Making
Sure of Your Lesson: Assure Lesson Planning and Revision
Plans,
schedules, guidelines; it is what our lives are centered on and around, whether
we realize or not. From the moment we are born, whether it is from our parents
or a higher being, plans have been made for us; however that is not to say that
they are set in stone, because as conscious and functioning human beings, we
ourselves are capable of making decisions and plans for not only ourselves, but
for other beings as well. As an instructor, it is imperative that making plans,
specifically lesson plans, is something that can be accomplished and followed
with the utmost attention to detail and procedure.
As a means of simulating this future experience, we were tasked to create a lesson plan modeled after the ASSURE lesson plan model. This lesson plan ensures that students not only understand what they are doing, but it also ensure that they absorb and are able to recall what that have learned. A perk of this model is that it is easy to understand and to follow for both students and instructors, because of its systematic nature. For this particular assignments, students had to identify the sugar, salt and fat content of three different cereal brands, analyze the information they gathered, and then be able to create a visual representation of not only their data, but their understanding of the data. An important detail to note however, was that someone else would be teaching and instructing my lesson plan and students. Based on how the lesson goees, if there was ever a need to create another lesson plan in my absence, I would try to ensure that each group has a shift in members in order to increase diversity and interaction among my students, especially for those whom suffer from disabilities.
Another slight change I would make to the lesson plan would include more hands on activities among the students themselves. Although we live in such a technology dominated society, I'd like to incorporate a little more physical activity to keep the children awake and focused. Short exercises I'd include would be simple things like standing up and stretching and or even just running in place. In an online article by Edutopia, John Ratey, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School says, "... learning functions are all about brain cells actually changing, growing, and working together", of which can be achieved by physical activity. However, in order to make more concrete changes, I would really need to check over the evaluations and feedback from both the substitute instructors and my students, Without their input, improvements and progression would not occur.
As hinted in
the lesson plan, students would be assigned homework involving finding the
nutritional information of three additional cereals and compare it with those
of their group mates. In continuance with the topic of health, students would
then be lectured about healthy diets and meal planning in reference to what
they learned about nutrition and reading food labels. After this lecture, class
work would consist of looking at the nutritional labels of everyday food items,
such as snacks like chips, popular beverages like soda and tea, as well as the
nutritional label and information of popular fast food choices at their
respective restaurants.
Additional
material that would have been needed would be the nutritional information and
labels of various everyday food items, either voluntary brought to class by the
students, or if in the case that there is not enough material, additional
online (handouts, pdf and links to the fast food restaurant themselves)
material would be provided. After completing the lecture and a small class activity,
as an additional lecturer, I would request an invitation for a doctor and or nutritionist
to speak to the students about the importance of good health, because according
on an online pamphlet published by the Department of Public
Health and Social Services, heart diseases, stroke, cancer and diabetes are
some of the biggest killers on island, something easily preventable if the
rights precautions are taken.
To conclude the
topic, in place of a test, I’d prefer my students to give a presentation about
what they have learned to their peers; their whole grade level and its
teachers. If they can convey and get across the meaning and point of their
lecture in a clear and concise manner, then I have done my job for this
particular topic.
Hi:
ReplyDeleteTwo minor points keep this essay from being excellent: (1) the word ASSURE is an acronym and is, therefore, capitalized; and (2) your essay needs only ONE title.
-j-