Last Thursday we devoted the lesson to our next week's mini-lessons. First, our teacher showed us some examples of lesson planning from previous years, so we could have a model of what we are supposed to do (yes, we also receive modelling as part of the scaffolding of our learning!).We also watched pictures and videos of past presentations, which were very interesting.
Our teacher reminded us that a collection of activities is not a lesson (horror faces in the audience), she advised us to go from less demanding (both linguistically and cognitively) to more demanding activities within the lesson, to make sure all activities are connected, and to make sure that all activities pursue relevant aims. I think that was the point where we all thought "Gee, shouldn't we have started from here, instead of from designing our activities like we have been doing during the week?". Well, nothing to worry about! It doesn't necessarily have to be done bottom to top, or top to bottom, as long as you make sure you go back and forth from teaching objectives to tasks to be performed by students a few times during your lesson preparation process. Just like in the learning process, some prefer to go from the detail to the big picture, and some others go from broad concepts to concrete aspects. Personally, I need to make sure I go back and forth a few times, but I am flexible as to the starting point. Of course, one needs to bear in mind that young children go from concrete experience to global concepts.
After that introduction by our teacher, we continued designing our activities. In our case, we decided that since we were only two days away from our presentation, we would not make any dramatic changes, and in a quick assessment we reached the conclusion that we were not that far away from what would be asked from us. So, we continued writing the central column of the lesson planning chart, that is, the description of our tasks and procedures.
iruzkinik ez:
Argitaratu iruzkina