Lesson Plan Critique

Lesson Plan Critique

Source: Lesson Plan Critique | EduReflection (wordpress.com)

https://edureflection.wordpress.com/lesson-plan-critique/

Background

This critique is based on a time specific daily lesson plan which is conducted by Dahyun Kim who teaches English
Language Arts. It is accessible through teach-nology website (See Appendix A). This lesson is designed for grades 7
and 8 students to develop the listening and speaking skills of these students. In General, the content and the skills of
this lesson are appropriate for the targeted students since they deal with everyday real life situations. Thus, students
are engaged and motivated through a meaningful social context in which they work in pairs or in groups to help each
other learn. Moreover, ESL learners are inclined to improve their listening and speaking skills.

This lesson covers most of the lesson planning steps starting with general and specific objectives, introducing the
topic, organizing learning, ending with evaluation of students’ performance. The teacher starts the plan with a
general goal (help the students when they shop for their groceries). Then, he forms general objectives (understand
shopping expressions) and specific objectives (solve comprehension questions, speak using the learnt expressions).

In the “Introduction” phase, the teacher introduces the lesson to the students through checking their prior knowledge
by asking them about the expressions they use for shopping. In the “Development” phase, he builds on their prior
knowledge by showing them some other expressions which are focused on throughout the listening conversation. In
the “Practice” phase, the teacher asks the students some comprehension questions to check for their understanding. 
In the final “Evaluation” phase, students are divided into groups and each group is given a conversational situation
that can take place in the market. The students are engaged in a role play activity to act these conversations out and
the teacher observes the students and gives them feedback.  Students are assigned homework (creating a similar
conversation) to consolidate learning. Finally, the teacher depends on his own criteria to evaluate students’ receptive
and productive skills (i.e. listening – speaking).

Teaching Strategies

The teacher uses the Teacher-Directed method in delivering this lesson. First, he identified a topic. Then, he
specified the general and specific objectives. After that, he selected a good example. Finally, students are given an
oral activity to help them practice the expressions they heard in the listening conversation. This final step links the
lesson to the Communicative Language Teaching Approach which emphasizes on the importance of communication
in acquiring language. Students in this lesson learn the language by (a) using it to communicate with each other, (b)
engaging in authentic and meaningful communication, and (c) focusing on fluency. This way they can achieve the
level of communicative competence they aim at.

The teacher has built this lesson on two notions: ” Situated Learning ” through imagining that the students are
shopping in a market place and “Social Learning” through working in pairs and groups. Both notions are based on
the work of the Russian cognitive psychologist Vygotsky who believes that skills are learned through a social
process while students are interacting with one another ( Slavin 2009).
The teacher also uses an element of the Audio Lingual Method which is also called “aural-oral” method because
students listen first to a conversation before they are asked to speak following a certain level of accuracy. Moreover,
the teacher gives them the expressions they are going to use in their speaking activity which makes students’
interaction with the language controlled. Therefore, the lesson is also reflecting an element of the structural
linguistic and behavioural psychological view of language learning.

Lesson Plan Examination

 First, the topic and the content of the lesson are motivating to the students since they deal with both receptive and
productive skills that are practiced in social interactive situations. Second, the objectives reflect the content of
subject matter, the behavior of what the students will do, the conditions under which the students will perform the
behavior but they don’t reflect the criterion of students performance. Third, the teacher builds on the student’s pre-
requisite knowledge of the language so as to use it in his lesson. Fourth, assessment techniques are insufficient since
the teacher depends only on comprehension questions to check their listening skills and his personal observation of
the students to check their speaking skills.  Fifth, the teacher uses a variety of approaches and methods to enhance
his students’ listening and speaking skills yet most of them are Teacher –Directed using a PPP model of
Presentation, Practice, and Production in a controlled way. Sixth, the activities are inadequate and do not reflect
higher order thinking skills since they focus on practicing direct given language expression not creative ones.
Seventh, the time of each phase is not allotted in the lesson plan and this might hinder the achievement of learning
outcomes. Eighth,   the learning outcomes are limited to answering some comprehension questions and speaking in a
role play activity. These outcomes support the listening and speaking language skills but they fail to enhance the
critical thinking skill which is a major cognitive skill.

Suggested Modifications

Modifying the approaches and methods of this lesson can result in a better learning environment. For example, the
teacher can use a Student- Centered teaching and learning method such as adopting (TBLT) which is considered as
an appropriate teaching approach that would best suit this lesson. (Nunan 2004) explains that “Task-Based
Language Teaching involves the principle that language can be learnt through students completing tasks and
learning to communicate through interaction in the target language.” In this situation, tasks help the learners practice
language input (listening) and output (speaking) in a meaningful way through a social context (group work).

The teacher could give the students a pre-task activity to plan their shopping conversation. Then he gives them a
main task of watching a video about shopping so as to analyze the language in the video and discuss the positive and
the negative points in pairs collaboratively (think pair share). After that, the teacher monitors and gives students
scaffolds to help them during the post task phase of training where the students practice the language they have
heard and discussed earlier. Finally, every group acts out its conversation to be recorded and evaluated by the
teachers and the students through checklists and rubrics to enhance their self- assessment skills.

Cooperative learning strategies can be used effectively in this lesson. “Cooperative learning strategies are
specifically designed to encourage students to work together and help each other towards common goals.” (Jacobson
2005) Therefore, students can work in groups, use their own resources and develop higher order thinking skills and
enhance their listening and speaking skills at the same time.

To conclude, adopting a TBLT method as well as Cooperative Learning Strategies would result in a radical change
for the teaching and learning of this lesson. Consequently, it will help the students have real outcomes that will be
assessed in a way that focuses on both the process and the product of learning.