Reletion 1

REFLECTION #1
REFLECTION PAPER ON “WHAT IS A LESSON PLAN AND DIFFERENT DEFINITIONS AND METHODS”

Who needs a lesson plan? Every teacher does, that’s the answer.
If one wants to build a bridge or a tower, a plan, a very careful plan is needed. A teacher, in order to have a successful class, in order to have make his/her students learn some lesson, in order to communicate it, he/she needs a plan, strategies to reach the students’ minds. One thing is to know about something, (and teaches know a lot about many things), and another thing is to know how to communicate that knowledge.
The more the teacher makes a lesson plan, the most a professional he/she will become.
There is no one best way or a magic trick to make a lesson plan. We always have to get improvements. The important thing is to organize content, material and methods.
The most lesson plans contain learning objectives, instructional goals and procedures, material to be used and how the students will be evaluated.
There are various theories on lesson plan. On this paper we will consider some of them.
Behaviorist Lesson Plan – This method of lesson plan comes from the psychological school Behaviorism, that started with John Watson, and it was a psychological method of observing the acquisition of a behavior based on environmental conditions.
The teacher traces his/her plan on what is immediate. The objectives are presented to observe behaviors, actions on the bases of a designated material. The focus is presentation and reception. The students need to absorb the material, read it, and practice it. In the end, the students will be evaluated. Everything is written by the teacher, not to miss the focus.
Constructivist Lesson Plan – This method of lesson plan has the goal of guide the students to make decisions, to think and to “construct” their own understanding, based on their experiences.
The teacher plan is to create activities in class in order to make the students interact, to seek their own definitions and apply them. Usually the teacher put in the plan: a creation of a situation that calls the students attention. The method to be used is grouping of students to appreciate the material, and questions to lead the discussion. The objective of this is to create a bridge between what they are learning and what they have already known about the presented issue. The final goal is a personal reflection about what was discussed and the lessons that were learned and how to apply them in life.
This type of plan might be changed to be adapted to any different situations.
Both lesson plans are important, for some times rules must be followed, that means some times the teacher have to follow a program and present unchangeable concepts, and sometimes he/she can be more flexible and make the students grow in interaction, it depends on the issue to be presented.

A different kind of Mule

The depravation that the human take an advantage of the human body is the cruelty we are living in this society. Who are going to pay for this atrocity? The government? The own people?

Reflection 2

REFLECTION # 2

A REFLECTION PAPER ON THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE BEHAVIORIST LESSON PLAN AND THE CONSTRUCTIVIST LESSON PLAN

The process of Education is developed on various ways. When the lesson plans were implanted, it was received as an effective tool for the teachers. The Behaviorist and the Constructivist methods are different but both are important to guide the students in the educational process. The teacher is free to make his/her choice to use that one which is more suitable, depending on the topic to be presented.

The Behaviorist Plan presents information, which the students must memorize, understand and assimilate.

The process is passive, where the students get some knowledge from what they received without own experience. They just receive the information because it exists. It is kind of “follow me” method of teaching. Somebody else has the information, and it is transmitted from generations to generations. The approach is concerned with changes in behavior. Usually the activities are, reading, reviewing, analyzing what is provided, i.e. text, material, book etc. In the end a test is applied to demonstrate how much was assimilated. Bellow an example of a Behaviorist Lesson Plan format. It may vary from school to school, from teacher to teacher.

Purpose and Objective – What the students will be able to do, to learn from the material

Input – the vocabulary, the skills they need to know.

Guided practice – the teacher leads the students all the time. They can’t go out of that guide

Checking for Understanding – The teacher is always observing to see if they are following his/her steps

Review – check it out to fix the concepts on mind

Test – An evaluation is applied to test their knowledge.

The Constructivist Plan involves more participation. The students will absorb the lessons by using their experiences. The teacher creates situations where the students can use creativity to solve problems. The process is more active and more effective, for the students not only receive information, but also they can discuss the issue and they can make their own conclusion. The teacher formulate questions that lead the students for discussion and they are encouraged to build questions in order to develop their capacity of thinking. This method is very , very effective. Let’s see some points that are presented in this kind of lesson plan.

Situation – created by the teacher for the students to explain

Grouping – students and material

Bridge – it connects what they know to what they will discover

Questions – to guide them to discussion

Explanation – they have a chance to explain what they are learning

Reflection – what kind of lessons were learned during the discussion

As we saw in reflection #1, both methods have their value in the process of education, it depends on the type of subject that is being presented in class.