EDU 502 Student ID 20170313

Assignment 1: Critical Examination of Lesson Plan

Module Coordinator: Dr. John McKenny

Faculty of Education
EDU 502 Teaching and Learning

Word Count 1054

1
EDU 502 Student ID 20170313

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction. 3
Analysis of the Topic and Objective... 3
Teaching Strategies and Methods 4
Assessment and Evaluation. 5
Conclusion... 5
References... 6
Appendix 7

2
EDU 502 Student ID 20170313

Introduction:

The purpose of teaching is to convey and extend your knowledge onto the learners. Being in a
classroom and having the knowledge doesnt equate to good teaching practices; it is a
prerequisite, but not a determinant. An effective teacher is one that sets specific goals and
learning outcomes for the learners and communicates clear objectives. A teacher that doesnt
have specific goals and objectives, as well as means of achieving them is similar to a traveler
who does not know where s/he is travelling to, and therefore will never get there.

Analysis of the Topic and Objective:

I will be assessing the lesson plan in my scope as a substitute teacher and according to the
instructional-planning cycle mentioned by Orlich et al. 2013. The lesson plan is well structured
as it provides details, such as the teachers name, topic of the lesson, date and time of day,
subject and grade level as well the gender makeup of the class. In addition, prior knowledge of
children is there to show what they have learnt in previous lessons and how it relates to the
current lesson. This information can be very useful for a substitute teacher. The lesson plan
belongs to a KG1 class in a Dubai private school. It was designed to teach the children how to
graph their preferences of fruits. The curriculum isnt mentioned but from the learner profile
development it is evident that its an IB school. The lesson plan mentions three IB learner profile
skills, inquiry, communication and reflection, which it aims to develop. However, it does not
mention how this lesson will achieve the above skills or what will be asked to achieve this.

An objective needs to be set in order to provide a direction that can guide the learning path (Dean
et al., n.d.). The objective doesnt mention what details have to be graphed or how it relates to
the childrens previous learning. The lesson outcome is vague and doesnt explain what is
expected to be achieved from the fruit activity and graph. It also fails to mention materials
needed for the teacher and children during the lesson.

3
EDU 502 Student ID 20170313

Teaching Strategies and methods:

The lesson plan has all the correct headings, but the information needs to be specific. The
teacher has made no mention of the duration of the activities and how long she expects the
attendance/ starter or main activities to take. The lesson plan also doesnt take into consideration
whether all the children are already familiar with the taste of each fruit to decide likes and
dislikes. According to HELP (Hierarchy for Effective Lesson Planning), an effective lesson will
include elements such as a real world experience or artifacts, pictures, visuals, written and oral
descriptions, in that hierarchy (Holmes et al, 2011). It would have been useful if the children had
a sensory experience of tasting the fruits to decide their likes and dislikes prior to the actual
graphing activity. This would provide them with a real world experience, and therefore making
the lesson for the KG1 age group far more effective and tangible.

Its good to mention that there are provisions for visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic learners. The
lesson plan fails to mention whether there are any G&T children and doesnt take into account
those that will be able to count beyond 20 and whether they will be challenged. The section for
special needs mentions the the two groups requiring support and needing extension activities.
This helps in ensuring the teacher is aware of special needs in the classroom. It doesnt mention
the number of SEN students are in the classroom and what their specific needs are. It also fails to
ascertain what resources and strategies are provided to achieve desired results. The lesson plan
also mentions that EAL children will be with the learning assistant and that they will be using
flashcards. This is useful information, however, providing the usage of the cards in relation to the
topic would be good for a substitute teacher to know.

Differentiation strategies for EAL students is mentioned as a comparison between the tallest and
shortest bars and understanding what they correspond to. However, in order for the lesson plan
to be effective, EAL students must have a higher objective. As (Khattab 2015) points out in his
study, learners who have high motivations and/or are placed under high expectations display
advanced attainment.

4
EDU 502 Student ID 20170313

Assessment and evaluation:

In this LP assessment is meant to be measured by a method of partnering scaffolding.

This would be the case of higher ability students working with their peers to look at and analyze
the graphs. EAL students should also be paired with children who speak their native language.
The assessment could have included more strategies to examine the learning that took place,
methods such as checklist, open ended questions, and discussions, and the effectiveness of lesson
plan. The teacher has included extension opportunities which are making a graph at home with
family using a new set of fruits.

Conclusion:

To effectively use Piagets theories of pre-operational stage children in the classroom, the
teacher did use props such as the fruits and basket (Long et al., 2011). However, the lesson
needed more hands on manipulation such as a tasting activity, which would have provided a
tangible involvement for the children. If children havent previously tasted a fruit, a schema isnt
created and they cannot form an opinion on it.

Vygotsky provided the idea of scaffolding which is used as assessment in this lesson plan (Long
et al., 2011). I believe this helps the children understand the concept and be able to go over their
work with a peer in collaborated learning form. To incorporate the zone of proximal
development, the teacher should have included various challenges for the different ability
groups.

The lesson plan needs to have a clearer objective and outcome, stating what the children need to
take from this lesson. The teacher hasnt been specific and effective in many details such as
differentiation and opening activity. The starter activity doesnt link well with the graphing
activity therefore making the lesson lose focus even more. Overall, I dont think the lesson plan
itself has done justice to the concept intended to be taught. Using fruits preferences is an
interesting method of teaching graphs, but the missing details makes this a weak lesson plan.

5
EDU 502 Student ID 20170313

References

Dean, C., Hubbell, E., Pitler, h. & Stone, B. (2012). Classroom instruction that works: Research-
based strategies for increasing student achievement. 2nd edn. McREL.

Holmes, K. & Holmes, S. (2011). Heirarchy for effective lesson planning: A guide to
differentiate instruction through material selection. International Journal of Humanities and
social sciences, vol. 1 (19).

Khattab, N. (2015). Students' aspirations, expectations and school achievement: what really
matters?. British Educational Research Journal, vol. 41 (5), pp. 731 - 748.

Long, M., Wood, C., Littleton, K., Passenger, T. & Sheeshy, K. (2011). The Psychology of
education. 2nd edn. Routledge Publishing.

Orlich, D., Harder, R., Callahan, R., Trevisan, M., Brown, A. & Miller, D. (2013). Teaching
strategies. 10th edn. California:Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

6
 EDU 502 Student ID 20170313

Appendix
Teacher: Tamara Grannell Lesson Plan

Context/topic of Lesson: Analysing the graphs

Date: 29.01.15 Subject: Maths

Time/period(s): 10-11am Grade Group: KG1 C
Room No: G86 No. of Students Girls: 10 Boys: 15
Prior Learning: Making a graph

Lesson Objective: To count how many children like each fruit and discuss which fruit was the most
popular and which one was the least popular

Learning Outcomes / Success criteria: Count any given number up to 20

Resources: Graphs that we have made in the Advance Preparation: Making the graphs
previous maths lesson
Risk Assessment:
Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic learners: Learner Profile Development:
Number flashcards for EAL children and L.A Inquirers Creative thinkers
group
Communicators Principled self-managers
Open-minded Caring team member
Risk-taker Reflective learners
Special Needs: Differentiation Strategies:
1. need support Different learning outcomes for different ability
2. need extension activities groups, EAL children to just look at the tallest and
smallest bar in the graph and understand that this
means the children liked these fruits the most and
least

Key Vocabulary: Graph, Analyse, Fruit, favourite, number

Time: Teacher Actions Student Learning: Assessment

Opportunities:
Attendance/ Put objects into a bucket;
Starter: estimate how many are in the
bucket. Count the objects to
see if correct.
Count from a given number e.g.
count from 5, count from 7.

7
 EDU 502 Student ID 20170313

Main activities: Looking at and analysing the
graph, deciding which fruit was
the favourite, how many more
children liked which fruit,
decided which fruit was the
least favourite
Children looking at the Partnering
graphs and deciding in Scaffolding
pairs which fruit was the
favourite for which group

CRA Brown bears (Role play

corner looking at foods and
discussing likes and dislikes

Plenary: What does our graph tell us?

(How many people like each
fruit the most and least)

Home Learning Opportunities: To try out new fruits at home and make a graph for the family