Required reading C: Analysis and Reflection.

Title: How to Plan Effective Lessons

CITATION: Ullman, E. (2011). How to plan effective lessons. Private Eyes, 53(10). Retrieved
from, http://www.ascd.org/publications/newsletters/education-update/oct11/vol53/num10/HowTo-Plan-Effective-Lessons.aspx
ABSTRACT:

ANALYSIS/REFLECTION:

An effective lesson gets students thinking

and allows them to interact and ask
questions, tap into their background
knowledge, and build new skills. This article
offers practical tips for planning engaging
lessons that will help your students retain
more of what they learn.

Intention: the end or object intended; purpose.

When planning lessons, from experience, there
should always be a purpose of everything that
was carried out. Of course, there should always
be room for new discoveries and inquiry from
student centered learning, but teachers should
always be able to be a scaffolder. This means
teachers should be on the same page with the
students, supporting their ideas and helping
them elaborate through discussion and creating
meaning. This is all done with an intention. In
saying this, I have seen teachers starting their
lessons with today we will...RED FLAG.
Students, especially children slowly fade away
when they are being told what they have to do,
how they are going to do it. It becomes a
chore, more than a enriched learning
experience. There is no room for students to
use their higher order of thinking, no room for
analyzing, or a place of the teacher to build on
teach unique child in the class. Students need
to feel like they are creating their own learning,
while teachers intentions are discreetly
present. Being in my two-week placement I
have seen lessons crash and burn, although the
teacher had so much experience, the students
were sometimes disconnected. The book, the
words to describe what they were learning, the
fill in the blanks, pre determined sciences and
colouring in the lines of the pre maid pictures.
There was no use of open-ended questions; the
students were expected to follow instruction of
the teacher. I could see some students would
act silly during the lessons; some students
would pick things off the floor, play with their
friends hair, or stare into space not caring
much for the lesson. It is our job as teachers to

keep the students focused allowing the students

to take charge and be proud of their learning
milestones. They truly will retain more.