Weekly Reflection

During this week of my placement, I have struggled with giving instructions clearly
and most of the time, it has been an area of development on my lesson evaluations.
As stated in the GTCS (2012: 14), it is essential to “communicate the purpose of the
learning and give explanations at the appropriate level(s) for all learners ” for an
effective, progressive and stimulating learning environment. However, I do feel that
this is something that I should still address and continuously try to improve upon. I
do still struggle on occasion with giving clear instructions, as I sometimes find
repeating myself or rushing and this causes me to become nervous. I feel it would
help me that if I slowed down and spoke clearly this would be much more effective
than me rushing and giving out instructions quickly. Gipps et al. (2002) stress the
importance of effective instructions within a lesson. They highlight that it is most
effective when the instructions are sequenced clearly in the order they are being
asked to perform the task. However, it should not be a command and the children
should be allowed to ask and allowed time to properly interpret the instructions.

This causes the children to be unclear on what is being asked of them, and
sometimes I need to go back over what it is I am looking for from them. A way in
which I feel I could improve upon this skill is, if I am clear on what I am looking for
from the children, then slow down exactly what it is I am trying to say. For example,
this week, when I was giving out instructions of what I wanted the children to do
during the RME lesson, as they had to draw the scenes of the Nativity story in the
correct order, I assumed that they would know what to draw, where to start from
and the number of scenes to draw. At the end of the lesson, I realised that I should
have been much clearer and I could have asked children to focus on drawing the
first two scenes only. Upon discussing with the teacher, she suggested to give
instructions explicitly as obvious as possible; this will also lead to have a better class
management and minimize disrupting behaviour.

Next time, I should stop the class as soon as I realise that I have not been clear on
my instructions and go back over the instructions slower. Then, I should ask all
children to raise their hand if they understand. Perhaps an approach like this in the
majority of my lessons would prove to be more effective in the long term, and would
save me having to go back over my instructions as they were not clear enough.

I feel that a part of this will come with experience and confidence as I continue to
progress in becoming fully qualified, and this is an area of development that I will
carry with me through to my placement.
REFERENCES:
Gipps, C.V., McCallum, B. & Hargreaves, E. (2000) What makes a good primary
school teacher? : expert classroom strategies, Routledge/Falmer, London.
GTCS (2012) “The Standards for Registration: mandatory requirements for
Registration with the General Teaching Council for Scotland ” at
http://www.gtcs.org.uk/web/FILES/the-standards/standards-for-registration-
1212.pdf (Last Accessed 23.11.2019)