How to Compose a Lesson Plan Professionally
Table of Contents
- Cover Page: ……………………………………………………….….
- Table of Contents: …………………………………………………..… 1
- Theme of the Lesson Plan: ……………..…………………………….. 2
- Lesson Plan Structure Review: ……...………...….………….…….… 2
- Preparation of the Lesson: ………………………………...……….… 3
- Objectives of the Lesson: ……………………………………………... 3
- Lesson Plan Procedures: ……………………………………………... 4
- Assessment Procedures: …………………………………………..….. 4
- Conclusion: ………………………………………………………..…4
- References: …………………………………………………….....…. 6
- Appendices
- Appendix A (Lesson Plan): ………………………………………....… 7
- Appendix B (Worksheet A): …………………………………………... 7
- Appendix C (Worksheet B): …………………………………………... 7
Lesson Plan Examination
Theme of the Lesson Plan:
The
English lesson plan under scrutiny (Appendix A) and its related worksheets
(Appendices B &C) are retrieved from the Internet (British Council 2013). This lesson has been developed to uphold the International Association of Teachers of English as a
Foreign Language (IATEFL) focusing on “Food
Issues”. It considers two food-connected foci: school
snacks and Britain's food behaviors. Learners are
stimulated to practice a Jigsaw game to enhance their reading skills.
Lastly, they are encouraged to improve their speaking fluency through furious
speaking task.
Lesson Plan Structure Review:
A lesson
plan is a descriptive transcript that shows how learners develop towards
specified objectives (Price & Nelson 2003). Its importance is emphasized by
Walsh (1992, p. 97) “The better the teachers plans, the better the teacher”.
For this rationale, the annotated lesson plan is investigated to demonstrate
its pros and cons. This lesson is intentionally tailored to suit the age group
of teenagers B1 and B2 levels. Investigation reveals that, it is
well-structured as it starts in a reproductive skill which is writing food
words, then, receptive task which is reading food texts, after that, answering
comprehensive questions which, in turn, lead to the utmost objective which is
fluency. Shifting from the first task to the last one took place successfully
and smoothly.
Generally
speaking, the content of this lesson is appropriate to the age group as the
target learners are teenagers. They belong to the formal operational stage of
human development as Piaget illustrates. For them, problems can be resolved
through abstract and logical investigation (Slavin 2009). That is why the
teacher adopted the social constructivists approach to enhance the learners’
involvement in the task through cognitively guided instruction. As a result,
this develops recognition, remembering, reasoning and problem solving which are
necessary to acquire new knowledge (Piaget 1978; Vygotsky 1978).
In this
lesson, the student-center approach is adopted. Firstly, students were asked to
work individually, then in pairs. These operative interactive learning
techniques are very beneficial for the learners to absorb the allocated task.
In the same vein, Jacobsen, Eggen and Kauchak (2004, p. 220) highlight the
significance of these approaches, “are specifically designed to encourage
students to work together and help each other toward common goals.”
On
the other hand, critical investigation into this lesson clarifies that, there
is a common misunderstanding concerning “constructivist theories”, that
instructors must, by no means, tell their learners any answer directly,
instead, they let them construct information on their own. This notion
sometimes confuses teaching theories with knowing theories (Bransford, Brown
and Cocking 2004). Constructivists claim that, all knowledge is constructed
from prior knowledge. Even so, there are times, generally after learners have
first tackled problems for themselves, that “teaching by telling” can work
tremendously well (Schwartz & Bransford 1998). Therefore, instructors still
ought to be aware of their learners’ perceptions and deliver guidance once
needed. Conversely, in this lesson, the teacher tells nothing to the learners,
and she hypothesizes that all her learners have the prior knowledge about
healthy and unhealthy food and what consequences they may cause.
Preparation of the Lesson:
At the
outset, Sally Trowbridge, the instructor, introduced the lesson by a
well-planned warm-up. She asked her students to work in pairs and write down as
many food words as they could within a two-minute period. Within a three-minute
period, the pair with the most written food list is asked to write them on the
board. At the end of the warm-up, the students are asked to categorize the
written food list into healthy or unhealthy providing a reasonable argument for
their classification. Secondly, at the procedural phase, there are four main
tasks the students are asked to accomplish to achieve the lesson objectives.
Objectives of the Lesson:
This
lesson has three objectives; to develop students’ reading skills, to develop
students’ fluency and lastly to raise students’ awareness of food issues. It is
hypnotized that, the lesson’s objectives have to be specific, measurable and
more simultaneous outcomes. “..won’t accept verbs like know and understand in
objectives, these are the outcomes we want” (Orlich et al. 1998, p.123). The
objectives in the lesson under scrutiny are vague, generic and long-term as
well. Hence, these three objectives are more appropriate for a goal or a
standard rather than a lesson plan (Price & Nelson 2003).
Lesson Plan Procedures:
Sally
deployed two worksheets; ‘A’ which is based upon a text about ‘School Dinner’
and ‘B’ which is based upon a text about ‘Snack Culture’. While her students
were still sitting in pairs, she handed worksheet ‘A’ to one student in the
pairs whereas ‘B’ to the other. To guarantee the students’ involvement, Sally
asked each student to skim the text for gist to be capable of answering task 1,
which lasts 5 minutes, then to scan it to get specific details to be able to
answer the worksheet questions through task 2, which lasts 22-15 minutes. In
task 3, which lasts 7-10 minutes, Sally’s students are promoted to share their
information by discovering three similarities in the two texts. Sally provided
some models to be followed. Task 4, which lasts 15-20 minutes, is assigned to
encourage students’ speaking fluency through discussions and interactions. It
is noticeable that, through the four tasks the instructor watches her students,
gives a scaffold and write up common errors on the board to be corrected at the
end of the lesson.
Assessment Procedures:
This
lesson lacks in a formative assessment, which is very essential to measure the
learners’ attainment, and whether they have touched the objectives annotated at
the beginning of the lesson plan or not (Orlich et al. 1998).
Conclusion:
To
conclude, it is suggested that this lesson plan has a resilient rationale. The
learners are able to determine why this particular lesson is important; since
they ought to be aware of the merits of the healthy food in contrast to the
demerits of the junk food. In addition, the teacher provides ‘initial
instruction’ to connect the learners’ prior knowledge with the new information
about food. The lesson has developed basic skills; vocational, thinking, social
and academic skills. Nevertheless, it is thought that, it is an activity plan
rather than a lesson plan as the teacher does not spend enough time teaching.
Besides, the lesson provides neither short-term measurable objectives nor an
evaluation task at the end of the lesson (Price & Nelson 2003). For that
reason, it is recommended that the teacher should re-plan the lesson providing
some observable teaching strategies accompanied by specific measurable
objectives and ends in an assessment to evaluate the learners’ attainment.
References:
Bransford,
J. Brown, A. & Cocking, R. (2004). How
People Learn Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Committee on Developments in
the Science of Learning. Washington, D.C: National Academy Press.
[Accessed 11 October 2013] Available at: http://www.csun.edu/~sb4310/How%20People%20Learn.pdf
British
Council (2013). TeachingEnglish, select Teaching resources, Lesson plans: Food issues.
[online]. [Accessed 10 October 2013]. Available at: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/lesson-plans/food-issues
Jacobsen,
D., Eggen, P., & Kauchak, D. (2006). Methods
for Teaching: Promoting Student Learning in K-12 Classroom, (7th Ed). New Jersey: Pearson-Merrill
Prentice Hall.
Orlich,
D., Harder, R., Callahan, R. & Gibson, H. (1998). Teaching Strategies: A guide to Better Instruction, (5th Ed).
Boston MA: Houghton-Mifflin.
Piaget, J.
(1978). Success and Understanding.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Price, K.
& Nelson, K. (2003). Daily planning For
Today’s Classroom: A Guide for Writing Lesson & Activity Plans, (2nd Ed). London: Wadsworth.
Schwartz,.L.,
& Bransford, J. (1998) A time for telling. Cognition
and Instruction. Vol. 16(4), pp. 475-522.
Slavin, R.
(2009). Educational Psychology: Theory and
Practice. (9th ed). Boston:
Pearson.
Vygotsky,
S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of
the Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: The Harvard
University Press.
Walsh, M.
(1992). Planning behaviors of distinguished and
award-winning high school teachers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation.
Pullman: Washington State University.
Appendices:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/TE%20food%20issues%20LP.pdf
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/TE%20Food%20issues%20-School%20dinners%20worksheet.pdf
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/TE%20Food%20issues%20-Snack%20culture%20worksheet.pdf
- Reflection of My Written Assignment:
To reflect upon my lesson plan examination report I have to
admit that; even though it was easy to review a lesson plan prepared by an
experienced teacher on the British Council site, I got very beneficial aspects
to apply upon my own lesson plans henceforth based on the shoulders of my
reading throughout the teaching and learning module. For instance, it was the
first time to differentiate between a lesson plan and an activity plan; it was
fresh piece of information on how to make my lesson objectives more specific
and achievable by using verbs that are more specific and avoiding verbs that
are more generic. Thanks repeatedly to the teaching and learning module that
enhanced my teaching career. In the conclusion, I have to mention that my
lesson plan examination report grading is still ambiguous since I cannot expect
whether or not my supervisor has appreciated it.
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