A Busy Teacher's Guide to EFF Lesson Planning
Part 4: How Did you Do That? What an EFF Lesson Looks Like
An EFF lesson may look like what happens in your classroom, if you use a learner-centered curriculum with activities that help students build skills they can use outside of class. Not only words and phrases they can use, not only communications skills, but skills that enhance their lives as members of a community, as parents, and as workers. That's what the Standards are all about.
So, to build a unit on "Using the Internet", based on the EFF Content Standards, I needed to thoughtfully consider the components of the particular Standard I was focusing on and the Common Activities associated with that Standard. I would need to determine my approach by considering the Relevancy to students lives, The Purposes for which they will use the skills outside of class; and The Roles they are responsible for outside of class. I would need to add components and activities to the unit to ensure a lesson that somehow integrated all of these things-not just pieces of the whole. 
First I needed to take a look at the Standard and its components
Because I would focus on one of the 16 EFF Standards: Using Information and Communications Technology, I needed to study the components of performance, which are to: 
  • use computers and other electronic tools to acquire, process, and manage information
  • use electronic tools to learn and practice skills.
  • use the Internet to explore topics, gather information, and communicate
and decide how to present the lesson so that students would walk away having made progress in at least one of these components.
I also noted that this unit would give students an opportunity to practice several more of the 16 Skills including:
Which of four categories Which of 16 Skills 
Communications Skills Speak So Others Can Understand
Listen Actively
Decision-Making Skills Solve Problems and Make Decisions
Plan
Interpersonal Skills Cooperate with Others
Lifelong Learning Skills Learn through Research
Reflect and Evaluate
How I decided to build my lesson based on the Standard would enable me to work within the Framework of EFF. The Standards are a part of the EFF framework, so there is a lot of overlap between them but just to be sure that this was a fully integrated lesson I would need to consider the other aspects of the framework 
Then I needed to consider the Standard(s) within the framework of my students lives.
The Question of Relevancy 
Before the unit began, students would complete a needs assessment through an information grid survey. Students would ask each other such questions as: "Is the Internet important?" "Is the Internet important for you to learn now or in the future?" "Do you have a computer at home?" (In my case, only students who were interested and had time in the afternoon for a two day a week course signed up for the course.) Other activities throughout the unit would allow students and teachers to assess relevancy of topics (example: additional information grids).
Consideration of The Four Purposes (Access, Voice, Independent Action, Bridge to the Future)
Access: The skills students learn and develop throughout the unit on how to find information using the Internet gives them access to the world around them. 
Voice: Dialogues throughout the unit give students the words and voice to express their knowledge and ideas about technology. Because this unit is for intermediates, students may not be able to communicate their opinions, but the unit gives them the foundation for doing so in the future. 
Independent Action: In a very structured way, students learn the steps for finding information on the Internet. Independent Action comes into play when students work in groups on the class project: developing a plan for a visit to a local site. Students within each group can take on roles so that each is responsible for gathering information and sharing it with the group.
Bridge to the Future: Introductory discussions on the uses of the Internet, brainstorming uses of the Internet, discussions throughout the unit and then a final assessment that asks students how they plan to use the Internet are ways that this unit helps students to understand what impact their learning has on their future.
Consideration of the Role Maps
I would have insight into my students' roles through the needs assessments and discussions and other information grids. Such questions as the ones presented in this unit: "Do you use the Internet at home" "Does anyone in your family use the Internet" "What do you and others use the Internet for?" "Do you use the Internet at work". Using this information, you know what role(s) to focus on, and what information on the Internet students would be most interested in finding.
Part 5    Cover