Goal Three

Plan contextually appropriate, connected lessons, with relevant learning intentions and success criteria, that relate to the learners involved, providing appropriate assessment and feedback and basing the next lessons off the next steps for each learner.

Reflections

Making connections with children and finding ways to integrate their experiences into lessons is really important to me. I try to be conscious of the context I use when I’m teaching, making sure that it is relevant to the children. Bishop and Berryman talk the positive learning that occurs when the culture of students, rather than teachers, is central to teaching, and how students own prior knowledge and experiences are then used as the basis of new learning. I’m trying to keep this at the forefront of my mind as I design lessons and move into working in my own classroom.

I found having a structured programme for literacy helped me immensely in my planning. I was able to concentrate on exactly what the children were learning, and really focus on gaps, which helped when planning the next day’s lesson.

I find myself trying to fit too much into each lesson, and this is an area I continue to work on. I think that this is something that will improve as my experience grows and I am better at knowing what children already know, and how much they can take in at one time. Of practicum, if I did put too much into a lesson, I would stop and continue the lesson the next day. I found that this worked particularly well with maths lessons.

My AT is good at giving praise where it is due. When she came across fantastic work (which may have been a big achievement for the child, for example, showing a growth mindset), she would get the child to stand on their chair, call the attention of the rest of the class and celebrate their success in a really positive way. I liked this and although I didn’t get children to stand on the chair, I used a similar technique when working with the whole class to highlight work. I would use this as a way to give feedback to the individual child or group, while reiterating what is required to the rest of the class.

Early on in my practicum, I did a lesson relating to Maui and the Sun, where the children drew a sun with pastels, using techniques like blending, and a contrasting background. When I looked over the pictures at the conclusion of the first lesson, I realised that there hadn’t been much thought put into the backgrounds. I decided that as that was one of the success criteria, I would get the children to add to their pictures, so re-did that section of the lesson the following morning. Having clear criteria for assessment is key, and an area I want to keep at the forefront of my mind.

I think that this goal was possibly too big for me to fully achieve in this practicum, but I have definitely been planning contextually appropriate lessons, and am continuing to work on assessment and feedback.