Identifying the 5E's in the lesson plan.

1. What is a 5E LessonPlan?
The 5 E's is an instructional model based on the constructivist approach to learning, which says
that learners build or construct new ideas on top of their old ideas. The 5 E's can be used with
students of all ages, including adults. Constructivism is a learning strategy that draws on
students' existing knowledge, beliefs, and skills. With a constructivist approach, students
synthesize new understanding from prior learning and new information.
The constructivist teacher sets up problems and monitors student exploration, guides student
inquiry, and promotes new patterns of thinking. Working mostly with raw data, primary sources,
and interactive material, constructivist teaching asks students to work with their own data and
learn to direct their own explorations. Ultimately, students begin to think of learning as
accumulated, evolving knowledge. Constructivist approaches work well with learners of all ages,
including adults.
The 5 E lesson supports inquire-based instruction. It allows children to make discoveries and to
process new skills in an engaging way. Teachers can also adequately plan objectives more
effectively by using the 5E process. Children are not just learning with this method, they are
more knowledgeable about their own metacognition because they are coached along and not
dictated by teachers merely lecturing. The role of the teacher is to facilitate and support students
as they use prior knowledge to build new knowledge.
The 5 Es are:
 Engage
 Explore
 Explain

2.  Elaborate
 Evaluate
When planning a lesson each of these areas should be completed.
1. Engage
To engage means to excite and to draw your child or student's curiosity. It means to wow them in
a way that catches their attention. It is not forcing children to learn but inviting them to do so.
This is how lessons are being introduced. It does not have to be difficult or overly detailed just
interesting enough to open students minds for the learning process to begin. Using technology to
engage students’ learning makes planning very easy for teachers in today's classrooms. Using
Smartboard technology, videos, illustrations, asking questions, KWL charts, reading a great
book, acting out a character or even introducing a game are ways to engage students at the
beginning of a lesson. Focus questions should be used to analyze whatever activity or activities
given to the students.
An "engage" activity should do the following:
1. Make connections between past and present learning experiences
2. Anticipate activities and focus students' thinking on the learning outcomes of
current activities. Students should become mentally engaged in the concept, process,
or skill to be learned.
2. Explore

3. Once students are fully in grossed in the lesson, intrigued by a video or maybe a book, now it is
time to allow them to explore the concept. For example, I do a lesson on Camouflage, first I
would engage them with an informative video, explaining camouflage with animation. Now in
the explore they will play for example a game where they will go outside and break up into
teams. Each team will be given a minute to find as many various coloured strings scattered in the
grass. The idea with exploring is to give the learner the opportunity to practice or work with their
new knowledge in some way. The most effective explorations allow for mistakes or trial and
error. It is looking at a concept before discussing all the details, with hopes that students will
discover answers to possible questions through exploration.
Explore provides students with a common base of experiences. They identify and develop
concepts, processes, and skills. During this phase, students actively explore their
environment or manipulate materials.
Focus questions should be used to analyze whatever activity or activities given to the students.
3. Explain
Students now have an opportunity to hear from their teacher. The teacher's role so far has been to
mainly facilitate learning, now they can use their expertise to answer questions students may
have about what they are learning. They also should pose questions to the student to see if they
are able to explain what they have learned. Checking for misunderstandings helps the teacher to
observe what objectives need to be clarified or taught. So, for example, with the Camouflage
Lesson, once the students have picked up as many strings as possible, they should count each
colour that they picked. Which colour did they pick up the most, which colour did they pick the
least amount of? Have them make a chart, so they can look at their findings and compare as a

4. group. Students should notice that they picked fewer green strings because the green was
blending in with the grass. They have more of a different colour like purple because of its
contrast in colour. This explanation is done without the teacher having to do much lecturing. The
lesson is reinforced by what the students have seen from their exploring.
This phase of the 5 E's helps students explain the concepts they have been exploring. They
have opportunities to verbalize their conceptual understanding or to demonstrate new
skills or behaviors. This phase also provides opportunities for teachers to introduce formal
terms, definitions, and explanations for concepts, processes, skills, or behaviours.
Focus questions should be used to analyze whatever activity or activities given to the students.
4. Elaborate
Here the students can participate in an extension or a different activity that either re-teaches an
objective or teaches more details about the concept being taught. Here differentiation can be
used. A student above level will need an elaboration that extends or enriches the lesson. A
student below level will need perhaps a repeat of the same explore activity with more teacher
input to guide students through again to correct misunderstandings. Again, with the camouflage,
elaboration may be discussing what other animals in their environment besides say frogs use
camouflage? What elements in their habitat allow them to do so? Or the teacher might say lets
look at our charts again from the results of our game. Doing so will allow him or her to re-teach
or elaborate on what was misunderstood.
This phase of the 5 E's extends students' conceptual understanding and allows them to
practice skills and behaviors. Through new experiences, the learners develop deeper and

5. broader understanding of major concepts, obtain more information about areas of interest,
and refine their skills.
Focus questions should be used to analyze whatever activity or activities given to the students.
SUMMARY
5. Evaluate
Finally, after the objectives are taught, it is time to assess. What have students effectively
learned? What do they not understand? What should be done to help them? Assessments do not
have to be the traditional quiz or essay. It can be a reflection, a project, book report, or a model.
Like with the camouflage lesson, the evaluation could be an assignment where students come up
with 5 facts about camouflage and illustrate each in their own unique way. They might make a
model, paint a picture, or make a mini book with drawings and facts to illustrate what they
learned. Using a rubric, the teacher can now easily grade or make note of what is learned and of
what needs to be retaught. The activity given here should help to capture all written objectives or
all taught objectives. This type of activity should lend itself to determining what each student has
learnt.
This phase of the 5 E's encourages learners to assess their understanding and abilities and
lets teachers evaluate students' understanding of key concepts and skill development.

7. The 5E+T Model Sample Lesson Plan

8. The 5Es and a technology connection are shown in the table below, followed by a brief
description of what student success looks like.
5E Technology Connection What Success Looks Like
ENGAGE
Activities that capture the
students’ attention, stimulate
their thinking, and help them
access prior
knowledge. Students become
engaged in the process of
inquiry. The teacher can ask
questions to find out what
students already know, or think
they know, about the topic and
concepts to be covered. These
questions typically start with
“how” instead of with “why.”
_ Problem-based Learning
(PBL) component or
Online Simulation
_ Collaborative Projects
with GoogleApps
_ Concept map creation
_ Create interactive web
sites that others can
connect and interact with.
_ Create video/audio
explorations of a topic,
responding to questions.
Teacher creates a problem
narrative/engagement scenario,
video, or resource that engages
students, then helps students
develop questions and identify
what and KWHLT.
EXPLORE
Enable students to explore their
ideas, singly and in groups, in
classroom or at a distance.
Provides students time to think,
plan, investigate, and organize
collected information.
_ Video
_ Blog or Google Sites
_ Podcast/Vidcast
_ Data collection (Google
Form/Sheet)
Students conduct advanced
searches using Boolean
operators (and/or) after having
developed effective
questions/search queries, blog
journaling, curate content and
add comments (e.g. Flipboard),
video, vidcast/podcast,
remixing another product,
create a Google Hangout or
Voxer chat.
EXPLAIN
Students acquire opportunities
to connect their previous
experiences with current
learning and to make conceptual
sense of the main ideas of the
topic being studied.
_ Digital storytelling
_ Podcasting/Vidcasting
_ Presentation (Google
Slides)
_ Blog or Google Sites
_ Collaborative Product
Creation
Create a media product (e.g.
video, podcast), digital story or
plan a web site using
storyboarding and script-
writing to share their learning
and help others understand it.
ELABORATE
Students apply or extend
previously introduced concepts
and experiences to new
situations. Students apply their
_ Forum (Google
Classroom)
_ Product creation
_ Virtual field trip
_ Ask an Expert video
chat
Students develop a solution to
a real problem that
incorporates their knowledge,
communicating that in a
variety of media formats.

9. knowledge to real world
applications.
EVALUATE
Students, with their teachers,
review and assess what they
have learned and how they have
learned it. Students can be given
a summative assessment to
demonstrate what they know
and can do.
_ Video feedback on
product
_ OneNote notebook with
feedback
Students’ creations are notated
from a perspective of real-life
usability rather than teacher
satisfaction with a transitional
student product.
Definition of Terms used in the National Standard Curriculum (NSC).
1. Attainment Targets: An attainment target is a desired or expected level of performance at the
end of a course of work, within a given/specified teaching-learning period. Attainment targets
identify the knowledge, skills and understanding which students of different abilities and
maturities are expected to have by the end of each Grade. It is the standard that we expect most
children to achieve by the end of the grade.
2. Learning Outcomes: A learning outcome is a demonstration/ behavioural evidence that an
intended result has been achieved at the end of a course of study. The learning outcome tells us if
pupils have understood and grasped what they have been learning.
3.Specific Objectives: Specific objectives state what the student is expected to know or
understand as a result of the learning experience. The specific objective is usually framed in the
areas of the knowledge, skills and attitudes that the students are expected to achieve. Specific
objectives tell us what the children will learn or will be taught.
4. SuggestedTeaching/Learning Activities: A teaching/learning activity is an organized doing
of things towards achieving the stated objectives. They are suggested activities that are crafted in

10. a way to be an efficient vehicle which can move the student between what is to be learnt
(objective) and what the student is to become (outcome).
5. Assessment: An assessment is a determination of whether intended results have been
achieved. This section of the curriculum speaks to both the product that will be judged as well as
the criteria against which it will be judged. It must be noted that this section does not introduce
new activities. Instead, it speaks to the judging of the suggested teaching and learning activities
(formative assessment).
6. Prior Learning: It is what students are expected to already know through learning and
experience about a topic or a kind of text.
7. Extended Learning: These are opportunities for students to utilize the knowledge and skills
they would have acquired in the unit in authentic situations/experiences.
8. Standards: Statements that explain what all students are expected to know and be able to do
in different content areas.
9. Benchmarks: Behaviours students are expected to exhibit at different stages of development
and age/grade levels.
10. Points to Note: This section provides technical information that must be considered in
delivering the unit. It may also include information that provides additional explanation of key
concepts that may be unfamiliar to the teacher as well as suggestions for infusion within the unit.
11. Links to other Subjects: Suggests opportunities for integration and transfer of learning
across and within different subject areas.

11. 12. Key Vocabulary: This section consists of several words/phrases that addresses the skills,
topics and content that must be covered in the unit.