Reflection on Multimedia Lesson Plan

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