Zone of Proximal Development in Making a Lesson Plan - Assignment Example

An instructor has to know the content of the subject and identify the materials necessary, available to him/her to help achieve his/her learning objectives.

Lesson plans are important when teaching at any level of education including the preschool levels, which is the most basic step in learning. Besides, there are various concepts developed to guide instructors in making a lesson plan. One of them includes the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). This is Les Vygotsky’s design model. ZDP model requires an instructor to first identify the variation between what a learner can study and understand on his or her own and what a student can only through guidance. The variation between the two aspects of evaluation is the one referred to as a zone of proximal development. The responsibility of a teacher is thus to develop a child's zone of proximal development, whereby the learner is able to connect the prior knowledge and the new concepts learned. This is illustrated in the chart below.

Below is a preschool lesson that utilizes the ZPD concept.  

Language Lessons

Communal Learning

Developing counting skills

Cognitive development

Pictorial  

Monday

Introduce learners to alphabet ABCs,

Guide learner on how to clean classrooms

Introduce learners to 123s numbers.

Play memory games such as letter and number puzzles.

Joining dots: Draw a sketch of different shapes in dots to have learners join.

Tuesday

Introduce learners to letter sequencing. (Have a punch of letter cutouts and charts for learners to pick.

Singing: Have learners sing familiar songs.

Introduce the number sequence. (Have a collection of number cutouts and number chart for learners to select)

Have learners identify specific numbers from a collection number.

Color Recognition: Have a stock of color cards and charts for learners to identify different colors.

Wednesday

Letter-Sound recognition: Have letter charts with various animal pictures to let learners identify, and isolate the beginning sound and recognize the sound.

Learning about animals: Have animal charts and animal toys to let learners recognize various types of animals. 

Number Recognition: Have a number of charts with 123s number for the learner to identify and recognize them.

Spellings: Have learners spell various words from flashcards shown by the instructor.

Coloring: After recognizing different colors, learners should paint various shapes which their respective colors.

Thursday

Uppercase and lowercase letter recognition. Have learners match up cutouts for uppercase letters with lowercase letters.

Learning animal sounds: Help learners decide and imitate animal sounds. 

Writing numbers: After recognition, learners should count and write numbers correctly.

Identification of an item from a bag. Have learners recognize the colors, shapes, and sizes of diverse items.

Making letters using crayons

Friday

Reading Comprehension: Have learners state the characters of the story read at the beginning of the lesson.

Playing: Introduce learners to new games to encourage them to talk.

Counting: Have sets of number cards for learners to count.

Answering riddles: Have a list of riddles and awards to stimulate their reasoning.

Walk around the school compound to have them identify the color of trees, animals, and others.