"My ECE Assignment" series is meant to demystify ECE and make it a more pleasurable endeavour for those of us who are willing to commit to it :
Lesson Plan #1 – Subject area : Language Development
(A) No. of children : 12
(B) Age Group : K2
(C) Date : 19 March Time: 10.30am Duration: 40 mins
(D) Theme : Stories and rhymes make learning come alive!
(E) Prior Knowledge :
The children have learnt to spell words up to 5 letters long before.
(F) Lesson Objectives:
1. Children will be able to listen and speak the opposite words (antonyms) of “young”, “old” and “asleep”, “awake”.
2. Children will be able to spell these 4 words.
(G) Materials :
1. Large canvass mat and portable whiteboard
2. “Jack and the Beanstalk” tall-book.
3. Walking stick and a baseball cap
4. Journal book, and pencils for each children
(H) Tune-in Activity (Steps):
1. The K2 children will be asked to put on their shoes, and prepare to be taken out of the Centre, in an orderly fashion of 2 rows.
2. The class teacher will be bringing along a large canvass mat for the children to sit on.
He will ask 2 children to volunteer to carry the canvass, the walking stick and baseball cap.
3. All the children will be seated in front of the Centre’s side-wall painting, under the shelter of a walkway, and will be asked by the teacher to imagine why they have been brought to this area to sit, instead of being in the centre. Their responses will be noted by the teacher and acknowledged.
(I) Main Lesson (Steps):
1. The class teacher will initiate the beginning of a story-telling session, the story being “Jack and the Beanstalk”. Both the writer and publisher of the story will be mentioned to the children.
2. The children will see the character of Jack ‘coming alive’ when the teacher points to the wall-painting.
3. As the teacher talks through the story, both the pictures in the book and on the wall painting will be used to stimulate and capture the interest of the children.
4. When the first run of the story-telling finishes, the teacher will now ask the children to listen and speak out the words “young”, “old”, “asleep” and “awake” from the second run of the story-telling.
5. This time, as the four words are told as part of the story (and emphasized by the teacher for each word), the teacher will also write these 4 words on the whiteboard by her side.
6. The teacher will then ask 2 boys to stand by his side at the front. The teacher will ask one boy to hold the walking-stick and ask him to walk like the old giant in the story, while the other boy puts on the baseball-cap to show that he is a boy.
7. Another 2 girls will be asked to volunteer to show the class what “asleep” and “awake” mean to them, and act it out.
8. The children will now be asked to take out their own journals and be prepared to spell the 4 words. The teacher will say the 4 words one by one, while the children writes them down on their journal. When they have finished, they will hand the journals to their teacher for marking.
(J) Closure :
1. To round out this learning experience, the children will be asked by the teacher if there are volunteers who wants to act as the four main characters of young Jack, his mother, the old giant and the beanstalk.
2. They will re-enact the scenes, as they see fit, for the next 7 to 8 minutes, before wrapping up and returning to their class.
(K) Follow-up :
1. At the end of the day, before the children finish their formal lessons, the children will be asked by the teacher if they remembered who fell asleep in the castle, and what happened to young Jack when the old giant was awake. This will reinforce the learning of these 4 words by the children.
2. They will be asked what is the opposite of “old”, and the opposite of “awake” to reinforce their learning.
Lesson Plan #1 : Reflection and Evaluation :
Q1 : What new learning has occurred for the children?
It was clear to me that the children were interested in the story of “Jack and the Beanstalk”, even though some of them have heard about it before. This allowed me to achieve my learning objectives of them listening, speaking and writing the 4 focus words.
Q2 : What part of the physical environment would need to be changed, and why?
The children took to the task of moving outside of the class to the side walkway of the centre with much delight. The walkway was a public area, and as such, there were some distractions when several people from the neighbourhood stopped briefly to watch the story-telling.
But by and large, the children were focused on their tasks at hand, including the period when they were required to write the words on their journal. So, space and materials supported the attainment of the lesson objectives well. What can be changed would be allocating more time to this lesson, from 40 minutes to 45 minutes to allow more time for the children to perform their play-acting, which they enjoyed.
Q3 : Which teaching strategies supported the children, and which need to be reconsidered?
The use of a story like “Jack and the Beanstalk” clearly supported the children’s learning. They were remained interested throughout the story itself. The use of props such as the walking stick, the baseball cap and the impromptu play-acting by the children added to their learning experience, as a whole.
Lesson Plan #1 : The Next Step
The children have learnt to spell 4 words as a result of this lesson plan. But I believe they learnt more than that. What stood out for me were 2 things:
1. the use of story-telling as the “vehicle” to reach out to the children was a successful endeavour. In this case, it helped me to bring the children to the point of achieving my lesson objectives with ease simply because they were interested in listening to the story.
2. that play-acting by the children drew out the usually silent children from their shells. I believe that because they were seeing their peers having so much fun with the play-acting, they too were drawn into this activity. They too were laughing side by side with their peers.
The next step for me would be to use this experience of story-telling and games to reach out to the children in what would be typically regarded by teachers as more “serious” subject areas such as science and math.
Student Self Evaluation
(1) Professional Knowledge and Behaviour:
Q : Have you provided a positive role model for children? Provide a brief example.
I have provided a positive role model for the children by constantly using proper English words and sentences when conversing with them. I find that the children are easily swayed by the way English as a language is used by their peers and their parents at home. It is therefore not surprising to find them using localized English frequently, and in my view, excessively by most of them.
I am of the opinion that preschool teachers need to ensure that the children in their classes do not fall into the easy ‘trap’ of using colloquial English when in school, both in conversations or when words and sentences are being constructed by them. When the children get older, this form of colloquial English will become even more difficult to change in their conversations and in writings. It is therefore the role of the preschool teacher to ensure that English is properly used and spoken in school, and at all times to instill its proper usage by the children.
Q : How well am I applying my knowledge of the theories of child development in the classroom?
I believe I have applied my knowledge of the theories of child development well in the classroom during this practicum.
From the beginning, I had wanted to inject play into my lesson plans, realizing the significance of play in teaching our children, as noted by Parten (Dockett, Fleer, 2002). For example, I took the initiative to bring all the children out of their classroom environment in one of my lessons on the subject area of language, and asked them to role-play the story of Jack and the Beanstalk in front of a large painting of one of its scenes in this story. Clearly, the children enjoyed that role-play as one of them took the role of the “Giant” and spouted loudly, “Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum”.
I was also able to scaffold the children’s understanding of the scientific concepts of sinking and floating, thus applying the theory espoused by Vygotsky (Mooney, 2000). The children were perplexed to find that a small grape actually sinks in water, while a larger orange floats. It was through my explanation of density that they were able to see why that was so, thus helping them to extend their own knowledge, through the guidance of an adult like me. The theory of ZPD, as stated by Vygotsky, was well on display then.
(2) Interactions with Children:
Q : How do I demonstrate appreciation of children’s effort?
I demonstrated appreciation of children’s effort by doing the following:
a) I acknowledged all their answers by writing them down on the whiteboard, when I asked them for answers to questions, or opinions on various matters.
b) I praise their role-playing efforts, regardless of how they actually performed their role-plays. Some of the children even extended the stories in their own ways. For example, one of them wanted to turn the axe into a laser gun to shoot down the Giant in the Jack and the Beanstalk story, instead of cutting down the beanstalk. I thought that that was indeed a creative display of the mind of that child.
c) I put up their drawings on the display areas within the class to acknowledge their individual efforts. I ensured that they are put up at their eye-level, and not at that of an adult’s, to allow them to see the fruits of their labour as well as their peers.
d) I openly praise any child that showed their efforts to help another peer of theirs, from the simple task of assisting another with putting away their toys, to bringing an eraser to the reach of another child.
e) I openly acknowledge the children whenever they displayed hygienic behaviours when performing their toileting needs, such as flushing the toilets immediately after use, or washing their hands with detergent and drying them carefully before returning to their classroom.
Q : How well do I interact with young children? Provide an example of your communication with young children in which you feel you interacted positively.
I believed that I interacted with the children very well. An example would be the day when a rabbit was brought into the Centre. Instead of getting them to gather round the rabbit to view it, I took the opportunity to turn it into a ‘teacheable moment’ by first asking them if they have pets at home, what they are and the names of their pets. I then asked them if a rabbit can be a pet, whether a rabbit is a mammal and the food that it eats. It was at this moment that I then brought the rabbit in, to show it to them, right in front of their very eyes, as they sat in a semi-circle. The delight on their faces clearly showed how much they enjoyed the occasion.
(3) Communication:
Q : How well do I interact with colleagues?
I interacted with my colleagues well. I had a healthy respect for all of them, not just the teachers but the cook and the cleaner, because I realized the difficult and challenging jobs that each of them had to discharge, every single day. I specifically interacted well with the class teacher, Teacher S because from the start of my practicum, she showed warmth in receiving me and more importantly, she showed a high level of care and concern for her class children, which I appreciate greatly and will try to replicate the same when I begin my own career in a preschool.
Q : How do I demonstrate positive working attitudes?
I demonstrated positive working attitudes by being 10 minutes early to work every day, which was an easy first step to make. That gave me the opportunity to meet some of the parents of my class children who drop their children off earlier than others. This was, in itself, a bonus for me. Having the chance to meet more of the parents gave me additional confidence in dealing with matters involving parents in the future.
I was always eager to learn, especially from Teacher S. I took the initiative to assist her in her lessons by asking her at the beginning of the day what were the things that I could do to help with her lessons. She was a willing partner in helping me understand all that I wanted to know to be a professional early childhood educator, like her. Whenever I was taking on her class with my own lesson plans, she took the initiative to provide feedback, both good and bad, on how I performed on that day with the children. I was therefore very appreciative of her personal efforts.
With the children, I was always mindful of the need to be respectful to them, and in return, I expected respect from them as well. I believe that this positive atmosphere would rub off to the children and in so doing, afford them the environment to learn optimally.
References
1. Dockett, S & Fleer, M. (2002), Play and pedagogy in early childhood : Bending the
rules. Harcourt, Australia.
2. Mooney, C. G. (2000), Theories of Childhood, p.93 . Readleaf Press, Division of
Resources of Child Caring, 450 N, Syndicate, Suite 5 St Paul, MN 55104.
