Lesson Plans

Introduction

Lesson Planning has become a huge hurdle to hop over as well as a way of honing in on our creative skills and adapting them to state and national standards.  It involves much planning and thinking as each lesson plan with its activities has many issues to address.  In Professor Smirnova’s Class, we used three types of instruction:  Direct, Information Processing and Social Interaction Instruction.  All three are very different from each other and call for different types of formats and needs when considering the student.

Description

Lesson plans include goals and objectives for what is expected of the student as well as how those expectations can be met.  Also included are different activities that tap into the students’ interest regardless of learning ability and social background.  Depending on the type of instruction to be used, the subject matter can vary across the board from math to physical education. Lesson plans, are at the most basic level, a map of how we can teach our students in the best way possible while still adhering to state and national standards.

Reflection

While developing the lesson plans, I found that formulating my goals and objectives were very difficult.  The language and degree of focus was hard to put into words as each lesson plan uses vastly different instructional methods.  I liked that direct instruction was first because I felt more in control of what was going on while still enjoying the challenge.  Direct instruction is more teacher-centered and as we progressed in the course my perceptions of each instruction method were that they grew away from that feature of teacher centered and moved more towards student centered. 

The lesson plans took many, many hours and a lot of thought.  I received feedback that was both helpful and valuable.  Each time I pressed the submit button for each lesson plan, I felt like I was signing my life away.  Throughout the course, I just kept telling myself that this is a learning process and it’s ok to fumble the ball, even if it’s very hard…I’d rather fumble here than in a classroom full of students who want and need to learn.