Week+4

__Week Four:__
Lesson Planning March 23, 2009  Amber is purple Luke is **__BLUE__** Nicole is PINK Mathew is GREEN 

This week was all about lesson planning. I don't think there's really much to say by way of issues... The lecturer was Pete and he went through vels and all the points on the La Trobe lesson plan. I'm so glad we've had this topic, I feel a lot better about lesson planning - but they still seem tricky! Knowing what the learning purpose is and how to go about it is a bit daunting, but something that will hopefully become easier with experience. The headings that must be filled when completing a lesson plan are: Learning purpose, VELS reference, engagement, procedure, pulling it together, group set up, materials, observations of students learning, teacher resources, catering for inclusion, your reflection and supervisors comments. The confusing thing about VELS is the way the levels are organised. For example, if you are teaching grade three, then you are teaching level 3, but you have to look at progression points 2.25 and 2.5. I think it should be when you are in level three, you are progressing to level four.  I found my initial teaching training year to be a matter of jumping through the right hoops when it came to lesson planning and it looks as if this course shall be no different. While I think that it is necessary in order to learn about lesson planning and even how to think in order to plan successfully, the 'single lesson' lesson plan format is not something which I would use in my everyday teaching life. It would be the quickest route to burnout if I did! I only use a 'single lesson' lesson plan format when it is time for an observation for my performance management, as it is what is expected. The rest of the time I teach from unit plans. I find unit plans more useful as, when planning, you have to think about what you are teaching holistically and more often than not, in a cross curricula manner too. Unit plans require you to identify the teaching sequence which enables you to plan out the students learning journey towards the learning outcomes which you also plan for them to achieve. All resources, key questions, vocabulary and assessment opportunities are identified. While unit plans still maintain a day by day programme, it is in less detail than a single lesson plan format does.

Also, I think that it is important to display lesson objectives for the children to see - not just have them in the planning. Displaying the lesson objectives focuses the teacher and the children and sets up a learning expectation which the children can constantly refer back to throughout the lesson. -Mathew I feel the same way as Amber in regards to VELS, it is highly confusing. But I assume with practice and using it constantly we will eventually get the hang of it. I find it is not clear cut and is very open to interpretation, which could be a positive and a negative thing. The more I use VELS for assignments the better I understand it so hopefully it will eventually stick in my head. As for lessons plans, when we were learning about then in issuess I kept thinking that if we have to do them every day for every lesson that means we are doing 5 + a day!! Like Mat said it would be the quickest route to burnout. The way the english one is set out for our assignment is very different, but I also saw it as a bit more practical. It was a Literacy Unit planner. It appears to plan for a week which to me seems a lot less daunting. This was also how you said you would usually plan Mat and I can definitely see why! I am interested to see when we complete our teaching rounds what sorts of planning other teachers do. Lesson objectives seem appropriate to highlight to students otherwise how do they know what they should be learning. They may recognise words used when describing objectives and it may even create that "ah ha" response in them so that they can bring some previous knowledge to the tasks. I think it is going to be very helpful when we do our field work and placement to ask our supervisors questions pertainging to lesson plans. Hopefully we get a variety of teachers and classroom structures to get a good understanding of the concept. I don't think there is a right or wrong way to conduct lessons, there is a way that works for you. This way will also have to work for the students too. I wouldn't get to worked up about this until we actually get into a classroom and experience life teaching!

Readings
<span style="color: #8c00ff; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">Some nice points I got out of the readings this week: -Good knowledge starts with questions, not answers. -Chilren can enter schools as question marks, but leave as full stops. <span style="font-size: 120%; color: #ff0019; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> "There is no learning without a learner". I found this very interesting. I think it means that we as teachers need to make sure the learning in the classroom is centered around the learners. Whats the point if we are aiming our teaching beyond the students?! Creating an environment FOR the learner is essential in helping them learn.

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