Prior to
this post, I completed an assignment during my enrollment in this course featured
on my personal blog (Auberigine Dreams) by yours truly under a post titled,
“ASSURE Multimedia Lesson Plan: Cereals and Pies for Breakfast” (2016). However,
if I was given the choice to replicate another lesson plan for the exact same
sample, I would go about this with a different approach by extending the
duration of the learning session. With more time on hand, I would allot more
time for the overview of the nutrition label along with the works of a pie
graphs. Looking back at it, ten minutes seems like a crash course of the
material. This is ineffective, most especially since there are elementary
students involved; higher grade levels will most likely catch on the program,
but the primary level require more time and effort to grasp the concept.
With what
I have featured in the previous lesson plan to the class, I would follow up by
changing from looking at cereal to another food assortment, such as reviewing
granola bars. Also, instead of focusing on “salt,” fat,” and “sugar;” I would
have the students explore and look at the other options available. The previous
methods will remain the same. With this, I aim to help expand from what they
were previously dealing with and apply it to a similar scenario. Ultimately, the
main goal here is to familiarize them in reading the nutrition label and being
able to make sense of that information. And looking back at this, it implies
the notion that past lessons should not be put to waste; as teachers, we should
build upon the foundation we created and branch out from there to help introduce
more topics to learn about.
Just by
doing this evaluation exercise, it has come to my realization that I hold such
high expectations that may only be achievable for students past elementary
school. This shows that I need to take a step back and allow the students to
soak the information in rather than moving fast as if I am teaching in a
college course. As mentioned in my evaluation, I plan to extend the knowledge
of what was covered in the past lesson plan and find the opportunity to
establish more related topics on the matter. Then, the objectives will alter
from what started with teaching students the nutrition label to something
bigger than that alone.
The ASSURE
acronym is a sufficient enough guideline for teachers to follow when putting
together a lesson plan. More can be researched pertaining to the “in’s and out’s”
of the format at an online article written by Ed Forest titled, “ASSURE:Instructional Design Model” (2015). The necessary points are addressed;
however, I feel that one more point can be added to further encompass the
teaching experience. Just like how the “E” stands for evaluation, whether it
pertains to the student’s behavior or work performance; there should be an
extra letter that holds reservation for the evaluation of the teacher’s
teaching by the student’ feedback. I feel the student’s opinion on the matter
is important as well since they are the participants of the lesson plan. It’s
one thing for the teacher to evaluate themselves; it’s another to be evaluated
by those who are going through the process by the individual’s hand.
In
addition, the implementation of the lesson plan could have been elevated if the
scenario was set in a computer classroom filled with students familiar with the
works. If this were the case, I would not separate the students into groups.
Each student will be able to have a computer in front of them for usage, and
the procedure would run smoothly given the fact they know how to go about when
using the computer. The purpose of putting them into groups is so that they are
able to question and help each other dealing with the components of the
computer program or even the assignment itself.
Because I am focusing on the primary level, it is wise to keep it
“elementary-level” and understandable for their age. However, keeping it within
this spectrum, the lesson plan can take a small detour in becoming challenging
for these students if I had them construct more than just pie graphs for their
findings. Or, I would have the students take a look at more than just the three
stated options (salt, fat and sugar) for their analyses. This would be suitable
for those of faster learning pace, in which, I would be more than happy to
assign to them for their benefit.
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References:
Forest, E. (2015, November 23). ASSURE:
Instructional Design Model. In Educational Technology. Retrieved
December 11, 2016, from http://educationaltechnology.net/assure-instructional-design-model/
Reyes, S. T. (2016, October 19). ASSURE
Multimedia Lesson Plan: Cereals and Pies for Breakfast. In Auberigine Dreams.
Retrieved December 11, 2016, from http://outreyes671.blogspot.com/2016/10/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html
