The purpose of planning is to help to focus our minds .Lesson plans are first of all a thinking process. The purposeful use of assistive technologies is to enable all students to participate in the process of learning. Technology is important as a tool for developing our students’ higher order thinking skills: critical thinking skills and problem solving capabilities. Creativity is also enhancing this way.
I was thinking about what I have written regarding similarities between the two types of lesson planning in our optional discussion, namely “In both types of lesson plans we have to think ahead at the same questions: Who are the students for this activity? Why do you want to do it? What will it achieve? How long will it take? What might go wrong? What will be needed? How does it work? How will it fit in with what comes before and after that? “
And I was struck by the discovery that this is what Deborah has been guiding us to do. Think about the class and its issues. Think about the benefits of employing technology more in our teaching. Think about B plans, back-up plans, in case something goes wrong with our initial plan. Think about the integration of our lesson in a larger context , see sections about “ Review of previous lesson “ and “ Review before the end of the class session “ in her template .
More than that, she has been feeding us with useful tips meant to make easier our trip into web skills journey.
Having us share our thoughts about the week on our blogs she uses reflection as another tool for helping us in our learning process. Galvez-Martin (1998) defines reflection as “a way of thinking about educational matters that involves the ability to make rational choices and to assume responsibility for those choices” , and Rosier (2002) indicated that reflection after the event is an important part of the learning process.
Hi Cami,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the purpose of planning is to help focus our minds. I like that you refer to lesson planning as "a thinking process." Good lesson plans result from the thoughtful organization of activities that are intended to achieve specified learning objectives. Although it is a product, a lesson plan is never a static. As I see it, a lesson plan should be able to grow, evolve, and change over time. This is to say that the "thinking process" continues during the implementation stage of the lesson plan. If some parts of a lesson plan are troublesome or problematic, a teacher should go back to edit and revise. Because lesson planning is an ongoing thinking process, lessons can often improve dramatically over time!
Regards,
Stephen
DearCamelia,
ReplyDeleteReading your posts have always been illuminating, inspiring and, above all, enjoyable. I much admire the scientific rigour, clarity and precision with which you write and disucuss on the Nicenet arena.
I agree with most of what you said about lesson plans. They sure help us focus more and predict possible learning scenarios that are likely to happen in the classroom. But I think if we faithfully abide by the lesson plan, I'm afraid we'll be missing real learning opprtunities. What I mean is that sometimes students' learning needs don't match with what was predicted in the lesson plan. In this case, are we supposed to pause for a while the lesson plan or carry on with it to attain the pre-stated learning objectives? Personally, I would priorotize the students'instant learning needs because they are real and come from within. So, flexibility and elasticity, so to speak, are, in my humble opinion, two essential ingredients we should always bear in mind when devising our lesson plans.
Yours
Arbi