Critique to Lesson Plan
The lesson plan is important because it explains what the objectives of the class are, how they will be achieved and in how long. It acts as a guide for the teachers about their goals and opens up a range of creative options in order to achieve them. Following a well-organized lesson plan, the teacher will be free to approach the classroom themes in creative and efficient ways, all within the stipulated time (Hairunisya, 2018). The objectives of education are always long-term – what the student learns at school should always serve either to learn more or to apply in new situations, in the near or remote future. Each class is a step towards achieving long-term goals and what happens in each class must be consistent with that (Mustikawati, 2019). This critique is based on the lesson plan develop for level – Early childhood or transition. The children involved in this activity are of the age 5. This plan is a 45 minutes’ lesson plan which is based on outdoor activities needs to be performed by the kids only in condition if the weather is suitable. This activity is considered very interesting as this will help the kids with developing sound understanding with the dinosaurs. This critique is based on identifying the advantages of the plan as well as issues with the plan.
A key element of effective teaching lies in the planning of teaching and learning activities carried out at school, particularly in the classroom (Feurer, 2013). This planning must be done for each day or on weekly basis as per the school curriculum requirements and is part of the professional responsibilities of the teacher. Without it, learning objectives are meaningless. As seen in this lesson plan, a weekly plan is provided which clearly mention timing for conducting different activities based on the same topic dinosaurs. But this plan is not showing on which day of the week this activity is needed to be performed. So, here, it is seen that the lesson plan is based on week but it is not showing which day of the week. It will be more clear if a day is specified. From the plan it is understood that the lesson is designed for one day only.
The first step in the development of the lesson plan is to make a good study of the calendar and keep notes, in an easily identifiable way, which are the total periods of classes you have to teach your students (considering holidays, recesses and other events). It is within this temporal dimension that all subsequent steps will be taken (Nivales, 2008). Then comes the stage of problematizing the themes. The teacher must add a system of weights and measures for each topic that will have to be taught throughout the year. From his own experience or the suggestion of colleagues, he will know which subjects are more difficult to teach, which ones require less class time, which ones are more interesting and which ones tend to leave the classes bored and crazy with the desire to go out the door. Based on this information, you will be able to allocate the time needed for each class within the previously defined timetable (Tummons, 2010). In this plan, the best thing is a proper allocation of timing. The lesson 4 is divided in three parts. 10 minutes are given to the first parts, 20 minutes to second part and the last part is 15 minutes long in which an activity is assigned such as in lesson 4, which is an outdoor activity and from experience teacher can easily identify that this will be the longest part of the lesson so more minutes are allotted here.
Knowing when and what to teach, it is time for the teacher to think about how. Here, the lesson plan helps a lot. If the teacher has a complete plan, he will know in which classes he can dedicate more time to innovative activities, capable of positively transforming education.
One of the most important parts of the lesson plan is to dedicate space for different activities, thought from the students’ point of view. Activities in which the pupils actively learn, ‘getting their hands dirty’, creating, testing, training, making mistakes and fixing. These activities always make classes more dynamic and interesting, and are excellent ways to get to know the class better and make learning more enjoyable. So, here we can see an activity where students will be taken outside after watching a video. As a protective measurement, students were given hats and water bottles. Here, hammers were provided to each group and provided an ice cube of dinosaur to hammer away. This is very interesting and unique activity that would be very enjoyable.
Activities should not be seen as a mechanical task, but rather as an opportunity to achieve the objectives set for the class. Here, in this lesson plan, there is a clearly identified objective of the lesson and accordingly based on the objective, some activities are organized. For each activity, the lesson plan must identify the format, the content, the questions to be answered by the student, the ways of working, the material and the time needed. In this lesson plan, all these parameters are fulfilled. As we can see in lesson plan 4, a video will be played for the students. It is clearly mentioned the source of video will be the YouTube. Secondly, based on the video questions will be asked. In this lesson plan, teacher has clearly mentioned what questions will be asked such as What is a fossil? Can you see dinosaurs these days? This show how sound a lesson plan is developed. After watching the video, outdoor activity will be organized and so for this outdoor activity, the teacher has also mentioned the materials to be needed for the work such as hammer, ice cubes, water bottles, and hats.
Overall this plan is very well organized and formatted as it contained all the essential requirements of a good lesson plan. The plan is started with a brief introduction of the fossils which is given by playing a video on YouTube which is a very good start and some questions were asked based on it. Then the plan moves forward with the second part where more details are discussed and then close the lesson with the final outdoor activity which is very well elaborated that how this will be done. Overall the plane is based on some good activities which are interesting and easy to understand by children of the age.
Another missing element in this lesson plan was the final assessment. There are different types of assessments formative and summative. Formative assessment is used to measure student learning during class (Serdyukov and Ryan, 2008). It is informal, worth little note, is used throughout a lecture and is designed to give students the opportunity to show that they have understood the subject (as in the example above, with the outdoor activity to understand the concept of dinosaurs). Under the formative assessment, there are two methods formal and informal. Formal assessment is best for the higher classes but for the primary classes as in this case the children are of 5 years old so it is suggested to add an informal assessment like by observing them such as how fast they hammered the ice. Summative assessment is used as a form of control at the end of the course to assess how much content students have learned in general (Serdyukov and Ryan, 2008). This type of assessment is similar to benchmarking, but it covers everything that students have learned throughout the year. They are applied to all students in the classroom, so that everyone has an equal opportunity to demonstrate what they know. Students demonstrate their ability to perform at a level prescribed as a standard for proficiency testing. So, it is suggested an assessment must be mentioned at the end of the plan.
The lesson plan is a worthwhile investment of time and energy. Its organizational function is powerful, helping to manage the time of classes, to define the best teaching strategies and to evaluate how to raise interest in each class. It is a guide created by the teacher himself that will help him to have more confidence in his work and to dedicate his energies to what really matters.
References:
Hairunisya, N., 2018. Analysis of Lesson Plan, Learning Process, Teacher Competence Based on The Indonesian Economics. Dinamika Pendidikan, 13(1), pp.54-71.
Feurer, R., 2013. LAWCHA and the Lesson Plan. Labor Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas, 10(3), pp.7-9.
Goldston, M.J., Day, J.B., Sundberg, C. and Dantzler, J., 2010. Psychometric analysis of a 5E learning cycle lesson plan assessment instrument. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 8(4), pp.633-648.
Mustikawati, Y., 2019. Exploring Beginning EFL Teacher In Making Lesson Plan For First Year Students Of Public Senior High School In Makassar. ELT Worldwide: Journal of English Language Teaching, 6(1), p.10.
Nivales, M., 2008. An Annotated Lesson Plan Applying the Principles of Levels of Thinking in the Language Class. Far Eastern University English Language Journal, 2(0)
Spooner, F., Baker, J.N., Harris, A.A., Ahlgrim-Delzell, L. and Browder, D.M., 2007. Effects of training in universal design for learning on lesson plan development. Remedial and special education, 28(2), pp.108-116.
Serdyukov, P. and Ryan, M., 2008. Writing effective lesson plans: The 5-star approach. Pearson Allyn and Bacon.
Tummons, J., 2010. The assessment of lesson plans in teacher education: a case study in assessment validity and reliability. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35(7), pp.847-857.