REFLECTIONS

Every teacher approaches planning instructional lessons differently.  Some teachers feel that they can just "wing it" and still be successful.  Others feel that they have to plan weeks in advance in order to do the material justice.  I feel that I fall somewhere in the middle.

Having a plan is very important for teaching.  Wong believes that good classroom management starts with planning.  It is important for teachers to have enough activities for the students so that there will not be much “down time.”  Problems arise when students have too much free time or when there are long breaks in between educational activities.  It is important to keep the students on task.

I have found it very important to plan ahead of time.  There was one instance where I delivered a lesson only to find that it ran short by 20 minutes.  This is a very uncomfortable position to be in; having all eyes on you and you have nothing left to say.  From that point on, I tried to plan lessons that would go over the allotted time.  By planning this way, I never had to worry about running short again.

When I sit down and plan lessons, I try to take into account many different teaching styles.  I had several learning disabled students who had a hard time copying down notes when given.  To remedy this situation, I starting printing the notes out for the students so they would not have to worry about copying them down.  Immediately following this action, class participation in discussions increased dramatically.  It is important to look at the needs of the students when planning lessons.

Visual aids can be a great tool in the learning process.  Two of my favorite visual tools are maps and political cartoons.  I try to incorporate both of these visual tools into every lesson.  When planning lessons, I consider multiple intelligences.  As an educator, it is important to try and help all students learn.  This may mean that you have to incorporate several different learning activities, but that is why we are paid the big bucks.

The goal of all educators is for students to come away from a lesson knowing and understanding more than they had when they first arrived.  This is my goal when I teach a lesson.  I also hope that students will learn skills they will use outside of the classroom.  It seems that most students do not view social studies favorably because it is perceived to be irrelevant and boring.  It is our jobs to try and make it relevant and interesting to the students.

When planning lessons, I try to remember that all students do not have the same passion for the social studies as I do.  Furthermore, I try to plan lessons that can tie into the present so that students might better understand and/or relate.  One lesson where I used this was when we were discussing Civil Rights.  I created a homework assignment where the students were to read an excerpt from the Martin Luther King, Jr. “I have a dream” speech.  The students were then to reflect on this excerpt and discuss whether his dream had been reached.  By asking this question, students can use what they know and reflect on the present day situation.  It was my hope that this homework assignment would help students create meaning concerning Civil Rights.

It is important to set goals/objectives when planning a lesson.  If you do not, you will have trouble measuring how well the lesson went.  When writing down lessons, I make the lesson up and then compare it to the SOLs to make sure that I have included everything that the students are responsible for.  In this day and age it is important to use the SOLs as an outline.  Just remember that every lesson needs to have set goals in order for the lesson to be successful.  Be prepared for every class and be willing to make adjustments whenever needed.