Planning for Learning
Page overview:
The following content includes evidence related to my planning for lessons that I taught, including lesson plans and resources.
Definition
Planning is a crucial part of students' learning. According to Zeiger (2018), "All educators must be capable of designing lesson plans to meet student needs and cover the standards." (Zeiger, 2018). A big part of planning happens prior to a lesson, during the preparation period. It is when the teacher can anticipate problems that might occur, and ways in which they can be dealt with. Therefore, a competent teacher must be skilled at planning.
Planning for Challenging Activities
One of my Professional Development Plan (PDP) goals is to plan for activities that challenge high achievers. While planning, I came to realize how important it is to adjust activities consistently because students are always improving and requiring a higher level of challenge.
Teaching Target Model (TTM)
Rationale
Recording students' activities, and the way they perform gave me insight on which level they were working at, giving an indication as to whether the activity is challenging enough or not. According to Nottingham (2015), students should be prompted to practice knowledge in the learning zone as opposed to doing activities that don't extend their comprehension (Nottingham, 2015). Therefore, while preparing for new activities, I linked it with what the students' current skills, yet heightened the level of challenge.
Long-term and Unit Planning
English Language Instructional Planner
At the beginning of the week, before planning for any lesson, I viewed the unit plan for that week to look ahead at what lessons will be taught throughout the whole week.
Rationale
Content is sequenced right when each lesson is built on the previous, and new skills are reinforced. In addition, it is important to introduce new concepts in a systematic way. Moreover, since English lessons are heavily centered around the use of language, students' prior knowledge and skills must be taken into account when introducing new language. Therefore, a teacher might implicitly integrate a future lesson's topics into current lessons, prior to the explicit teaching of that particular new concept (Numelin, 1998).That way, students are more prepared to learn it when the time comes, because they have gotten a head-start.
Lesson Plans
Lesson Plan 1: Story Elements
Lesson Description:
Understanding the events of a story, and how there is a sequence that is followed throughout the telling of a story. The main skill students practiced was speaking. As believed by theorist Vygotsky, communication is an important tool for learning (Smagorinsky, 2007).
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Professional Development Plan (PDP) Goal:
My goal during this lesson was to control students' voice levels during activity time with a voice-level chart. Newman (2019) writes that teachers can quiet down a class by using signals or noise-meters to let them know when it is permittable to talk (Newman, 2019). I was successful in using implicit behavior management to teach students about appropriate behavior, and they responded well.
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Link between lessons 1 & 2
Lesson 1 taught students about the elements of a story, such as the setting and characters, while lesson 2 involved students answering questions about the different elements of the story. Making links between lessons makes language more likely to be remembered (Numelin, 1998). Planning prior to the lesson helps in knowing when and where to include the integration of content. A part of my teaching philosophy explains the importance of planning for teachers.
Lesson Plan 2: Question and Answer
Lesson Description:
Students read a story, and answered questions about the setting, characters, and events. This served as a form of reading response, where learners extend the meaning of the text that they have read. Such activities open stories up for discussion and they help expand understanding (Swartz, 2006).
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Professional Development Plan (PDP) Goal:
My goal was to introduce students to transition routines by using transition sticks with pictures that indicate the action students must do, such as time is almost up, and time to clean up. According to McIntosh, Herman, Sanford, McGraw and Florence (2004), "Teachers can use transitions to promote effective classroom routines" (McIntosh & Herman & Sanford & McGraw & Florence, 2004). This strategy helped me manage my time, and students were aware that they had to stop working when I say so.
Lesson Plan 3: Long e
Lesson Description:
The main outcomes for this lesson was to teach students about the sound, and spelling of words with the long e. Students had already learned other vowels like the short o, and short a sounds. So, the lesson began with a recap. Engaging background knowledge helps to make sense of new information (Lent, 2012).
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Professional Development Plan (PDP) Goal:
Several PDP goals were integrated into this lesson. They are: Controlling students voice levels with a voice-level chart, using transitions before and after the main activity, and stretching the high achievers with an extension activity.
All three strategies used for my PDP goals serve the purpose of maintaining good classroom ethics. Moreover, an effective teacher is one who is responsible about ensuring that students learn in a positive environment (Aina & Olanipekun & Garuba, 2015). It was slightly difficult to use different strategies at once, so multitasking is one thing I need to improve.
Lesson Plan 4: Describing Things
Lesson Description:
This lesson introduced to students the structure of a descriptive phrase (Size, color, name). The phrase has to be in order, and students use prior knowledge of adjectives. Schimidt's noticing hypothesis proposes that the explicit teaching of grammatical structures makes students notice the language, and in turn internalize the structure (Robinson, 1995).
Professional Development Plan (PDP) Goal:
The PDP strategy utilized in this lesson was the use of the transition sticks to aid the transition phrases like, "look here" or "time is almost up" so that students get used to the language and what the instructions ask of them. Students are more likely to be engaged when there are specific routines during the lesson that let them know what to expect (Codding & Smyth, 2008). Using the phrases before transitioning lets students know that it is time to move on.
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Mentoring School Teacher (MST) Feedback
My MST's feedback proves that I was successful in administering cooperative learning, and students' performance was also an indication of the success of this strategy.
References:
Aina, J. K., Olanipekun, S. S., & Garuba, I. A. (2015). Teacher's effectiveness and its influence on students' learning. Advances in Social Sciences
Codding, R. S., & Smyth, C. A. (2008). Using performance feedback to decrease classroom transition time and examine collateral effects on academic engagement. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 18(4), 324-345. https://doi.org/10.1080/10474410802463312
Lent, R. C. (2012). Overcoming textbook fatigue. Retrieved from
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/113005/chapters/
Background-Knowledge@-The-Glue-That-Makes-Learning-Stick.aspx
Mcintosh, K., Herman, K., Sanford, A., McGraw, K., & Florence, K. (2004). Teaching transitions: Techniques for promoting success between lessons. Teaching Exceptional Children, 37, 32-38. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 004005990403700104
Newman, D. (2019). The noisy classroom.
Nottingham, J. (2015). Challenging learning : theory, effective practice and
lesson ideas to create optimal learning in the classroom.
Numelin, K. (1998, November). The importance of sequencing & planning when
integrating language and content. Retrieved from https://carla.umn.edu/
immersion/acie/vol2/Bridge2.1.pdf
Robinson, P. (1995). Attention, memory, and the "Noticing" hypothesis.
Language Learning, 45(2), 283-331. https://doi.org/10.1111/
j.1467-1770.1995.tb00441.x
Swartz, L. (2006). The novel experience. Pembrokeshire, Wales: Pembroke.
Smagorinsky, P. (2007). Vygotsky and the social dynamics of classrooms. The
English Journal, 97(2), 61-66. https://doi.org/10.2307/30046790
Zeiger, S. (2018, June 28). List of core competencies for educators. Retrieved
April 23, 2020, from https://work.chron.com/
list-core-competencies-educators-8916.html