ASSURE Lesson Plan Reflection

As students, we get to experience a huge variety of teachers, teaching styles, and time management. The difference in teaching styles and time management likely has to do with the teacher’s lesson plan. I realized this when I observed different schools and educational levels. The classes taught by teachers who were organized followed stringent lesson plans. They gave me permission to look at their lesson plans, and I was amazed by how everything was structured so meticulously. The classroom activities were broken down into various time frames that the teacher followed. Even when the teacher had to deviate a little, the major parts of the lesson plan were followed and the objectives were met.

When the class was given the assignment, I realized how difficult creating a classroom lesson plan actually was. While we were encouraged to be creative in our lesson plan, the common feature that must be present in every student’s work was the inclusion of three cereals’ fat, salt, and sugar contents and a visual representation of the data. The subject I hope to teach is Social Studies at the secondary level, but I was not sure how to incorporate the nutrition facts of cereal into it. I made a connection later on because salt and sugar are resources, so I arranged the lesson plan to meet the GDOE Content Standards for seventh grade Social Studies, which included the topic.

My lesson plan ensured collaborative learning among the students. Alber stated in her blog post Deeper Learning: A Collaborative Classroom is Key that “a teacher must find creative and effective ways to monitor multiple groups working at once in the classroom.” One of Alber’s suggestions is to assign roles to the students in the group. During one of my classroom observations, the teacher had her class divided into groups. She explained to me that this method allows her to better manage the class lesson since it is impossible for her to make sure that each individual student understands the lesson. Collaborative learning is also great teaching method because it allows students to help and teach each other instead of relying solely on their teacher for assistance. The video Collaborative Learning Builds Deeper Understanding by Edutopia on Youtube explains this method really well. The video demonstrates how students understand more, rely more on each other, and build confidence on their own opinions. The video states that collaborative learning results in higher student achievement, self-esteem, and motivation across different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.

One thing I would have done differently if I were to create a similar lesson to the same group is have the students create a presentation on their findings of natural resources instead of a reflection. Had I done this, I could also introduce them to new online presentation tools that could give their presentation possibly better visuals. This also allows the student the ability to work with their preferences in what they choose to present. In accordance with Wilson, Wright, Inman, and Matherson’s (2011) article, “Retooling the Social Studies Classroom for the Current Generation,” incorporating technology enhances “student-centered instruction” and “readies them for the many aspects that they will encounter in the electronic world” (p. 71). The students can be more interactive with presentations too since they will be communicating their findings with their classmates. Having the students present about natural resources using different technology tools will help give them an advantage in using technology in the classroom since utilizing technology is prevalent.

In the end, I feel that creating a lesson plan is like creating a road map of the classroom. The teacher has to know which direction they want to steer their students. While the I am aware that sometimes collaborative learning seems like an old classroom method, I believe it is very effective when implemented and managed well. Incorporating technology will also help students as there are now a vast variety of resources online that students and teachers can access. Besides, using technology is now a prevalent occurrence even among children and especially teenagers. Teachers may as well use technology as a classroom advantage.

References

Alber, R. (2012, December 31). Deeper learning: A Collaborative Classroom is Key. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/deeper-learning-collaboration-key-rebecca-alber

[Edutopia]. (2012, December 5). Collaborative Learning Builds Deeper Understanding. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWEwv_qobpU

Guam Department of Education. (n.d.). Content Standards. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/a/gdoe.net/curriculum-and-instruction/home/content-standards-1

Wilson, E. K., Wright, V. H., Inman, C. T., & Matherson, L. H. (2011). Retooling the Social Studies Classroom for the Current Generation. Social Studies, 102(2), 65-72. doi:10.1080/00377996.2010.484445