The Design of Instructions and of Co-Curricular Plans - Case Study Example

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THEMES By Critical Analysis ofThemes My first lesson was a numeracy class in a primary school for year three basing on reading scales. I had to employ a number of themes and tactics in order to get along with my lesson. This is due to the different characters of the students, their level of concentration while at class, as well as, the best approach to enable the students to understand what I was teaching in class. Some of the tactic I used in getting the children to learn and understand the numeracy class was brain gym, drawing arrows, starter activity, as well as, online games. These activities ensured that students remained active throughout the class. They also provided each member of the class an opportunity to participate in the earning process at the classroom. In addition, these approaches enabled me to have control of the class, and ensure that all members of the class concentrated in the class to learn and take on their studies seriously (Gibbs 1988, p.55). The best approach of letting these students learn is by allowing them to have talk partners while in class. Talk partners in a classroom setting enable students to discuss the answers to various questions asked in class. These permissible discussions enable students to come up with answers to the questions asked much faster and quickly. Furthermore, these talk partners arrangement is also effective in promoting the understanding of students in the classroom. This is because the students are more open and comfortable with their talk partners rather than with their teachers. As such, I used this strategy to get closer to the students while in the numeracy class (Brookfield 1995, p.31). During my teaching practice, I learned that themes play a very vital role in the learning experience of students. Certain themes enable a teacher to pass across his or her skills and knowledge to the students, while certain themes work well in providing a lucrative learning environment for a much lively learning experience. Thematic learning bases its ideologies on acquisition of knowledge, and this works efficiently in a large percentage of students in a given classroom. This is apparently the case when students learn in a holistic and coherent manner, and thus gain the ability to associate the lessons that they get in class to real life examples, as well as, their surroundings in life. Thematic teachings also capitalize on livening cognitive skills of a student such as writing, memorizing, thinking, and reading, thereby allowing creative exploration (Peters 1991, p.45). I followed various steps in developing the right them to use in my numeracy class in order to create a better learning and teaching environment. The first step was to decide on the right theme to apply in every given situation during the learning process. I incorporated the students’ opinions in selecting the best them of the day, based on a larger integrated system, such as the atmosphere or the ecosystem, instead of the smaller concept thematic construction of the village, the climate or the mother. The theme we settled on was atmosphere. The next step of developing a theme is integrating it with the existing curriculum whilst keeping in mind the skill and knowledge content. As such, I integrated the atmospheric theme on the numeracy lesson that I was taking the students through that morning (Roth 1989, p.87). The design of instructions and of co-curricular plans is the third step of thematic learning, which incorporates the organization of extra resources, as well as, other extra-curricular activities used for developing the theme further, and also for demonstration purposes. I settled on inclusion of games during the learning session in order to relate the learning experience to the teaching in class, and to the appropriate themes selected. Activities of students in groups, as well as, their group discussions form the last bit of thematic development. This entails making students to take on classroom activities in groups, such as the talk partner concept, and discuss amongst themselves various aspects concerning the topic of the lesson. This provides the students with an opportunity to participate in the development of a theme, and contribute to the reaching of a shared perspective in a given theme. This stage also allows for creative exploration of the subject under discussion, such as the numeracy classroom lesson (Rolfe, Freshwater & Jasper 2001, p.12). Themes enable students to connect the transition from subject area curriculum to an issue-centered curriculum. As such, the application of the atmospheric theme in the lesson gave the students an opportunity to link the numbers we were learning in class to the real life mathematical problems and challenges that they come across. In certain cases, these themes fall in certain learning circles that enables teaching and learning to be more exponential and understandable. The six major learning circle themes are global issues touching on topics such as economics and government, mind works touching on topics such as creative writing and social science, the environment and energy touching on topics such as science, and society’s problems touching on topics such as history and social science. In addition, two other learning circle themes like places perspectives learning circle, which touches on geography and culture, and computer chronicles touching on topics such as computer publishing and journalism (David & Garry 2012, p.134). I particularly employed the thematic learning circle of computer during my numeracy lesson that day. This was by the incorporation of online games at the end of my lesson. This was after the inclusion of an online game that involved reading of weights by looking at the area where the arrow pointer was pointing. This online gave an opportunity for all the children in the class to take part, and as such, become active participants in the learning session. This also gave me a little level of confidence as a teacher as all the children seemed pleased with the game and enjoyed it extremely, evidenced by the eagerness of each child to have a second, a third, a fourth and so on… go at the game. Nonetheless, it was a little tricky to establish the level of understanding of these students as they played the game, were they in it merely for the fun because they enjoyed it, or did they learn something important that they would later apply in the class (Peterson & Tenebaum 1986, p.65). At a time during the lesson, I was unable to control the behavior of the children while in class. This is because some of them drifted away, or began making noise in the course of the class. This was at different stages, especially when dealing with aspects of the lesson that did not command the full concentration of all the members of the class. A particular case in mind was when I was introducing the WALT learning objective. During this introduction, i did most of the talking, while the children did the major part, which was listening. This was a wrong move on my part because i expected the young children to have good listening skills and my assumption was dead wrong. A good percentage of the children did not pay attention to anything that I was saying. Other played around, fidgeted, and some made ostensibly loud noise while the class was going on. I felt worried because i was losing touch and control of the class (Earl 2003, p.45). This experience made me realize the importance of low-level behavior during learning classes. This is because the lack of concentration, and far much disrespect from the students directed towards the teacher would totally jeopardize the entire learning process. At first i thought the children were simply testing my patience by rudely engaging in chitchat while i was busy teaching. They aimlessly played on the carpet, and some even had guts to shout at their friends seated far across the carpet. This i could not ignore and decided to take a decisive measure to contain the situation. However, I later realized that their lack of concentration to what I was teaching was due to the approach I had employed in teaching. I was not engaging them in the learning process, and as such, it was difficult to commandeer their attention (David & Garry 2012, p.134). I decided to engage the students in the class by asking them to discuss the topic with their talk partners. This brought back their active involvement in the class, and as such, I again regained full control of the class. This taught me that every time I prepare for a lesson, I should come up with activities and measures to engage actively the students during every process of learning. Sometimes teachers lose control of the class and put all the blame on the children, or students in class, as either being unruly or cheeky. However, the main aspect of this issue is to resolve class concentration by using teaching and learning approaches that engage the learners actively in every process or part of learning. The activities that may arouse the attention and active participation of students during a class are asking questions, permitting them to discuss questions with their talk partners, as well as, incorporating exercise and games during learning classes. As such, this creates a formidable link between the lesson planning, teaching approaches, as well as, the pace, behavior and variety of children (David & Garry 2012, p.134). This is evident through the works of one of the best pioneers of teaching and learning classes. Howlett, one of these renowned authors and pioneers of education and learning described in “Vikings as a theme”, one of his seminal works, that teaching should explore the link between definitions of short sharp activities. The usage of these minor activities in a number of approaches will diminish the level of disruption in the classroom. This also incorporates a number of reflection perspectives that affect the learning process of children in the classroom. This enables the teacher to learn how well to cover the lessons in class, and ensure that the lesson is more understandable and clear to all student. This also incorporates the usage of different strategies of managing behaviors, such as green cards, deducting golden time minutes, house points, and yellow cards. In addition, the use of positive praise for children who sat and behaved nicely while in the class would make it even more instrumental and make the learning process more enjoyable to all members of the classroom (Glazzard, Hughes, Netherwood, Neve & Stoke 2010, p.77). Using various models of reflection in grading the classroom performance and behavior management of the children in the class is the best way to eliminate behavior mishap in class. As such, reflective practice is becoming a more random approach in learning than navel gazing at random. As such, the children learning process enabled me to come up with better methods of teaching, as well as, those geared at ensuring that they learnt every topic in a lesson properly. This would incorporate various processes such as the Brookfield’s lenses, which has simple approaches such as what works well in a classroom setting and why it worked well. It also considers what did not work well during the learning process, and why it filed to work. This will also incorporate the pointers collected during the lesson, such as what to repeat in a next lesson, and what not to repeat in a nest lesson (Hodkinson & Vickerman 2009, p.12). Reflective practice also follows a number of processes such as questioning the what, how, and why things happen in a given setting at a classroom. This would also mean seeking new alternatives for lesson planning and teaching practices, keeping an open mind, and then making comparisons and contrasts when evaluating the lesson plans. Under the Brookfield lenses, there are four main lenses through which to view and reflect the practice of a teacher in a given classroom setting. These lenses include the application of views through the lens of our students, the lens of our fellow professional, and the lens of our own view, and a number of theoretical perspectives propounded in a number of educational literatures. The personal experience of the teachers while in the classroom lead to a better learning experience, as well as, the understanding of the children in whatever topics I took them through while learning. This includes various aspects of classroom learning such as behavior management, assessment, and paying close attention to special needs of various children within the classroom (Brookfield 1995, p.31). Behavior management is one aspect of teaching that a schoolteacher cannot avoid in the course of professional duty. As such, it is paramount to possess good skills in behavior management being a schoolteacher. This will equip me properly to be in a better position to understand the behavioral needs of my students in the classrooms. Every child has his or her own behavioral needs, depending on their background or social setting. As such, it is imperative for a teacher like me to understand the courses of such behavior, and then make an effort to groom these behaviors. For the bad behaviors, it is advisable to engage on a behavior change drive whereby transformation is necessary to make the student change from being ill mannered to being well groomed and cultured, as well as, obedient (Peterson & Tenebaum 1986, p.65). Theories relating to behavioral change focus on different models that lead to the transformation of the character of an individual. As such, a schoolteacher should have wide knowledge over the number of theories available at their disposal, and then select the best theory to apply in bringing about a significant behavioral change in their students. Each theory considers different factors that attempt to explore changes in the behaviors of individuals and of groups in a number of ways. Some of the most prevalent behavior management theories include Social Cognitive Theory, Social learning Theory, Self Efficacy Theory, Learning Theories, Planned Behavior Theory, and Theory of Reasoned Action. Schoolteachers make use of the aspects on behavior change found in each of these theories in order to implement a positive change in behaviors in their students. As such, they are in a position to control and determine how their students behave both as individuals, as well as, in groups, which eventually leads to improved classroom performance (Rolfe, Freshwater & Jasper 2001, p.12). Assessment is part of the learning process whereby the schoolteachers come up with the right measures of evaluating the progress of their students. A schoolteacher follows a number of practices when undertaking an assessment process on his or her students. The assessment serves in both ways, both for the teacher as well as for the student. The teacher gets to know, through a defective assessment system, the best learning approaches to engage in teaching his or her students. The teacher is able to discern which learning and teaching methods provide the highest results in academic performance of their students. As such, they may adopt a method that brings them the highest results in academic performance in their students, as well as, massive improvement in skills acquisition and practice. As for the teaching methods and practices that are not working properly, or not brining in the right results in academic performance, the teachers can drop them, or make necessary modifications in order to improve the performance of their students Reference List Bilmes, J., 2012, Beyond Behavior Management: The Six Life Skills Children Need, Redleaf Press, St. Paul, MN. Brookfield, S., 1995, Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, Jossey Bass, San Francisco David, A. & Garry, S., 2012, Contemporary Issues in Special Educational Needs: Considering the Whole Child, Mcgraw-Hill International, New York. Earl, L., 2003, Assessment as Learning: Using Classroom Assessment to Maximize Student Learning, Corwin Press, London. Gibbs, G., 1988, Learning By Doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods, Further Education Unit, Oxford Polytechnic, Oxford. Glazzard, J., Hughes, A., Netherwood, A., Neve, L. & Stoke, J., 2010, Teaching Primary Special Educational Needs, Sage, London. Hodkinson, A. & Vickerman, P., 2009, Key Issues in Special Educational Needs and Inclusion, Sage, London. Peters, J., 1991, "Strategies for Reflective Practice" Professional Development for Educators of Adults: New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No.51 Ed, Jossey-Bass, Brockett, R. San Francisco Peterson, S. & Tenebaum, H., 1986, Behavior Management: Strategies and Techniques, University Press of America, Lanharm, Maryland. Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D. & Jasper, M., 2001, Critical Reflection for Nursing and the Helping Professions: A Users Guide, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke. Roth, R. A., 1989, "Preparing the Reflective Practitioner: Transforming the Apprentice through the Dialectic," Journal of Teacher Education 40, No. 2 (March-April 1989): 31-35. Walvoord, B., 2010, Assessment Clear and Simple: A Practical Guide for Institutions, Departments, and General Education, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey. Read More