Describe two tangible take-aways that you think you could apply in your work. In other words, what are two ways you believe you can apply ideas in this chapter to improve your teaching/instructional design work? [from chapter 30]
I won’t place as much value on student knowledge based on their feedback surveys. I’ll still use feedback surveys, but I’ll compare them with test results. I think they will be best used in the future to tweak particular aspects of a lesson, get ideas from students, self-evaluate my lesson’s effectiveness and my effectiveness as an instructor.
The information about how much working memory a person has will affect my lesson plans. In particular, lower-level language students (who have less prior knowledge to aid them in learning) will receive lessons done in smaller, more well-developed chunks that give them an immediate opportunity to use/apply material from the lesson. Making sure to pay attention to the expertise reversal effect with higher-level students is important and something that I didn’t consciously pay a lot of attention to. Sometimes I use material for both levels because; 1) it took so long to create, 2) I think it is cool, or 3) I don’t have anything appropriate for that particular level.
My school has us write out our lesson plans the week prior to being taught using a form that pretty much looks like the cognitive process of learning described on page 315. It forces me to think out how the kids’ thought process might be as they receive my lesson. I am also much better prepared than some teachers I know who fly by the seat of their pants some days. I’ll try my best to continue doing lessons in that form when I move to another school.
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6 comments:
I like what you said about feedback surveys. I too try to use pretests and post tests to evaluate the effectives of my lessons.
I think creating lessons the way you mentioned is a great idea. I have been writing a lot more down on paper now. My school doesn't require anything formal, but it is still really useful to create them nonetheless. I can write down what went wrong, what I can improve, and then make the necessary changes the following year.
Donna,
I concur with your thoughts about using “small chunks” when working with student who have little or no prior knowledge. As a student, that approach works very well for me when I am learning a new skill. As a teacher, that same approach work very well when I am teaching a new skill (from their viewpoint) to my students. I guess it is true, “we teach what we know, and who we are”.
Jeff Tyler
I want to create a template to use for my lesson planning on my computer. It can be so cumbersome writing out the same things everyweek. I agree that it is imparitive to write out and reflect on what is being taught and how you are teaching it. Each year is different on how your student's learn, but there are many things that I come back and say I would do differently.
I'm with you and Jeff on this one. I think doing anything in small chunks is the prefer way for most student with minimal prior knowledge. I know in my drafting class we start out learning how to draw a straight line. Crazy I know, but you'd be surprised.
I also feel the small chunks related directly to the scaffolding idea. Small steps, building on one another.
I find it interesting when schools have their teachers work on lesson plans in the same format and a week before the lessons? Do they get checked? What grade to you teach?
I had to turn mine in the first year of teaching but not since, I"m not sure how I felt about it. I think I like the freedom of being able to adapt lessons frequently but I wouldn't mind being forced to spend more time on them beyond what I already do. Nice Post.
Donna,
I agree, things are better with a lesson plan. For one, if you get sick and need a substitute, at least they will be able to see what should be done. But most importantly, I don't think that students learn a lot when teachers fly by the seat of their pants.
I like to save copies of all of my lesson plans and in the off-season (lol)I can go back and re-evaluate and revamp them. With this new information about low knowledge learners, high knowledge learners and multi-media etc. It will help me to do this more effectively.
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