102086 Designing Teaching &

Learning

Assessment 2
History Lesson Plan Analysis

Ivy Huynh
SID: 17996440

Contents

Lesson Plan Analysis ………………………………………………………… 2

Modified Lesson Plan …………………………………………………...…… 4

Academic Justification ………………………………………………………. 6

References …………………………………………………………………… 8

Learning Portfolio Web Link ………………………………………………... 9

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102086 Designing Teaching & Learning
Assignment 2: QT Analysis Template

Evaluate the lesson plan according to the following NSW Quality Teaching model elements.

Evaluation score – refer to NSW QTM Classroom Practice Guide for each element
Comments incl. evidence for evaluation score (2 sentences)

1 Intellectual quality
1.1 Deep knowledge
1–2–3–4– Comments: Activity makes effort to introduce key terms and ideas within the topic area. However,
5 there was no mention of relationships or associations between any of the terms.
1.2 Deep understanding
1–2–3–4– Comments: Activity only required a basic brain storming of words and didn’t require students to
5 think about what the words mean. It was a very superficial understanding and didn’t explore any
key concepts beyond the introduction of terms.
1.3 Problematic knowledge
1–2–3–4– Comments: Lesson was more of an introductory nature and didn’t explore multiple perspectives.
5 Teacher didn’t account for any questioning and was more instructional as teacher takes on sole role
of explaining and didn’t ask students to expand on their work.
1.4 Higher-order thinking
1–2–3–4– Comments: The task required students to organise their thoughts and identify key relevant terms to
5 their topic but didn’t require students to analyse or explore into the terms any further than an
identifying stage.
1.5 Metalanguage
1–2–3–4– Comments: Teacher requires students to identify key terms that are relevant to their topic. Teacher
5 further organised a list of words of what terms they need to have in their notes and explains what
the terms mean.
1.6 Substantive communication
1–2–3–4– Comments: Students were asked to work in pairs so they can collaborate and have conversations
5 about their ideas as they work on their concept map. However when students regrouped to present
their work, teacher doesn’t sustain conversation and engagement by getting them to explain their
work rather than having the teacher do all the talking.
Quality learning environment
2.1 Explicit quality criteria
1–2–3–4– Comments: Criteria was not explicit but expectation that student will have to come up with a
5 variety of answers to present back to the class is implied. The teacher does provide explicit
instruction but doesn’t specify the quality of work expected.
2.2 Engagement
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – Comments: Hard to judge based on one lesson plan. However, looking at the activities set out,
5 teacher set very basic and superficial activities that don’t promote engagement and active learning.
2.3 High expectations
1–2–3–4– Comments: Teacher doesn’t expect students to have any grasp on the topic and sets very easy and
5 passive learning tasks. Teacher didn’t expect students to explain their concepts but directs all
answers themselves, which doesn’t encourage students to take conceptual risks.
2.4 Social support
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – Comments: Hard to observe from the lesson plan but teacher does promote collaborative learning
5 which could encourage supportive behaviour amongst students.
2.5 Students’ self-regulation
1–2–3–4– Comments: Can’t make accurate judgement because this needs to be assessed in practice. However,
5 activities planned weren’t challenging which could cause students to disengage which could affect
their self-regulation.

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2.6 Student direction
1–2–3–4– Comments: The teacher directed the whole lesson. Whilst there wasn’t much explicit instruction
5 and lesson plan included group work, teacher solely decided activities and task and students
weren’t given any options or direction over the selection of activities.
3 Significance
3.1 Background knowledge
1–2–3–4– Comments: Teacher makes effort to understand student background knowledge of the topic prior to
5 class. Activity was designed for teacher to test students’ background knowledge through the
concept map before regrouping and building on that knowledge.
3.2 Cultural knowledge
1–2–3–4– Comments: Lesson plan and activities didn’t incorporate any knowledge of diverse social groups.
5 However this is just from one lesson plan so it is hard to make an accurate assessment since future
lessons could incorporate activities about issues such as economic class and gender linked through
history events.
3.3 Knowledge integration
1–2–3–4– Comments: Tasks don’t demonstrate any links between subjects. However, teacher attempts to link
5 lesson to prior knowledge that students have about the topic and try to build on their vocabulary.
3.4 Inclusivity
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – Comments: Lesson included everyone and all students were expected to participate and contribute
5 to the lesson regardless of social or cultural background.
3.5 Connectedness
1–2–3–4– Comments: Activities didn’t link knowledge to real-life contexts.
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3.6 Narrative
1–2–3–4– Comments: Activities only identified key words and was very one-dimensional. However, effort to
5 include narrative account could potentially be seen in the video clip played at the end of the lesson
could’ve painted a better picture and narrative of Ancient Egypt.

Identifying Areas for Improvement

Identify the four NSW QT model elements you are targeting for improvement.

QT model
1) Deep Understanding 2) Student Direction
3) Knowledge Integration 4) Higher Order Thinking

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 Lesson Plan

Topic area: Ancient Egypt Stage of Learner: 4 Syllabus Pages: 60

Date: 14/03/2016 Location Booked: Lesson Number: 1 / 14

Time: 60 minutes Total Number of students Printing/preparation

24 Map of Egypt x24
Textbooks x12 (shared)
Youtube clip
Extra rulers in case student needs one

Outcomes Assessment Students learn about Students learn to

Syllabus outcomes
HT4-2 describes major periods of
historical time and sequences events,
people and societies from the past
HT4-9 uses a range of historical terms
and concepts when communicating an
understanding of the past
Lesson assessment  The physical features of  Describe the geographical
Concept map – the ancient society and setting and natural features
understand what how they influenced the of the ancient society
students already know civilisation that  Organise and apply
on the topic. developed there. knowledge of important
Brief presentations  Key influential figures people and events into a
from each group at the and the society that they sequence
end of the lesson to lived in during that era.  Synthesise concepts using
assess if they a range of historical terms
understood the new
concepts introduced.

Teaching and learning actions

Time
0- 5 Students are to come in and settle in to class.
Teacher is to call out the Roll.

5-10 Introduce the topic of Ancient Egypt.

Ask students to leave a page in their workbooks for a title page titled “Ancient Egypt”.
Ask students to go home and research one pharaoh they find interesting and would like to
study, why they found it interesting and write down two facts about the pharaoh. Set the
task for homework – ensure students write task in their diaries. Tell students they are to
hand in their homework by the next lesson and that I may take what they write into
consideration for their chosen learning topic.
10-15 Concept Map: Teacher is to get students into pairs and in their workbooks (after the title
page) ask every student to write “Ancient Egypt” in the middle of the page. Instruct
students to write as many words they know that relate to the topic around the page, they
are to collaborate with their partner. They may use a dictionary if they are unsure of
spelling. Students then on a separate page, need to list and group any related words
together and explain how those individual words are related and then how the bigger
groups could be associated with each other. Students are then asked to volunteer some of
their answers.

15-30 Egypt Map Classroom Activity:

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 Students are given a blank map of Egypt and need to plot where they think important
landmarks of Egpyt are. Important landmarks are given along with distances between each
landmark but students need to measure the distance between each landmark and plot them
on a scale and in the correct direction such as north, south, east or west.

Features that should be included:

Eastern Desert, Western Desert, The Nile River, Red Sea, Sphinx, Temple, Thebes, Cairo,
Valley of the Kings, Temple of Hatshepsut, Temple of Ramses II, Temple of Ramses III,
Temple of Horus, Temple of Luxor, Abydos Temple

Resources:
Map of Egypt
Prepare extra rulers in case any student didn’t bring theirs.
30-50 Biography Activity:
Using the textbooks, students are assigned in small groups according to where they’re
sitting and assigned a pharaoh and their temple identified from the previous activity. They
are to discuss and pull out key information about each pharaoh to make a brief biography
and paint a narrative of their reign. Each group is to give a brief one minute presentation
of their narrative of each pharaoh to the class. (There are 24 students with 6 identified
temples so roughly split class into 6 groups of 4 students and assign a temple to each
group).

Resources:
Subject textbook

50-55 YouTube Clip

Show students an introduction of Ancient Egypt. Discuss and ask students if they have
any questions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO1tzmi1V5g
55-60 Pack up, remind students of homework. Tell students what they’ll be learning in the next
lesson and dismiss the class.

How am I measuring the outcomes of this lesson?

Learning Outcome Method of measurement and recording

HT4-2 Through understanding student background knowledge
students can list what they already know about the topic and I
will be adding new terms into their vocabulary to encourage
interest. By asking students to group relevant terms, I can
gage their understanding of bigger concepts.
I can assess their understanding of key figures and events by
getting students in their groups to present their biographies.

HT4-9 Students gain an understanding of new concepts and engage

in synthesising a range of historical terms and vocabulary
through concept map activity. Using the textbooks to write
their own biography, students gain knowledge of major
people and the important events that occurred during that
historical time. By getting them to present their work back to
the class, I am able to assess their understanding as well as

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 their synthesis and organisational skills.
Academic Justification:
Deep understanding is one of the four elements that I modified to help improve learning.
The lesson plan previously only required a very basic brain storming of key words and
didn’t expect students to think of the meanings behind them beyond completing their
concept map. This activity was superficial and only taught information at a surface level,
which in turn only generated surface level answers. Research has suggested that this form of
surface level education doesn’t encourage engagement with the materials and information
that they are presented with and further doesn’t stimulate students to delve deeper to gain a
better understanding of their topic of learning (Smith & Colby, 2007). Hence, I modified the
previous concept map so that beyond just listing terms relating to Ancient Egypt, students
start at the micro level of listing key terms and are then asked to take a step further at the
macro level to group relative terms together to form concepts, which they are then asked
how each concept relates to form the bigger picture of Ancient Egypt. This is to foster a
deeper level of understanding that is achieved through a sequence of smaller tasks to
comprehend the larger topic (Smith & Colby, 2007).

Secondly, student direction was also addressed in the lesson plan. The lesson plan
previously didn’t allow students to exercise any form of control and didn’t give students any
option of input into the selection of activities or topic that they wish to learn. Research has
shown that when students are given some degree of choice over the tasks or topic areas they
are learning, there was “significant improvement in authentic achievement” (Amose,
Ladwig, Griffiths & Gore, 2007, p. 7). Consequently, I modified the lesson plan in the
introductory stage to set a homework task for students to go home to look further into the
topic and to choose one pharaoh that they personally find interesting and why. To give
significance to that task, I explain that I will use that information to plan their future lessons
accordingly based on their interests. Whilst this doesn’t give them control over the tasks
they are set, I am giving the students the option to voice and input their interests, which in
effect is allowing students to exercise some form of direction in their learning. This is to
show students that I am listening and supportive of their learning and helps foster a positive
student-teacher relationship and classroom (Department of Education & Training, 2003).

Thirdly, knowledge integration was another focus point in the lesson plan. Prior to
modifications, the lesson plan was strictly focussed on introducing the topic and new
concepts. Knowledge integration was only very minimally present through teacher’s attempt

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to assess students’ prior knowledge on the topic so that new terms and concepts could be
built on. The quality-teaching model suggests that teachers should consistently make links
between “differing fields of knowledge” (Department of Education & Training, 2003, p. 14)
and continually make clear connections and interactions between different key learning
areas in order to facilitate high quality learning. Based on this suggestion, I modified the
lesson so that students are given a prepared map, the key features that I want them to
identify on the map and the distance and direction that is in between each key feature such
as the distance between the Temple of Ramses II and III. Students are then expected to use
their rulers to develop a scale. This is to give them a grasp of geographical topography and a
real understanding of the distance and size of Egypt. This in effect integrates and builds on
their mathematical and geographical knowledge in order to successfully complete the task.

Lastly, I looked at higher order thinking and made changes in the lesson plan to reflect it. As
previously discussed, the lesson plan formerly was largely superficial and didn’t engage
students to think beyond just the shallow stage of identifying relevant terms. However,
research suggests “higher levels of intellectual quality were linked with higher levels of self-
regulation and engagement” (Gore, Griffiths & Ladwig, 2004, p. 379). Here I revisit the
goal of getting students to engage in deep understanding rather than superficial knowledge.
Hence, I modified the activity so that students are given a large source of information being
the textbook to sort through. They need to continually organise and reorganise their thoughts
to pick out relevant information and then apply that information to create a biography on
their assigned person. This is to encourage students to engage in higher level and more
stimulating work so that they are continually challenged (Gore, Griffiths & Ladwig, 2004).

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Reference:
Amosa, W., Ladwig, J., Griffiths, T., & Gore, J. (2007, November). Equity effects of quality
teaching: Closing the gap. In Proceedings Australian association for research in
education conference.
Department of Education and Training. (2003). Quality teaching in NSW public schools.
Sydney, NSW: Professional Support and Curriculum Directorate. Retrieved from:
http://www.darcymoore.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/qt_EPSColor.pdf
Gore, J. M., Griffiths, T., & Ladwig, J. G. (2004). Towards better teaching: Productive
pedagogy as a framework for teacher education. Teaching and teacher education, 20(4),
375-387.
Smith, T. W., & Colby, S. A. (2007). Teaching for deep learning. The Clearing House: A
Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 80(5), 205-210.

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Learning Portfolio Web Link

https://ivyhuynh.weebly.com/