University of Macau

Faculty of Education

2021/2022 2nd Semester

LESSON OBJECTIVES

IUN KIT LAM, KELLY

HC010723

EDUC2019-001

Subject-based Teaching Method II (English)

Matilda Wong
18 March 2022
Part 1

(1) Discussion of objectives in Lesson Plan A

After reviewing the Lesson Plan A, there are some useful objectives identified

for carrying out relevant reading purposes.

First, “Skim the reading “Halloween” by themselves to get a basic idea of the

passage” is appropriate. During the very first pre-reading stage, “Skim” is an

important reading sub-skill because students can scan the passage quickly and get the

general idea. Moreover, this objective is measurable. By asking factual questions,

teachers can check if students can locate information correctly.

Second, “Match the vocabulary items with pictures by paying attention to the

PowerPoint slides that I have prepared” is also relevant. This is a measurable

objective too. It’s because the teacher can check the model answers with students

together with the help of a PowerPoint. However, the objective will be more

appropriate if it is modified to: “Use resources (e.g. visual aids in PPT) to gain deeper

understanding of the new vocabularies taught in students”. In this way, it is

comprehensible that the teacher is attempted to use the technology as an aid in

facilitating students’ understanding on the passage.

 Third, “Cooperate with their classmates and practise communication skills

during the activity” is useful in making students interact with their peers throughout

the communication activities. However, this objective is not specific enough. To be

more clearly written, it is better to be modified into “Evaluate the celebration of

Halloween in the past and the present and share own experiences with the class”. In

this way, students can combine information in the passage with their own opinions

about Halloween.

However, there are some critical problems identified in Lesson Plan A.

First, “Read aloud with their classmates so that they could gain more self-esteem”.

Apparently, the focus on purpose is placed improperly. Initially, reading a passage is

not for getting student a higher self-esteem, but for gaining understand of the overall

ideas. Moreover, this objective is difficult to be assessed by the teacher, as students

able to “read aloud” does not imply that they can understand the ideas of the passage.

Secondly, “Pronoun difficult vocabulary items that we teach in class. For

example, please read after me ‘festival’ “, is not a high order reading skill which

should be covered in a reading lesson. As aiming for perfect pronunciation is not the

goal in a reading lesson. Students should not be kept at the basic level of the single

vocabulary, but to go beyond the literal level. Therefore, instead of being able to

pronounce the word accurately, this should be modified into: “Interpret the meaning
of difficult word (e.g .Festival) by making simple inferences with the word”, in which

students can literally guess the meaning of “festival” by looking at the word

“celebrate” in the previous sentence.

Third, “Use English to describe the vocabulary items during the activity” is also

irrelevant because students should not be focusing on explanation of the literal

meanings, but to generate their own opinions on the ideas of the passage. For

example, teacher can raise question like, “Which activities mentioned can interest you

the most?” In this way, teacher can arouse students to generate critical thinking skills,

which is an ultimate goal in a reading lesson.

Overall, only the first objective (skimming) is practised in the pre-reading

stage. The remaining objectives (2-6) are merely focused on the post-reading stages.

Therefore, there is a lack of practicing on the sub-skills at the while-reading stage. To

improve the overall lesson plan objectives, the teacher should be making students to

develop while-reading stage sub-skills (e.g., summarizing, identifying main ideas,

and making inferences). In this way, the objectives can be covered adequately in each

stage with a balanced planning.

(2) Discussion of objectives in Lesson Plan B

At the first glance, the objectives in Lesson Plan B are very detailed. However,

13 objectives are too much for a lesson plan. Here are some irrelevant objectives

which should be removed:

First, “Answer question in their own word” is way too abstract and not specific

enough.

Second, “Finish the worksheet” is not an outcome in a reading lesson. It is rather

a homework assigned to students after class. Therefore, this is not a kind of assessable

objective for students to achieve.

Third, “Check mistakes on the worksheet” is not a reading objective. Rather, it is an

activity in a grammar lesson.

Besides, “Underline the key points in the passage” is not a relevant and

observable objective. This goal is being wrongly focused on the “underlining” part.

Rather, it can be modified into “Identify the key points in the passage”.

Regarding the appropriate relevance in lesson plan B, some objectives are being well

written. For example, “Share the expressions about Halloween” is a good integrated

skill practice for students in the post-reading stage, as these open-ended questions

allow students to generate their own opinions. In this way, reading and be transformed

into speaking in a form of sharing. Also, “Describe the process of the Halloween
activities (e.g. trick or treat, apple bobbing)” and “Communicate with each other to

work out the answers of the question” is also the kind of integrated skill practice, as

involving students into group work can enhance the skills of oral communication.

Moreover, “Tell the difference between lanterns today and lanterns in the past”

and “Tell the similarities of the Halloween activities” can arouse students’ ability in

distinguishing the information read. Students can process the information in their

brain by making use of the clues in the reading passage. Moreover, “Guess the

meaning of difficult words, such as turnip” is a high sub-skill to practise, as students

can use the contextual clues to learn new words. These objectives are beneficial to

students.

Additionally, “Practise scanning in the process of reading to find our related

information of Halloween (e.g., the date of Halloween, another name of Halloween)

and “practise skimming in the process of reading to find out general idea of the

content (e.g. what is trick or treat)” are actually similar in the sense that these are both

sub-skills in the pre-reading process. These two objectives are relevant, however,

should be placed in the very first objectives because students should skim and scan a

passage before they can participate in other activities. Therefore, this is just a problem

of sequencing.
 Overall, Lesson plan B is appropriate in developing the high-level reading skills

of students, as those objectives are focused on stimulating students in generating

critical thinking skills. Also, there are adequate objectives at each stage, with

examples provided after each objective. However, there are some problems, such as

the irrelevance in some of the objectives, and the sequencing orders.

(3) Comparison of the two sets of objectives

In comparison between Lesson plan A and Lesson plan B, both are similar in some

areas, like the improper numbers and the irrelevance of the objectives listed.

First, regarding the number of objectives in a good lesson plan, the numbers of

objectives should be not too short or long. Lesson Plan A has listed 6 objectives,

which is acceptable; however, it will be better if the objectives are shortened into 4-5.

Similarly, Lesson Plan B has even far exceeded the number of objectives, in which

there are 13 objectives being listed. Aside the problem of the excessive numbers of

objectives, both Lesson Plans have included some irrelevant goals which are not

helping students to develop any high-order skills; For example, both plans focused too

much on “reading aloud in class” and spending quite some time on “accurate

pronunciation of words”. As a result, after the reading lesson, students will merely

learn to know the literal meanings in the text, but not actually interacting with the

author’s ideas. Therefore, both lesson plans are weak in providing students activities
to tackle the text and go beyond the basic literal level. Thus, these teachers are

recommended to give students more opportunities in order to associate themselves in

the text. For example, let students to draw upon their own experiences in Halloween

and give opinions on how they feel about this festival.

But there are some clear differences in the features of the two Lesson Plans.

On the one hand, Lesson Plan B has provided clear examples after almost every

objective (e.g., Trick or treating, apple bobbing, turnip), whereas Lesson Plan A has

only given one example among the 6 objectives (Please read after me “festival”).

Distinctively, lesson plan B is much clearer and detailed in listing the objectives.

On the other hand, another distinctive feature is that Lesson Plan B has provided

students sharing opportunities on reflecting their ideas. For example, “share their

expressions about Halloween”; “Tell the differences between lanterns today and

lanterns in the past”; “Tell the similarities of the Halloween activities”. These

activities allow students to develop critical skills and become advance readers. In

contrast, Lesson Plan A does not focus on cultivating student’s high order reading

skills, and it rather stress on making accurate pronunciation and vocabularies items.

To summarize, regarding the “detailed objectives” and “cultivation of high order

reading skills” in Lesson Plan B, the set of objectives in Lesson plan B is relatively

more appropriate for teaching the reading passage “Halloween”.

Part 2 (My set of objectives)

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

1. Describe how the kids play the “Trick or Treat” in own words.

2. Contrast the differences of Halloween celebration between the present and the

past. (e.g., the activities, the costumes)

3. Design an interesting Halloween celebration for the kids (Illustrate the activities in

a poster)

4. Share the most unforgettable experiences in celebrating Halloween with

classmates in a group discussion.