) student performance data per skill, and/or (iii) student performance data per teaching activity.

6. A computer system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the set of student information further includes a learning profile of the student indicating learning preferences of the student;

and

the processor routine providing display of the learning profile during user selection of the at least one teaching activity such that said user selection is guided by the learning profile of the student.

7. A computer system as claimed in claim 6 wherein the indicated learning preferences are per domain area.

8. A computer system as claimed in claim 1 wherein for each teaching activity the data store provides step-by-step teaching instructions for implementing the activity.

9. A computer system as claimed in claim 8 wherein for each teaching activity the data store provides at least one alternative implementation and respective step-by-step teaching instructions for each alternative implementation;

and

the processor routine further enabling user selection of an alternative implementation and generating therefrom the lesson plan customized and individualized for the subject student.

10. A computer system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the processor routine enables user selection of a series of teaching activities in the data store and generates therefrom a series of lesson plans customized and individualized for the subject student, a series of lesson plans within a domain area providing a continuum of introduction, practice and mastery of the one or more skills in the domain area, a series of lesson plans across the domain areas accommodating skill development at different rates for different domain areas.

11. A computer system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the processor routine further provides suspension of the customized and individualized lesson plan pending supervisory approval.

12. Computer apparatus for generating educator lesson plans customized per student, comprising:

a data store of skill oriented activity records and respective teaching activities, each activity record specifying step-by-step teaching instructions enabling educator-user implementation of a respective activity that addresses a certain skill at a certain skill level, the step-by-step teaching instructions being other than student testing instructions and comprising instructions for the educator-user'"'"'s use to progress with the teaching activity, different activities addressing different skills at different skill levels, to allow for varying levels of learning across domain areas of academics, life skills and social skills;

for each student, a student record holding the student information including;

(i) a learning profile of the student, and

(ii) information regarding skill level of the student; and

a processor routine responsive to educator-user interaction and (a) identifying a core set of skills needed for independent functioning of a subject student using the student record, (b) selecting an activity from the data store of activity records based on the student information of the subject student and the identified core set of skills, (c) generating from the selected activity an educator lesson plan including generating one set of step-by-step teaching instructions enabling educator-user implementation of a respective activity but specific to the subject student, the generated set of teaching instructions customizing the educator lesson plan to the subject student and individualizing the educator lesson plan to the subject student'"'"'s varying levels of learning across different domain areas and across different skills per domain area, the processor routine enabling the step-by-step teaching instructions for the educator lesson plan to be modified as a function of other lesson plans in progress and the processor routine using the subject student'"'"'s performance from the one set of step-by- step teaching instructions to generate a next set of step-by-step teaching instructions for a next developmental level, wherein the teaching activity records are serially or hierarchically ordered within a same skill and same skill level, as well as serially or hierarchically ordered across skill levels, and wherein the corresponding teaching activities of the teaching activity record are ordered or sequenced within domain areas, and (d) outputting to the educator-user the customized and individualized educator lesson plan and set of teaching instructions; and

a lesson progress reporting module tallying running trials and progress of the subject student on the one set of step-by-step teaching instructions implementing respective teaching activities in the customized educator lesson plan, the lesson progress reporting module being coupled to the processor and triggering a next set of step-by-step teaching instructions according to the criteria for progressing with the respective teaching activity.

13. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 12 wherein each activity record provides at least one alternative implementation for the respective activity, each alternative implementation being specified by a respective set of step-by-step teaching instructions for carrying out the activity.

14. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 12 wherein the learning profile in the student information includes indications of learning preferences of the student;

and

the processor routine provides display of the indications of the learning preferences during educator-user selection of an activity, such that said selection is made with guidance of the learning preferences of the student.

15. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 12 wherein the student information further includes indications of past and current lesson plans and outcomes of corresponding lesson experiences, such that a running history of skill development of the student is provided;

and

the processor routine allows display of the student information during educator-user selection of an activity, in a manner that enables educator-user consideration of the running history of skill development of the student during generation of the customized and individualized lesson plan.

16. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 15 further comprising a reporter coupled to the student records and enabling aggregation and output of (i) student performance data across plural students, (ii) student performance data per skill, and/or (iii) student performance data per teaching activity.

17. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 12 wherein the information regarding skill level of the student includes information from an initial assessment and from on-going assessments of the student'"'"'s skill level.

18. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 12 wherein the skills addressed by the activities of the activity records are organized according to domain areas of communication, academics, social skills, leisure/recreation, vocational, self-help, health and maladaptive behavior.

19. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 18 wherein the learning profile and/or the information regarding skill level are organized according to the domain areas.

20. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 18 wherein the information regarding skill level is based on initial and on-going skill assessments in each of the domain areas, and identifies a core set of skills in each domain area needed by the student for independent functioning;

and

the processor routine determines, for the subject student, a subset of activities in the data store as a function of identified core set of skills in a given domain area, the activities in the determined subset being selectable by the educator-user for use in generating the customized and individualized lesson plan for the subject student.

21. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 18 wherein the processor routine further enables generation of lesson plans that allow development of skills in different domain areas at different rates.

22. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 12 wherein the skills span childhood skills through adulthood skills for independent functioning.

23. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 12 wherein for each skill there are activities for introducing the skill, activities toward practicing the skill and activities for mastering the skill.

24. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 12 wherein the processor routine further provides suspension of the customized and individualized lesson plan pending supervisory approval.

25. Computer apparatus for customizing educator lesson plans per student, comprising:

a curriculum data store holding a plurality of curriculum records, each record indicating a respective activity configured for development of different skills at different skill levels to allow for varying levels of learning across domain areas of academics, life skills, and social skills and including implementation details of the activity as part of an educator lesson plan, each activity including step-by-step teaching instructions enabling educator-user implementation of a respective activity that addresses a certain skill, the step-by-step teaching instructions being other than student testing instructions and comprising instructions for the educator-user'"'"'s use to progress with the teaching activity;

a processor routine coupled to the curriculum data store and responsive to user interaction, for a given student, the processor routine;

(i) selecting a curriculum record with its respective activity as a function of at least one of assessed skill level and learning preferences of the given student together with an identified core set of skills needed for independent functioning of the given student, (ii) generating a custom educator lesson plan including one set of step-by-step teaching instructions individualized for the given student, said generating including generating instructions how to implement the respective activity with visual modeling where the student is a visual learner and alternative instructions how to implement the respective activity with manual guidance, the processor routine modifying the step-by-step teaching instructions for the custom educator lesson plan as a function of other lesson plans in progress, the custom educator lesson plan including the activity of the selected curriculum record and being individualized to the given student'"'"'s varying levels of learning across different domain areas and across different skills per domain area, the processor routine using the subject student'"'"'s performance from the one set of step-by-step teaching instructions to generate a next set of step-by-step teaching instructions for a next developmental level, wherein the teaching activity records are serially or hierarchically ordered within a same skill and same skill level, as well as serially or hierarchically ordered across skill levels, and wherein the corresponding teaching activities of the teaching activity record are ordered or sequenced within domain areas, and (iii) outputting the custom educator lesson plan as customized and individualized in subject matter content and teaching instructions specific to the given student; and

a lesson progress reporting module tallying running trials and progress of the given student on the one set of step-by-step teaching instructions implementing respective teaching activities in the custom educator lesson plan, the lesson progress reporting module being coupled to the processor and triggering a next set of step-by-step teaching instructions according to the criteria for progressing with the respective teaching activity.

26. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 25 wherein each curriculum record provides any combination of an indication of materials required, an indication of prerequisites and an audio-visual demonstration of the respective activity.

27. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 25 wherein each curriculum record indicates criteria for increasing level of the activity;

and

wherein the respective activity is formed of a plurality of steps, the curriculum record further includes criteria for increasing step and decreasing step.

28. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 27 wherein the processor routine further enables administrative users to define the criteria.

29. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 25 further comprising a student record data store holding student information including current and past lesson plans used for each student, outcomes of the lesson plans providing indications of skill level and learning preferences of students;

and

the processor routine being coupled to access the student record data store.

30. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 29 wherein for each student there is a respective student record in the student record data store, each student record indicating any combination of:

number of trials of an activity,

level of mastery of skill corresponding to the activity,

date and times of trials,

location of trials, and

teacher of each trial.

31. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 29 further comprising a reporter coupled to the student record data store, the reporter enabling aggregation and output of (i) student performance data across plural students, (ii) student performance data per skill, and/or (iii) student performance data per teaching activity.

32. Computer apparatus as claimed in claim 25 wherein the processor routine further provides suspension of the customized lesson plan pending supervisory approval.