Essay Example on Careful Planning: The Key to Excellent Teaching

There is an old saying stating that “the price of excellence is careful planning.” Planning impacts the quality of results in various professional duties. For instance, football coaches spend days planning plays and watching their teams comply with them, and preachers prepare their sermon days before stepping on the pulpit. The teaching profession is not an exception hence the need to develop a lesson plan. A lesson plan is a daily guide of a teacher on what students need to learn, how to teach, and how to measure the learning outcome (Center of Teaching Excellence, n.d). It is a learning plan. It is a guide consisting of carefully selected and organized activities objectifying to create anticipated learning results in pupils (Air University, n.d). The merits of developing a lesson plan include its ability to help the teacher to be more relevant in the classroom by providing a detailed lesson outline to follow every period (Setiawan, 2019). The lesson plan also ensures that every bit of the allocated class time is spent in teaching new concepts, and students learn the concepts as well as having meaningful discussions in class ( Gallego, 2007).

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A lesson structure plots out how teaching and learning will occur in class (Air University, n.d). A useful lesson plan set steps for achievement, with blank spaces in between facilitating addition and acquisition of more knowledge through giving directions and clear instructions. A lesson structure also helps the teacher to have background knowledge of what he should teach about that particular topic (Rashad Ali Bin-Hady & Abdulsafi, 2018). A well-structured lesson plan helps a teacher to utilize the allocated lesson time without fear of running out of time during the lesson. It also helps a teacher to have prior knowledge of what he should do at the very planned lesson timeline, for instance, how to begin or how to end a lesson without making students feel bored. Lesson plan structure helps teachers keep tabs on student understanding on the topic he or she teaches. The teacher measures students’ comprehension by giving them short structured questions in the form of tests and homework.

There is a great need to develop a lesson plan for pupils. The lesson plan depends on educational goals, which in most scenarios, are set by the relevant schools (Gallego 2007). Thus, lesson planning organizes each subject teachings in a conforming learning duration. Lesson planning involves identifying, organizing, adapting, education content, and evaluation criteria for year three science students. In this vignette, the teacher wants to develop a lesson plan that can equip year three science pupils with quality information that will booster their personal and social capabilities. The lesson plan development process will involve eight phases, namely: context analysis, evaluation of lesson objectives, researching the subject, selecting learning methods, related necessities, lesson materials, lesson technique, the process of assessment, and lesson reflection.

Context Analysis

Making an effective lesson plan takes time. A teacher needs to have the ability to know his students by understanding their skills and goals. The objective of every teacher is to motivate students to retain concepts taught during the lesson as much as possible . When I am making a lesson plan as a teacher, there is a need for me to understand the students am going to educate; this enables me to anticipate many teaching approaches such as the use of visual, auditory, demonstrative, or a combination when teaching. The lesson plan should also include learning styles such as group exercises, independent studies, peer teaching, among others. Understanding students helps me as a teacher to familiarize myself with the students’ group dynamics so that I can plan before the lesson to increase participation and interaction in class during the experience. Depending on the time allocated in the time table and the number of students in a classroom. I can use pairs, small groups, or independent learning to increase class interaction.

Before formulating the one-hour science lesson plan for a year three pupils, as a teacher, I will have to conduct a contextual analysis. I will analyze the subject of science and the year three students to identify the objectives, values, and priorities of the lesson plan (Gallego, 2007). Year three science covers pollination, environment and camouflage, classroom garden, food chain, food web art project, layers of earth, the solar system, thanksgiving food pyramid, and window garden. Proper identification of the subject contents will enable me to arouse a sense of supervision and confidence before my pupils. It will also allow me to identify the year three pupils’ character traits, learning materials, and socio-cultural infrastructure. Year three pupils’ characteristics include significant particular education necessities, low concentration levels, difficulties in using standard learning materials provided by their institution, and little learning expectations (Rashad Ali Bin-Hady & Abdulsafi, 2018). Thus, I will formulate my lesson plan in a manner that seeks to quench the pupils’ science subject necessities through using the provided school learning materials. I will ensure the materials capture the attention of the students by using a lot of visual representation such as charts, short video clips, pictures, and drawings.

When making a lesson plan, a teacher must know his students. The teacher should identify who he is going to educate clearly. Some of the ways a teacher can know his student is by first identifying their learning style, such as visual, auditory, demonstrative, or both. He should also know what the students might already know. For instance, when teaching the parts of animals, the teacher should be specific whether every student is familiar with the animal in the picture. If not, then he should have a strategy of making the year three class to having a general idea on the animal in question. The teacher also knows his students by focusing on his lesson plan.Which should fit all the students in the classincludeing thse with disabilities or the unmotivated and the gifted ones. A teacher must make modifications before the beginning of the lesson.

Knowing your students enables the teacher to understand that he will be teaching different students, both the extroverts and introverts. Knowing this will help a teacher to formulate various activities for different students. Some excel when working alone, while others prefer working in small groups or in pairs when given an assignment. Students can also be grouped depending on the level of activeness in class so that the bright students can assist the slow learners at a peer teaching level. When making a lesson plan, a teacher is also required to include the use of multiple student interaction patterns. Such as the use of pairs, small groups, or big groups. The grouping helps them to interact and build off one another. They are done by allowing all types of interaction since each student is different. Thus, contextual analysis helps me to acquire information on my pupils and the subject to enable me to stipulate the objectives of my lesson plan.

Evaluation of Lesson Plan Objectives

As a teacher, there is a need for me to know my objectives when creating a lesson plan. A learning objective is a statement that describes what students should be able to do at the end of a lesson. The contextual analysis, research, and additional planning provided me with clear objectives of my year three one-hour science plan. I have centered the goals of my lesson plan on the pupils purposing the content they should learn during the one-hour lessons; thus, pupil-centered lesson plan objectives. For instance, in my first lesson, I objectify to teach learners the process of pollination. At the end of the sixty minutes, the pupils will have developed a mental picture of pollen grains moving from the female to the male parts of a flower or pollination agents such as animals transferring the pollen grains. On the topic of the environment, I will prioritize students comprehending the various colors of animals and their capabilities to blend in with the environment to avoid predators and for safety. A good example is a short video clip showing a moving chameleon from one environment to another, which keeps changing its colors to the environment.

I can also formulate a learning objective by outlining my individual lesson goal at the top of the worksheet. I will measure the objectives as a way of ensuring the success of the lesson by giving students an assignment, homework, or a test on the topic they have learned. When writing an objective, I will ensure that the aim is straightforward and on point. For instance, at the end of the lesson, the students should be able to identify and label an animal’s body parts like the eye, ears, legs, among others. I can improve the abilities of the students attaining the study objectives by illustrating the locations of these body parts through the use of videos, pictures, among others, during the science lesson. Thus, at the end of every hour with the pupils, I will ensure that they have learned a thing about the respective science topic or sub-topic covered.

As a teacher, I am also expected to write my overview using a different font or colour on the main ideas for the course. The overview outlines the main topic of discussion. In a science lesson, the summary should cover the parts of animals and function of each organ, for example, eyes for seeing, ears for hearing, among others. The review should be written depending on the length of a class. For example, timeline (12:30 – 12:40 show different pictures of the animal used during the lesson) this acts as a visual aid for a year three student, and he will attempt to label the parts when asked before as a teacher I clarify the correct answer.

When making a lesson plan, I am expected to have a plan for my timeline. There is a lot to cover during the lesson, and planning a timeline enables me as a teacher to breakdown my lesson plan into manageable sections (Rashad Ali Bin-Hady & Abdulsafi, 2018). It enables me to move quickly or slow down, depending on the remaining time before the allocated time. Even though a teacher is encouraged to motivate students to ask questions and seek clarification since learning is dynamic. I should be mindful of the time and the lesson plan. It helps me to cover the sectioned outline and achieve the lesson’s objective within the time allowed. In a one-hour science lesson of years three as a teacher I can plan my timeline as follows;

12:00- 12: 10: warm-up. Done by bringing the class into focus by recapping the last discussion. For example, if the last lesson was on the environment, it is encouraged to do so since a year, three student’s brain is not prime for such contentment. During the warm-up, a teacher can ask them a question such as defining the environment and the activities that help to destroy or maintain the environment. It will make them start talking.

Introducing a lesson has many functions, such as establishing a common ground between the teacher and students. The teacher can use humor, although the introduction should contain no irrelevant stories since irrelevancy may distract the lesson objective. The introduction also captures and holds the attention of the students. The introductory should not contain long remarks that are likely to reduce student interest in the lesson. The introduction also enables the teacher to outline the lesson by pointing out the benefits of the topic of discussion, which eventually leads the student...