Teacher Effectiveness and a Lesson Plan on Effects of Global Warming - Assignment Example

Running Head: Teacher Effectiveness Student’s name Institution Course Professor Date Date: 14/03/2013 Year/Level: 9 Lesson Duration (Minutes) 60 min. Subject: Studies of Society and Environment Lesson Title: Effects of Global Warming. Materials Needed: Four different articles having the effects of Global warming, Net books, Overhead projectors Learning Objectives: By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to: Explain various effects of climate change and state real life examples Create a concept map for the effects of global warming and improve on memorization. Explain various corrective measures of global warming. Indicator: Link to Victorian Essential Learning Standards Students initiate personal learning goals and identify strategies for learning such as the use of concept maps to create a relationship between ideas. They initiate a range of independent activities; provide progress and summative reports for teachers. Students work independently to implement a range of strategies, to maximize their learning. They seek and respond to feedback from peers and teachers such as individual creation of concept map. Information and Communications Technology for Visualizing thinking, Creating and communicating standards; Students use ICT tools to visualize thinking and establish relationships between variables such as use of concept maps to create visual symbols. They use ICT to maximize accuracy, clarity and completeness. Students communicate their ideas to their peers and teacher with the help of ICT. Anticipatory Set: (10 mins) Ask the learners to read one article on global warming effects. Ask them to answer questions presented to them on the projector in groups. Each group to present their findings for those questions. Direct Instruction: (40 mins) Give an explanation of what global warming is. Support the explanation by asking the learners to look at the presentation on http://science.howstuffworks.com/global-warming2.htm on their net books. Discuss with the learners various effects of global warming. Hand out the article ‘Is Global Warming Drowning Africa?’ and ask them to move into groups and read the article. Guide the learners in creating a concept map for global warming causes and effects Give learners various links to various resources to read. Resources http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ http://www.time.com/time/health/article/ http://www.time.com/time/health/article http://www.time.com/time/health/articl http://www.time.com/time/health/article Ask them to answer questions presented on the project after reading the articles. Conclusion: (10 mins) Review the entire lesson. Ask the learners to state various causes of global warming and effects. Summarize on the causes and effects of global warming. Self Evaluation Section Yes No Not Sure 1. The objective of the lesson was attained. 2. I used real life examples to introduce the content of the lesson. 3. The lesson was interesting. 4. Activities which worsened my lesson 5. What would have made the lesson more fascinating? 6. Things that could have affected my lesson. 7. Things to include in the next lesson Part 2 A lesson plan can be used as an evaluation tool besides being a teaching plan. I would apply the ‘effects of global warming’ lesson plan to assess the effectiveness of various learning techniques used during the lesson in order to achieve the set objectives. It will be applicable to year nine studies of society and environment ‘effects of global warming lesson. It will involve observing a past lesson and reflecting to check for its effectiveness. In addition to this, evaluation can be done by looking at learners’ exercises and how they respond. The lesson involves use of many teaching and learning resources including ICT. It will therefore crucial to do a self evaluation at the end of each lesson to reflect and check for the appropriateness of each of the learning techniques. Lesson plan as an evaluation tool can only be used at the end of the lesson owing to the fact that it only covers a small content area. By reflecting on how teaching was done and what was covered during the lesson, one can be able to identify weaknesses and strengths all together. In addition to this, one can come up with new ideas of ensuring whole class teaching. Self reflection is always done at the end of every lesson. New ideas achieved from the previous lessons can be used in creating effective teaching environment in the future. To ensure a good self reflection, I prepared a lesson plan checklist to guide me. Checklist comprised of several evaluation questions related to the question. The advantage of using a lesson plan as a self evaluation tool is that it gives a lot of insights that could be useful in later teaching stages. Corrections can be done at early stages. It is easy to detect effectiveness and ineffectiveness of instructional methods from what learners are signaling (Melick & Melick, 2010: 263). Part 3 Currently, there is need for teachers to evaluate and identify lessons that are effective and those that are not effective. This will help in improving instructional techniques that are in use and at the same time ensuring whole class teaching. Several tools have been used in the process of evaluating teacher effectiveness and they include; lesson plans, classroom observations, self assessments, student achievement data and student work-sample reviews. These approaches do vary in their extent and purpose (Mathers, Laine & Oliva, 2008: 3). Teacher evaluations are usually done occasionally and are always done by external administrators. However, this has been rendered ineffective owing to the instruments used. The standard assessment techniques have failed in improving teaching and learning due to a number of reasons. Self assessment could be an important component of evaluation instruments (Isaacs, 2003). Lesson plans help in depicting the real image of the lesson. They can be used for both self-evaluation and together with other instructional portfolios in evaluating the effectiveness of teacher. It has been argued that classroom portfolios are very effective and enhances self-evaluation among teachers (Hacking, 2006: 6). It is important to remember that teacher effectiveness has an impact on classroom factors such as teaching methods, teacher expectations, classroom organization and use of classroom resources (Goe & Bell, 2008: 7). Evaluation using the lesson plan can be done using rubrics or self evaluation. Good planning will result to better instruction in classroom. Using a lesson plan to evaluate teacher effectiveness comes along with a number of advantages. The teacher is responsible for curriculum implementation. Therefore, he or she understands what is best for the learner. Goe & Bell (2008) points out the fact that teachers ought to be involved in self evaluation process due to the fact that they understand their abilities, classroom context and curricular content. Danielson & McGreal (2005) asserts that schools improve the learning process when teachers play an active role in the process of evaluation. Outside evaluators may not recognize all these instructional factors. In the same way as Goe & Bell have pointed out, Hacking (2006: 6) asserts that the process of evaluation ought to be continuous, participatory and reflective. With a lesson plan, the teacher participates and reflects what he or she has done to check for the appropriateness of the instructional practice. Reflection should be done in a systematic manner and committed in writing (Danielson & McGreal, 2005: 48). Importantly, learners do have varying levels of learning abilities. A teacher is the only person knowledgeable about the statuses of his or her learners. In addition to this, he or she will know which resources to use for certain students. Learning materials are included in the lesson plan. Any omission made will be corrected in the next lesson. Teachers therefore learn from both success and failure (Melick & Melick, 2010: 263). There exists a direct relationship between student achievement and the extent of planning performed by the teacher (Stronge, 2007). Therefore, a well designed lesson plan is more likely to give positive results. Lesson plans posses the learning objectives, learning activities helpful in getting learners’ attention and instructional activities that can accommodate all learners. Therefore, using a lesson plan in the evaluation process will help in ensuring that right instructional activities are used and whenever there is a mistake with the instructional activity chosen, then there is a room for redress in the next lesson. Additionally, a lesson plan allows for instant self evaluation which can either be incorporated into formal evaluation process or a process of for self-directed professional growth (Danielson & McGreal, 2005: 47). In conclusion, stakeholder participation is the key to each evaluation process. Administration system ought to implement evaluation system which incorporates main stakeholders in the learning process. For many years, evaluation has been left to administrators with the teacher being dormant. Using a lesson plan to evaluate the effectiveness of a teacher is therefore a crucial element of evaluation process. Lesson plan enhances full participation by the instructor. At the same time, it encourages the habit of self reflection among teachers. Self reflection can be encouraged through the use evaluation systems that incorporate evaluation components such as recorded video tapes (Mathers, Laine & Oliva, 2008: 6). Evaluation is important in any learning system because it improves the instructional process resulting to effective teaching. References Melick, R. R. & Melick, S. (2010). Teaching That Transforms: Facilitating Life Change through Adult Bible Teaching. B&H Publishing Group. Mathers, C., Laine, S. W. & Oliva, M. (2008). Improving Instruction through Effective Teacher Evaluation: Options for States and Districts. Washington D. C.: National Comprehensive center for Teacher Quality. Isaacs. J. (2003). A Study of Teacher Evaluation Methods Found in Select Virginia Secondary Public Schools Using the 4×4 Model of Block Scheduling. Virginia :Blacksburg. Goe, L. & Bell, C. (2008). Approaches to Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: A research Synthesis. Washington D. C.: National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality. Stronge, H. J. (2007). Planning and Organizing for Instruction. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Retrieved on 17th March 2013. < http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/template.chapter/menuitem.b71d101a2f7c208cdeb3f fdb62108a0c/> Hacking, D. (2006). The Impact of Teacher Evaluation on Teacher Effectiveness in Support of Student Achievement: A Case Study. California: ProQuest. Danielson, C. & McGreal, T. L. (2005). Teacher Evaluation to Enhance Professional Practice. Alexandaria, V.A: ASCD. Read More