Thinking Through a Lesson Protocol

        While at Vanderbilt, I took a class that focused on math education. During the course, we were introduced to a teaching framework called Thinking Through a Lesson Protocol, also known as TTLP. This framework offers a checklist that teachers can use during lesson planning, and this framework asks teachers to think about the goal of the lessons and the activities (Smith et al., 2008). As I was planning for my lessons, I felt that this framework was effective in reminding me to plan for trauma-informed lessons. In Tennessee, the schools follow a curriculum provided by the state, where the lessons are scripted ahead of time. Hence, it is rather easy to lose sight of the goal of the lessons and activities when the teacher does not need to draft the lesson. Having implemented TTLP, however, I was able to keep track of the goal of teaching and, hence, more motivated to create alternatives to provide adequate teaching for my students. Gaining from the TTLP framework, I hope to use it in my future lesson planning, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to learn of the TTLP framework.