University of Sunderland

School of Education

EDP381: Subject Studies

2020-21
Module Leader: Jemma Bell

Assignment 1: Lesson Plan and Commentary

Trainee name Pavel Duiunov

PAT name Mark Hughes

Lesson plan year group and subject Key Stage 2 Year 3 Science

Curriculum used for lesson plan Cambridge Pathway

Word count 1536

Instructions
1. Use the lesson plan template to plan a new lesson or convert an existing lesson into the required
university format.
2. Use the template to write a commentary about the lesson plan, the selected learning strategies and
the learning theories that underpin this lesson plan.
3. Coloured highlighting and annotations may be used in the lesson plan to identify examples that you
refer to in the commentary.
4. The word limit for the commentary (the lesson plan is not included in this) is 1500 words, plus or
minus 10%.
5. Brief in-text Harvard references for any books, websites or documents referred to should be used as
appropriate in the commentary particularly in section 3, e.g. DfE (2013), Sharples (2019) or Busch
(2019, p. 144), but full references should be listed at the end and do not count in the word limit.

EDP381 Subject Studies Module lead: Jemma Bell Assignment 1

Subject: Class: Date: Lesson:
Primary Year 3 Group 3 26 Oct 2020 3 10:00 - 10:40
Science
EAL, SEND, and other notes on class: Resources needed: PowerPoint,
21 of 26 students are EAL learners topic-related video, overhead
projector, Cambridge Primary
Science Activity Book,
notebooks, ClassDojoTm app,
egg shells, sugary drinks, water,
plastic containers (cups).
Time: No. of pupils: 26 Teacher:
Pavel
Duiunov
Prior learning: Students have previously learnt that
sugary drinks mainly taste sweet and are a part of
“fat and sugar” food group in Year 2 but will not
know that they may also have a detrimental effect
on health.

Topic of lesson: An unhealthy diet (strong emphasis on the consequence of too much sugar)

Learning outcomes Success criteria /Progress within the lesson will be demonstrated by: Students’ progress
LO1: All students will be able to say will be checked throughout the lesson by asking questions relevant to the conducted
what type of everyday drinks is bad experiment and shown video.
for human health (particularly for
the teeth)
LO2: All pupils will be able to name
at least 3 sugary drinks and say
what they are bad for
LO3: Most students will be able to
read nutrition facts labels on
sugary drinks to determine the
sugar content
LO4: Some will be able to predict
what happens to to eggshells if
they are submerged in a sugary
drink for 7 days
By the end of the lesson, pupils
will be able to: Remember that
consuming too much sugar is bad
for the teeth.

Planning for an additional Links to the curriculum: Lesson is linked to the previously studied topics of taste, food
adult/learning support: TA groups, fair experiments and weight measurements (Maths).
(Teaching Assistant) will provide
support to students in most need,
help maintain focus on the task
and distribute materials
accordingly.

Clock Learning Activity (TS3) Key Questions (TS4) Differentiation (TS5) Assessment
Time Opportunities (TS6)

Starter: What does (sugary Ask LA (lower

10:00 Children take turns to take our different drink name) taste achieving) students Assess who remembers
sugary drinks out of the teacher’s bag, like? easier questions, the food group name.
read their names and say what food provide verbal cues if
group they belong to (fat and sugar). What is its name? they struggle with Examine how the

EDP381 Subject Studies Module lead: Jemma Bell Assignment 1

 Do you think (sugary answers. students explain why
drink) is healthy? the drinks may be
Why? Why not? Ask HA (Higher unhealthy and answer
Achieving) students more challenging
more challenging questions.
questions, provoke
critical thinking.

Main Activities: Using an overhead The app is pre- Examine if the students
10:05 Using an overhead projector, the projector, the programmed to are engaged in group
teacher shows students the amount of teacher shows include one HA, two work.
sugar one of the sugary drinks from the students the amount medium and one LA
bag contains and asks students of sugar one of the student in each
questions. sugary drinks from group.
the bag contains and
10:10 Students are divided into groups using asks students
ClassDojo app, each group (~5 people) is questions.
then given three sugary drink packages
to examine how many grams of sugar Can you stay healthy
per 100 mg they contain and record the if you drink several
results in a table. cans of this drink a
day? Students will be asked
10:15 Students remain in the same groups, to comment on how
each group is given two empty plastic Which of your drinks well they think they
cups, they should carefully fill one of is the sweetest? carried out the
them with water and another with a practical activities by
sugary drink, they then put eggshells “The sweeter a drink describing two things
into the cups and examine what the more you should they did well and one
happens. drink it” – Do you thing that they would
agree with this like to change.
10:20 Students watch a video demonstrating statement?
the effects of sugary drinks on teeth and Challenge students’
answer questions. Why are we using LA students can be knowledge by providing
eggshells? How are asked to list fewer additional questions.
they related to our drinks in the Activity
10:25 Students complete an exercise in their teeth? Book exercise.
Activity Books where they are asked to
label three sugary drinks and write what Do you think the
they are bad for with the teacher colour of (sugary
modeling the exercise for them. drink) can transfer to
the eggshells?

10:32 Do you think it will

Students look at an empty food pyramid smell as nice after a
on the interactive board and think week?
where they place sugary drinks.

Can we put them at

the very bottom?
Why? Why not?
Plenary:
10:35 Recapping several sugary drink names Do you still think that
and what they are bad for. Students sugary drinks are

EDP381 Subject Studies Module lead: Jemma Bell Assignment 1

 review their understanding by showing healthy?
thumbs.

Homework: Should you drink LA students may Written and oral

10:38 Setting homework: students are asked sugary drinks every keep a diary for feedback will be given
to keep an honest daily drink diary for a day? fewer days. to students.
week.
HA students may be
asked to provide
sugar content data
for each beverage
they drink.

EDP381 Subject Studies Module lead: Jemma Bell Assignment 1

Commentary on this lesson plan

1. Describe the context and outline of the lesson – what is the aim and purpose of this
lesson? Where and how does it fit into the longer or medium-term curriculum plans that you
are following?
Science lessons at this key stage generally pursue the long-term purpose of promoting the
learners’ interest towards scientific enquiry, which, in turn, explains how scientific ideas
underpin our knowledge of everyday life. Scientific enquiry section of the Cambridge Pathway
curriculum framework is taught in an integrated fashion, alongside teaching of the other
content areas. Throughout this course, learners are allowed to carry out a variety of
experiments thus letting themselves cover all the scientific enquiry objectives in the curriculum
framework. Learners are also required to be able to collect evidence in various contexts to
later answer questions or test ideas. All lessons taught in this course enable students to gather
evidence such as data from simple practical investigations as well draw conclusions from
results and make basic predictions (Board and Cross, 2019, p. 3). The Scheme of Work
(medium-term plan) for this particular sequence of lessons involves students learning about
healthy and unhealthy diets, examining and predicting how fatty and sugary foods may harm
the body and analysing their own nutrition patterns. The lesson in question has been
constructed in line with both above mentioned plans as it helps students get closer to
achieving both long- and medium-term goals on a macro level by means of investigation,
experimentation, evidence collection and analysis. The class above is the third in a series of six
lessons where the sixth is a progress-check style assignment.
2. List the practical teaching actions and strategies, methods and pedagogical approaches
that are used in your lesson plan. You can highlight and annotate your lesson plan above.
You may wish to use bullet points or present this in a different format such as a mind map.
 Learning Outcomes: objectives of the lesson that ideally meet the needs of all pupils and
vary depending on their level of knowledge. They are mainly connected with action verbs
to avoid abstract formulations and increase achievability in line with Bloom’s taxonomy.
 Collaborative learning: working together allows pupils to be responsible for their learning
as well as work as a part of team to be able to learn from their peers in groups of mixed
abilities.
 Additional adult/ learning support: involves a specially trained individual who is present in
the classroom alongside the teacher and has their own set of educational tasks to fulfil.
 Activating prior Knowledge: a set of previously attained mental constructs that precedes
current learning, its correctness and presence will be checked during the starter activity.
 Starter: allows to set the tone for the lesson and recap on previously learnt material by
reviewing topic-related vocabulary items and answering questions regarding prior
knowledge, can be linked with Bruner’s Spiral Curriculum.
 Scaffolding: controlling certain elements of various tasks to ease the learners’ knowledge
acquisition.
 Differentiation: how the lesson aims to include all students (SEND, EAL, LA and HA
students).
 Assessment: details of assessment strategies and criteria that allow to measure the impact
that educator’s teaching has had on students.
EDP381 Subject Studies Module lead: Jemma Bell Assignment 1
 3. The teaching and learning strategies that you have identified above are underpinned by
learning theories. Analyse how some of these strategies, actions, methods and pedagogical
approaches are underpinned by theory. You may wish to consider multiple learning theories.
Please use literature and academic referencing to support your discussion.
The above stages of the lesson plan were created based upon numerous educational
researches and theories constructed throughout the history of learning and teaching. It is,
therefore, essential to provide links to the studies that underpin the lesson plan in question to
ascertain its legitimacy and high usability as a pedagogical instrument.
This plan was constructed with a view to following Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
which played a major role in the field of human development and education. Piaget argued
that children’s cognitive development is represented by four stages that define how children
view the surrounding world. Piaget distinguished the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete
operational and formal operational stages and outlined sets of distinctive qualities for each.
Using his framework, it is logical to assume that the students who are to be taught the lesson
outlined above are in the concrete operational stage which characteristics include apparent
cognitive growth, this stage is also considered vital in schooling, because it is when children’s
basic and language acquisition skills accelerate and expand rapidly (Schunk, 2014, p. 244).
Learning Outcomes section of the lesson plan was compiled using Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy
produced by Anderson et al. which was a framework designed to make educational goals more
generalisible by using specific action verbs to classify learning objectives that were ranked from
lower- to higher- order of cognitive knowledge, (Schraw et al., 2017, p. 197).
The lesson takes into account students’ prior learning, this section of the plan, as well as the
“links to the curriculum” one, could be backed up by Tolman’s theory of latent learning which
implied that people are able to construct cognitive maps of their learning from past
experiences, although this form of knowledge may sometimes lie dormant as a result of
learners’ previous subconscious actions, questions that are used as guidelines in the lesson
could prompt students to start applying it again (Bates, 2019, p. 36). The section could also be
linked to Bruner’s Spiral Curriculum. This is a curriculum that utilises students’ previously
attained knowledge and skills that were developed from the earlier grades and across a scope
of different subjects, this knowledge is later deepened and broadened as learners are
repeatedly exposed to similar topics (Bankhurst and Shanker, 2001, p. 134).
Most of the questions and instructions in the lesson are created with Vygotsky’s concept of
scaffolding in mind. This technique involves initial performance of tasks with various forms of
support provided by more experienced people that is later gradually removed to enable
learners to act independently (Daniels, 2017, p. 5).
Collaborative learning is also used in the lesson, Kirschner suggests that, as tasks become more
complex, assigning cognitive processing demands to different individuals in a group reduces
the overall cognitive load. (Kirschner et el., 2009) This idea fits well with emphasis on peer
collaboration and group learning explained by Vygotsky, who stated that learners not only
teach skills to one another when working in a group but also experience higher self-efficacy for
learning (Schunk, 2014, p. 366).
The lesson highlights several learning outcomes that align with the ones outlined by Gagné
who distinguished five types of learning outcomes: intellectual skills, verbal information,
cognitive strategies, motor skills and attitude. All four outcomes of the above lesson plan could
be included into cognitive strategies as they include skills such as attending to new knowledge
and utilising problem-solving strategies while “at the end of the lesson, pupils will be able to”
EDP381 Subject Studies Module lead: Jemma Bell Assignment 1
 section fits in the attitude type (Schunk, 2014, p. 247).
Adult support is equally instrumental in achieving learning outcomes and providing students
with support they might need during or outside the lesson, this section implements Vygotsky’s
concept of Most Knowledgeable Others (MKOs) that he refers to as people that can be
learned from (Schunk, 2014, p. 252).
The Key Questions section of the lesson may cause students to question their existing beliefs
and opinions as they are asked questions that could make them rethink their views of sugary
drinks they might have had before coming to the classroom. Mezirow describes that process as
transformational learning, a phenomenon that provokes long-lasting behavioural changes in
person and contributes to significant paradigm shifts than other types of learning (Bates, 2019,
p. 68).
Differentiation strategies employed in the lesson plan could be supported by Engelmann’s
Direct Instruction theory, he stated that strategies used in the classroom should be modified to
accommodate each students rate of learning and urged teachers to provide additional
instruction to ensure that students master a specific skill (Bates, 2019, p. 40).
Vygotsky’s concept called Zone of Proximal Development( ZPD) that involves students
attaining new knowledge by means of adult guidance or by collaborating with more capable
peers (most knowledgeable others) can also be seen in the differentiation section as each
group the students are divided into in one of the main tasks includes at least one Higher
Achieving learner thus allowing those Lower Achieving ones to work collectively on a task that
the LA learners could not perform independently due to the difficulty level (Schunk, 2014, p.
250). Gagné’s views on learning may also feed into this section. He suggested that individuals
with prior experience of the subject (typically HA students) may boost performance of those
without it if grouped together (Bates, 2019, p. 38).
Gagné’s approach to assessing learners was partially implemented in the assessment area of
the plan. He believed that learning has a hierarchical nature with its lower- and higher- order
parts and the educators are first required to familiarise their students with the former and
allow them to proceed to the latter only after completing the initial step. According to him,
assessment is a higher-order component which does not contradict to the described plan as
this stage follows two prior phases of engagement and delivery (starter and main activity),
students will therefore be able to progress smoothly through the first two steps of the lesson
and with the assessment acting as a final milestone (Bates, 2019, p. 39).
4. Evaluate the lesson plan and reflect on some areas that you would improve or limitations
that you have found.
The lesson above provides ample room for improvement. For example, seating plan that has to
be altered only to return to its original state , where students are grouped not according to
their ability could be changed to accommodate to the learners’ needs and allow them to
collaborate with more able peers on a regular basis. Adult support at times turns into an
informal instructional resource for pupils in most need thus separating these pupils from the
classroom. Behaviour management, although not a part of the lesson plan, may act as a
hindrance on the way of students achieving their learning objectives.

EDP381 Subject Studies Module lead: Jemma Bell Assignment 1

 5. Reference list (not included in word limit)

1) Bankhurst, D and Shanker, S. (ed.) (2001) Jerome Bruner: Language, Culture, Self. London:
SAGE.
2) Bates, B. (2019) Learning theories simplified : … and how to apply the to teaching: 130+
theories and models from great thinkers. 2nd edn. Los Angeles: SAGE.
3) Board, J and Cross, A. (2019) Cambridge Primary Science: Teacher’s Resource. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
4) Daniels, H. (ed.) (2017) Introduction to Vygotsky. 3rd edn. London: Routledge.
5) Schraw, G. (2017) Teaschers’ personal epistemologies: evolving models for informing
practice. Charlotte, North Carolina: Information Age Publishing.
6) Schunk, D. (2014) Learning Theories, An Educational Perspective. 6th edn. Harlow: Pearson
Education Limited.

EDP381 Subject Studies Module lead: Jemma Bell Assignment 1