Answer the following questions:
i) Explain objectives of science teaching at secondary level with suitable examples.
INTRODUCTION :
What should science education aim at? Our engagement with this question takes us first to the more general question: what is the basic goal of education? To be brief, we can do no better than quote Gandhi: “True education is that which draws out and stimulates the spiritual, intellectual and physical faculties of the children”. Implicit in this aim is the belief (that we share) that education has the potential to transform individuals and societies. What then are we looking for, as we particularize our thoughts on science education? Clearly, any discussion of the aims of science education presupposes a view of science, its methods, scope and limitations. Before we dwell on science education, we must, therefore, briefly comment on the nature of science.
NATURE OF SCIENCE :
Humans have always been curious about the world around them. The inquiring and imaginative human mind has responded to the wonder and awe of nature in different ways. One kind of response from the earliest times has been to observe the physical and biological environment carefully, look for any meaningful patterns and relations, make and use new tools to interact with nature, and build conceptual models to understand the world. This human endeavour is science.
The main features of the National Curriculum Framework for School Education – 200029 pertaining to science education have been:
• teaching of environmental studies as a single subject of study at the primary stage instead of environmental studies (science) and environmental studies (social science),
• teaching of ‘Science and Technology’ in place of ‘Science’ at the upper primary and secondary stages, so as to familiarize the learner with various dimensions of scientific and technological literacy, and
• to continue the practice of teaching science at the higher secondary stage as separate disciplines: physics, chemistry and biology. Thus, science curriculum in India has undergone several changes, both in approach and content, during the last forty years or so.
At the primary stage, teaching of science as a single subject was first replaced by Environmental Studies (science) and subsequently by an integrated course on Environmental Studies. At the upper primary stage, the disciplinary approach was replaced first by an integrated approach to science as a single subject, and finally by an approach integrating science and technology. The changes at the secondary stage too have had a similar pattern, albeit with some phase lag.
The syllabi and textbook development programmes at the state/UT level also followed curriculum
renewal exercises at the national level. The instructional materials developed by the NCERT at the national level were adopted or adapted by some of the states/UTs while others evolved their own mechanisms. In some states science at the secondary stage is taught as a combination of physical science and biological or life science while in some others as physics, chemistry and biology or life science. However, compulsory teaching of science and environmental orientation to science teaching up to secondary stage has been a common feature in science curricula of all the states/UTs. To summarize, major curriculum renewal programmes in science in India have evolved in keeping with contemporary global trends in science education and the changing societal needs. Yet this has not reflected in the actual quality of science teaching in schools. This has been mainly due to dilution of inputs at every stage of implementation, an issue that we address throughout this paper.
The Education Commission chaired by Prof. D.S. Kothari has been an important landmark for its depth and expanse of vision of education in India26. This led to the introduction of the 10+2+3 pattern of education in 1975. A National Curriculum Committee gave recommendations and guidelines for the new pattern through a policy document titled ‘The Curriculum for the Ten-Year School - A Framework27. Some of the main recommendations contained in the ‘Framework’ that had a direct implication on the teaching of science, its
syllabi and textbooks were:
• all subjects including science and mathematics were to be compulsory for all students up to Class X, as a part of general education,
• at the primary stage, science and social sciences were to be taught as a single subject: ‘Environmental Studies’,
• an integrated approach was to be followed for the teaching of science at the upper primary stage as opposed to disciplinary approach that was then in vogue, and
• science was to be considered as one composite subject at the upper primary and secondary stages.
For Classes I and II there was to be only a ‘Teachers’ Guide’ and no textbooks, while separate textbooks in science and social studies were prepared for Classes III to V. A set of common themes was selected for teaching of ‘Environmental Studies’ (science) in Classes I to V to follow a spiral approach for introducing the concepts in a graded manner. The major guiding factors for the nature and scope of teaching science as an integrated course at the upper primary stage were that:
• science is one; different disciplines of science are only tentative compartmentalization of the subject to facilitate the study of its different aspects; the integrated curriculum should highlight this unified nature of science,
• curriculum should attempt to link teaching of scientific principles with daily life experiences of the learners,
• science curriculum should stress more on the processes of science than the product,
• teaching of science should lead to development of certain values,
• curriculum should provide enough opportunities to learners to attain some basic levels of scientific literacy, and
• curriculum should provide ample opportunities to the teachers to try and apply a variety of methods of teaching to suit the needs of learners of different backgrounds.
The approach adopted for the upper primary stage was extended to the secondary stage although a disciplinary approach was recommended for the latter.However, a Review Committee under the chairmanship of Sri Ishwarbhai Patel in 1977 recommended that science at the secondary stage should be offered through two equivalent alternate courses. The ‘Course B’ was to be a composite course in science to be taught through a single textbook. For ‘Course A’, it recommended a discipline orientated approach in which physics, chemistry and biology were to be taught as separate subjects. The system of alternate courses was discontinued from the academic session 1984-1985 mainly because of the perceived superiority of one course over the other.
Curriculum at Different Stages: Objectives, Content, Pedagogy and Assessment
Within the frame of reference of general aims, the objectives, content, pedagogy and assessment would differ across different stages. Research in science education, experiences of curricula at national and state level over the past several decades and different interventional programmes of voluntary groups have shed considerable light on the scope and gradation of the school curriculum. While deciding on gradation of science curriculum, it must be borne in mind that a majority of students learning science as a compulsory subject up to Class X are not going to train as professional scientists or technologists in their later careers; yet they need to become ‘scientifically literate’, since several of the social, political and ethical issues posed by contemporary society increasingly revolve around science and technology. Consequently, the science curriculum up to Class X should be oriented more towards developing awareness among the learners about the interface of science, technology and society, sensitizing them, especially to the issues of environment and health, and enabling them to acquire practical knowledge and skills to enter the world of work. It should stress not only the content of science, but, more importantly, the process skills of science, that is, the methods and techniques of learning
science. This is necessary since the process skills are more enduring and enable the learner to cope with the
ever changing and expanding field of science and technology. Of course, this does not mean that the content can be ignored. Facts, principles, theories and their applications to understand various phenomena are at the core of science and the science curriculum must obviously engage the learner with them appropriately. However, science up to Class X should be learnt as a composite subject and not as separate disciplines such as physics, chemistry and biology. At the higher secondary stage, however, the requirements of different disciplines of science become important and they need to be learnt in depth and with rigour appropriate at that stage.
Primary Stage (Classes I to V)
Primary science education has to be a phase of joyful learning for the child with ample
opportunities for exploration of the environment, to interact with it and to talk about it. The main objectives at this stage are to arouse curiosity about the world (natural environment, artifacts and people) and have the child engage in exploratory and hands-on activities that lead to the development of basic cognitive and psychomotor skills through language, observation, recording, differentiation, classification, inference, drawing, illustrations, design and abrication, estimation and measurement. The curriculum should also help the child internalize the values of cleanliness, honesty, co-operation, concern for life and environment. At the primary stage, children are actively developing their language skills – speaking, reading and writing, which is important to articulate their thoughts and develop the framework for observing the world. This is the stage, therefore, to emphasize language development through and for science learning. Learning through local language / mother tongue is the most natural; but even while teaching in the local language care should be taken not to adopt a ‘purist’ approach, and not to load the child with terms and words that mean nothing to the child. The criteria for identifying the content at the primary stage are relevance, meaningfulness and interest to the child. The content should provide opportunities to deal with the real and concrete world of the children, rather than a formal abstract world. The present practice of introducing ideas and concepts pertaining to science and social science as Environmental Studies should be continued and further strengthened, with health education
as animportant component. It is, therefore, essential for the curriculum, syllabus and text book developers of both the ‘sciences’ and ‘social studies’ groups to work together. The pedagogy should essentially be based on activities in and out of classroom, as well as other methods such as stories, poems, plays and other kinds of group activities. Primary school students particularly in rural areas have rich interactive experience of the natural world and the curriculum should nurture and sustain this interest. Activities should allow free exploration, seeing patterns, making comparisons and understanding the web of relationships. This would enable the child to appreciate the similarities and the differences in nature, in the sounds, the colours, the sights, the shapes, etc. Concern for environment and inculcation of related values can be promoted through activities (planting of seeds, protecting trees, not wasting water, etc.) and practices relating to health, hygiene and social interactions are best taught by example rather than through recitations from a text book. The atmosphere in the classroom should not stress the child to perform, but allow learning to take place at individual pace and permit free interaction among children and the teacher. The present practice of not prescribing a textbook for environmental studies for Classes I and II should be continued. The teaching-learning process should essentially be unstructured i.e. it should not follow a predetermined sequence of content or activities. The teacher should be free to devise his/her teaching learning sequence to accomplish the overall objectives of environmental studies for this stage. There should be no formal assessment. The teachers’ own observations of the child should form the assessment that is shared with the child’s guardians. The progress card of the child should indicate only general observations on interests, abilities, skills, status of health and other aspects of the child. For Classes III to V, the teaching-learning process may be more structured, but should still continue to be based on continuous assessment. The assessment should aim at gaining greater insight into various aspects of the child’s learning: language comprehension, reading ability, articulation, ability to work with hands and in groups, skills of observation, classification, drawing, and the other skills which constitute learning at this stage. Throughout the primary stage, there should
be no formal periodic tests, no awarding of grades or marks, no pass or fail criterion and, therefore, no detention.Merit ordering of students at the primary stage should be dispensed with entirely. The class teacher should beempowered to carry out continuous assessment as per well laid out guidelines.
Upper Primary Stage (Classes VI to VIII) :
At the upper primary stage the children are getting their first exposure to ‘science’; this then is the time to bring home the right perspective of what it means to ‘do science’. Science education at this stage should
provide a gradual transition from environmental studies of the primary stage to elements of science and technology. Scientific concepts to be taught at this stage should be chosen so as to make sense of everyday experiences. Though most concepts should be arrived at from activities/experiments, a rigidly inductive approach is not necessary. It is important to ensure that a majority of activities and experiments are inexpensive and use readily available materials, so that this core component of science curriculum can be implemented in all schools including those with inadequate infrastructure. Experience has shown that experiment-based science teaching is possible and viable under diverse conditions and with a very reasonable demand on resources. Science content at the upper primary stage should not be governed by disciplinary approach and is not to be regarded as a diluted version of secondary stage science curriculum. Technology component of science curriculum could include design and fabrication of simple models, practical knowledge
about common mechanical and electrical devices and local specific technologies. It is necessary to recognize
that there is a lot of diversity in the nature of technology that children from different areas of the country deal
with. These differences in exposure and interest should be addressed through specific contextualized projects.
Apart from simple experiments and hands on experiences, an important pedagogic practice at this stage is to engage the students (in groups) in meaningful investigations -particularly of the problems they perceive to be significant and important. This may be done through discussions in the class with the teacher, peer interactions, gathering information from newspapers, talking to knowledgeable persons in the neighbourhood, collecting data from easily available sources and carrying out simple investigations in the design of which the students have a major role to play. Organizing information and displaying it in the classroom, in the school or in the neighbourhood, or through skits and plays are an important part of the pedagogy to ensure larger participation and sharing of learning outcomes. Biographical narratives of scientists and inventors are a useful practice to inspire students at this stage. The emphasis on the process skills of science should continue through the upper primary stage to enable children learn how to learn for themselves so that they could carry on learning to even beyond school. There should be continuous and periodic assessment (unit tests, term end tests), with much less weightage to the annual examination. At the upper primary stage, assessment should be completely internal with no external Board examination. Direct grading system should be adopted. The report card should
show these grades for various components of assessment, but there should be no pass/fail grade and no etention. Every child who attends eight years of school should be eligible to enter Class IX. Merit ordering of students should be strongly discouraged. The periodic tests should have both a written and an experimental component, with the practising teachers setting the question papers. Introducing open book examination is one way to ensure moving away from mere information seeking questions in examinations. The examinations should assess the child’s practical and problem solving skills, ability to analyze data; application of knowledge
learnt; understanding of concepts; understanding, reading and making graphical representations; and solving simple numerical exercises. “These students don’t understand science ... they come from a deprived Background!” We frequently hear such opinions expressed about children from rural or tribal backgrounds.
Yet consider what these children know from everyday experience:
Janabai lives in a small hamlet in the Sahyadri hills. She helps her parents in their seasonal work of rice and tuar farming. She sometimes accompanies her brother in taking the goats to graze in the bush. She has helped bring up her younger sister. Nowadays she walks 8 km every day to attend the nearest secondary school. Janabai maintains intimate links with her natural environment. She has used different plants as sources of food, medicines, fuel wood, dyes and building materials; she has observed parts of different plants used for household purpose, in religious rituals and in celebrating festivals. She recognizes minute differences between trees, and notices seasonal changes based on shape, size, distribution of leaves and flowers, smells and
textures. She can identify about a hundred different types of plants around her, many times more
than her biology teacher can - the same teacher who believes Janabai is a poor student. Can we help Janabai translate her rich understanding into formal concepts of biology? Can we convince her that school biology is not about some abstract world coded in long texts and difficult language: it is about the farm she works on, the animals she knows and takes care of,the woods that she walks through every day? Only then will Janabai truly learn science.
During the upper primary stage, children enter a dolescence and are likely to try to be free of the confines of home and parental care and assert their independence, sometimes by experimenting with smoking, drugs and sex. We need to be sensitive to their explorations of their self and body, as well as the outside world. While science textbooks provide factual information on the human body, reproduction, safe sex, drugs, smoking, etc., this is not enough. The classroom does not provide enough scope for wider and participative discussions on sex and related matters. The school should set aside some time every week for interactions in which students can share and seek information, discuss and clarify their doubts, with teachers and, if possible, counsellors. Such a time slot should be available to students throughout the later stages of schooling also.
Secondary Stage (Classes IX and X) :
At the secondary stage, the beginning made at the earlier stage to introduce science as a
discipline is to be further strengthened without emphasis on formal rigour. Concepts, principles and laws of science may now appear in the curriculum appropriately but stress should be on comprehension and not on mere formal definitions. The organization of science content around different themes as being practiced seems appropriate at the secondary stage, but the curricular load needs to be substantially reduced to make room for the additional elements of design and technology, and other co-curricular and extra curricular activities.At the secondary school stage, concepts that are beyond direct experience may come to occupy an important place in the science curriculum. Since not all phenomena are directly observable, science also relies on inference and interpretation. For example, we use inference to establish the existence and properties of atoms, or the mechanism of evolution. By this time, however, students should have developed the critical ability to evaluate the epistemological status of facts that they encounter in science. Experimentation, often involving quantitative measurement, as a tool to discover/verify theoretical principles should be an important part of the curriculum at this stage. The technological modules introduced at this stage should be more advanced than at the upper primary stage. The modules should involve design, implementation using the school workshop, if possible, and testing the efficacy of the modules by qualitative and quantitative parameters. Experiments (and, as far as feasible, the technological modules) should be part of the content of the secondary stage textbook, to
avoid their marginalization or neglect. However, this part of the textbook should be subject to internal
assessment only. The theoretical test at this stage including that for the Class X external Board examination should have some questions based on the experiments/technological modules included in the textbook. Participation in co-curricular activities must be regarded as equally important at this stage. These may involve taking up projects (in consultation with teachers) that bear on local issues and involve the problem-solving approach using science and technology. The various components of the science curriculum indicated above should be integrated imaginatively. The entire upper primary and secondary school curriculum should have horizontal integration and vertical continuity.
Higher Secondary Stage (Class XI and XII) :
At the higher secondary stage, the present policy of two streams, academic and vocational, being pursued
as per the National Policy of Education 1986 may be reviewed, so that students have an option to choose
the subjects of their interest freely, though all the 16 different subjects may not be offered by every school/
junior college. The curriculum at this stage should be disciplinary in its approach, with appropriate rigour and depth. Care should be taken not to make the syllabus heavy. The curriculum load should be rationalized to avoid the steep gradient between secondary and higher secondary syllabus, but this should not amount to making higher secondary syllabus only a slightly upgraded variant of secondary stage science. There should be strong emphasis on experiments, technology, and investigative projects. Defining the appropriate advanced content for the higher secondary level is a matter of technical detail. What is clear, however, is what it should not be. The content should not be information laden, and not aim to widely cover all aspects of the subject. Considering the vast breadth of knowledge in any subject, the exigencies of time and the student’s capacity, some delimitation, or rather, identification of core areas has to be done. Effective science curricula have to
coherently focus on important ideas within the discipline that are properly sequenced to optimize learning. The depth should ensure that the student has a basic, if not rigorous, understanding of the subject. The theoretical component of higher secondary science should strongly emphasize problem solving,awareness of conceptual pitfalls, and critical interrogation of different topics. Narratives giving insights on the historical development of key concepts of science should be integrated into the content judiciously. The teaching of the theoretical aspects and the experiments based on them should be closely integrated and dealt together. Some of the experiments must be open-ended, where there are no standard with expected results and there is scope for making hypotheses and interpretation of results. With our emphasis on environment friendly materials, this is the stage to introduce microchemistry as a means of experimentation for the chemistry laboratory, and possibly also for some biology laboratory work. Use of micro chemical techniques has also the advantage of lower cost and greater safety 33. The co-curricular activities at this stage could be of several types: adopting a problem-solving approach on local issues involving science and technology; participation through reative/investigative projects in national science fairs and participation in mathematics & science Olympiads. Students should be encouraged to participate in debates and discussions on issues at the interface of science, technology and society. Though these would form an important part of the learning process, they should not be included for formal assessment. Since the curricular materials at this stage also cater to students who intend continuing in science as a career, and to sustain the enthusiasm of those who are prepared to handle more challenging materials, textbooks may carry some non-evaluative sections. In order to broaden the horizon of students for career choices available after the study of a science course, it seems useful if the career options are discussed, perhaps within the textbook itself. The greater the variety of pedagogical approaches
employed, the broader will be the range of learners reached. The enormous potential of ICT in science
pedagogy should be exploited. ( See ‘ICT in Science Education’.) The classroom atmosphere should be such
that it provokes questioning, discussions and debates and enhances students’ meta cognitive skills. The experiments and technological modules should be subject to continuous assessment even for the final Class XII examination. The theoretical papers including those for the Class XII external examination should have
some experiment/ technology based test items. An important reform to reduce examination related stress
is to permit students to accumulate marks/credits in different subjects at their own pace and not insist on their appearing for examination in all subjects at one go .
CONCLUSION:
Fundamentally need the over arching reform of teacher empowerment. No reform, however well motivated and well-planned, can succeed unless a majority of teachers feel empowered to put it in practice. With active teacher participation, the reforms suggested above could have a cascading effect on all stages of science teaching in our schools.
REFERENCE :
- Fraser, B. J. (1998) Science learning environments: Assessment, effects and determinants. InFraser, B. J. and Tobin, K. G. (Eds.) International Handbook of Science Teaching (Part 1). KluwerAcademic, Dodrecht, The Netherlands.
- Shapiro, B. (1998) Reading the furniture: The semiotic interpretation of science learningenvironments. In Fraser, B. J. and Tobin, K. G. (Eds.) International Handbook of ScienceTeaching (Part 1). Kluwer Academic, Dodrecht, The Netherlands.
- Stepanek, J. (2000) It’s Just Good Teaching. Mathematics and Science Education Center, NorthwestRegional Educational Laboratory, Portland, Oregon. http://www.nwrel.org/msec/science_inq/whatisinq.html
____________________________________________________________________________________________
ii) Discuss need, importance and use of laboratory method for science teaching at secondary
level.
INTRODUCTION :
The overall aims and approaches of the National Curriculum Frameworks in India over the past several Decades have been largely unproblematic. They evolved in consonance with contemporary trends ineducation worldwide. In science education, the main problem has been the large gap that separates the curricular objectives and their implementation through syllabus, textbooks, classroom practices and examinations. It is important to address these concerns and formulate broad strategies so that the curriculumreforms do not simply remain ‘on paper’ but actually benefit the school system. We discuss some of these key issues and concerns in this section.
Origins of Experimental Science :
The use of laboratory method in science teaching originated from the ideas of early scientists. The l7th Century is very significant in this respect. Mendelson (1982) has characterized the Century as the century of "The Scientific Revolution." This characterization is so because, according to Westfall (1971), "it was in the 17th Century that the experimental method... became a widely employed tool of scientific investigation" (p.115). The general feeling of disillusionment among scientists with earlier methods precipitated this trend. (Butterfield, 1957; Westfall, 1971). The feeling of disillusionment had to do with results of scientific investigations that did not match the efforts put into them. The scientists of the time blamed the method of conducting science, for the low output.
However, it was in the 17th Century that scientists paid the greatest attention to the scientific method that led to a revolution in science. The sheer number of persons that paid attention to method then indicated the need for an acceptable method of conducting science. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was perhaps the first in the 17th Century to formulate a series of steps to account for the scientific method in his hook Novum organum (The New Instruments, 1620), (Taylor, 1963). The book was a reaction to Aristotle's treatise in logic referred to as Organum. Bacon based his method on the inductive method of objective observation and experimentation without any preconceptions. Rene Descartes' (1569-1650) Discourse on Method based on mathematical reasoning and deduction closely followed Bacon's book. Westfall (1971) has credited Robert Boyle with perhaps the best statement of the experimental method that focused on "the activity of investigation that distinguishes the experimental method of modern science from logic" (p. 115). Pascal, Gassendi, and Newton
IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE PRACTICAL WORK
In Shulman and Tamir's (1973) review of research on science teaching, they identified three rationales generally advanced by those that supported the use of the laboratory in science teaching. The rationales included:
(1) The subject matter of science is highly complex and abstract,
(2) Students need to participate in enquiry to appreciate the spirit and methods of science, and
(3) Practical work is intrinsically interesting to students. Shulman and Tamir also compiled a list of objectives of using laboratory work in science teaching.
The list included the teaching and learning of skills, concepts, attitudes, cognitive abilities, and understanding the nature of science. Also, there is hardly any science method's book that does not usually list the objectives of science laboratory work (see, Abdullahi, 1982; Collette & Chiappetta, 1984). All science curricula in India
This dogma about the importance of laboratory work originated from the views of a few American educationists in the early sixties that extolled the importance of laboratory work in science teaching. Notable among these personalities are Bruner (1961), Gagne’ (1963), and Schwab (1960), They all extolled the virtues of teaching science as a process of inquiry or discovery. Before them, Dewey (1938) advocated learning by doing through his "project method" that he considered as a method of organizing the school curriculum on a scientific basis. Another American, Charles Pierce (Peirce, 1877, 1958) who advocated the use of the method of science as a mode of inquiry to satisfy our doubts, in turn, influenced him. The ultimate goal of these advocates of practical work was to train students in the ways of practising scientists so that students could become good scientists in the future. The surprise by which the former Soviet Union India
CONCLUSION
I have attempted in this question to take a critical look at the traditional importance usually associated with the use of laboratory work in science teaching and to question whether the status quo should continue. First, I traced the origin of laboratory work to the 16th Century and how it blossomed in the 17th Century thereby causing a scientific revolution. Second. I provided information on why educators, and science educators, in particular, usually think that laboratory work is crucial in the teaching and learning of science. Third, I provided evidences that I thought caused some science educators to doubt whether the usual importance ascribed to laboratory work in science teaching is not misplaced. The assertions of importance do not carry corresponding evidential support- In fact, results of some of the studies seemed to suggest that the use of laboratory work in science teaching did not make much difference in students' learning outcomes. Finally, I made some preliminary suggestions about what science teachers could use in place of laboratory work that would still preserve the nature of science and improve students' achievement in science.
- Bates, G.C. (1982). The importance of the laboratory in school science: A research perspective. The Science Teacher, 49&(2), 22-23.
- Dewey, J. (1938), Experience and education.
iii) Select a topic in science and develop lesson plan mentioning essential steps involved in it.
INTRODUCTION :
A key aspect of effective teaching is having a plan for what will happen in the classroom each day. Creating such a plan involves setting realistic goals, deciding how to incorporate course textbooks and other required materials, and developing activities that will promote learning. This section shows instructors how to carry out each of these steps.An example lesson plan and lesson planning worksheet, available as pdf files, provide step-by-step guidance for lesson development. A supervisor observation worksheet allows supervisors to give specific feedback on a written lesson plan or an observed lesson.
Set Lesson Goals
Lesson goals are most usefully stated in terms of what students will have done or accomplished at the end of the lesson. Stating goals in this way allows both teacher and learners to know when the goals have been reached.
To set lesson goals:
1. Identify a topic for the lesson. The topic is not a goal, but it will help you develop your goals. The topic may be determined largely by your curriculum and textbook, and may be part of a larger thematic unit such as Travel or Leisure Activities. If you have some flexibility in choice of topic, consider your students’ interests and the availability of authentic materials at the appropriate level.
2. Identify specific linguistic content, such as vocabulary and points of grammar or language use, to be introduced or reviewed. These are usually prescribed by the course textbook or course curriculum. If they are not, select points that are connected in some significant way with the topic of the lesson.
3. Identify specific communication tasks to be completed by students. To be authentic, the tasks should allow, but not require, students to use the vocabulary, grammar, and strategies presented in the lesson. The focus of the tasks should be topical, not grammatical. This means that it may be possible for some students to complete the task without using either the grammar point or the strategy presented in the first part of the lesson.
4. Identify specific learning strategies to be introduced or reviewed in connection with the lesson. See Motivating Learners for more on learning strategies.
5. Create goal statements for the linguistic content, communication tasks, and learning strategies that state what you will do and what students will do during the lesson.Structure the Lesson:
A language lesson should include a variety of activities that combine different types of language input and output. Learners at all proficiency levels benefit from such variety; research has shown that it is more motivating and is more likely to result in effective language learning.An effective lesson has five parts:- Preparation
- Presentation
- Practice
- Evaluation
- Expansion
The five parts of a lesson may all take place in one class session or may extend over multiple sessions, depending on the nature of the topic and the activities.The lesson plan should outline who will do what in each part of the lesson. The time allotted for preparation, presentation, and evaluation activities should be no more than 8-10 minutes each. Communication practice activities may run a little longer.As the class begins, give students a broad outline of the day’s goals and activities so they know what to expect. Help them focus by eliciting their existing knowledge of the day’s topics.- Use discussion or homework review to elicit knowledge related to the grammar and language use points to be covered
- Use comparison with the native language to elicit strategies that students may already be using
- Use discussion of what students do and/or like to do to elicit their knowledge of the topic they will address in communication activities
Move from preparation into presentation of the linguistic and topical content of the lesson and relevant learning strategies. Present the strategy first if it will help students absorb the lesson content.
Presentation provides the language input that gives students the foundation for their knowledge of the language. Input comes from the instructor and from course textbooks. Science textbooks designed for students in India usually provide input only in the form of examples; explanations and instructions are written in English. To increase the amount of input that students receive in the target language, instructors should use it as much as possible for all classroom communication purposes.
An important part of the presentation is structured output, in which students practice the form that the instructor has presented. In structured output, accuracy of performance is important. Structured output is designed to make learners comfortable producing specificScience items recently introduced.
Structured output is a type of communication that is found only in Science classrooms. Because production is limited to preselected items, structured output is not truly communicative.
In this part of the lesson, the focus shifts from the instructor as presenter to the students as completers of a designated task. Students work in pairs or small groups on a topic-based task with a specific outcome. Completion of the task may require the bridging of an information gap. The instructor observes the groups an acts as a resource when students have questions that they cannot resolve themselves.
In their work together, students move from structured output to communicative output, in which the main purpose is to complete the communication task. Language becomes a tool, rather than an end in itself. Learners have to use any or all of the language that they know along with varied communication strategies. The criterion of success is whether the learner gets the message across. Accuracy is not a consideration unless the lack of it interferes with the message.Activities for the practice segment of the lesson may come from a textbook or be designed by the instructor. See Identify Materials and Activities for guidelines on developing tasks that use authentic materials and activities.
When all students have completed the communication practice task, reconvene the class as a group to recap the lesson. Ask students to give examples of how they used the linguistic content and learning or communication strategies to carry out the communication task.
Evaluation is useful for four reasons:
- It reinforces the material that was presented earlier in the lesson
- It provides an opportunity for students to raise questions of usage and style
- It enables the instructor to monitor individual student comprehension and learning
- It provides closure to the lesson
Expansion activities allow students to apply the knowledge they have gained in the classroom to situations outside it. Expansion activities include out-of-class observation assignments, in which the instructor asks students to find examples of something or to use a strategy and then report bacK
Identify Materials and Activities
The materials for a specific lesson will fall into two categories: those that are required, such as course textbooks and lab materials, and authentic materials that the teacher incorporates into classroom activities.
For required materials, determine what information must be presented in class and decide which exercise(s) to use in class and which for out-of-class work. For teacher-provided materials, use materials that are genuinely related to realistic communication activities. Don’t be tempted to try to create a communication task around something just because it’s a really cool video or a beautiful brochure.
Truly authentic communication tasks have several features:
- They involve solving a true problem or discussing a topic of interest
- They require using language to accomplish a goal, not using language merely to use language
- They allow students to use all of the language skills they have, rather than specific forms or vocabulary, and to self-correct when they realize they need to
- The criterion of success is clear: completion of a defined task
LESSON PLAN
Title – Learning About Plants By – TEACHER NAME
Primary Subject – Science
Essential Knowledge and Skills Science Standard: The students will record observation about parts of plants including leaves, root, stem, and flowers.
Learning Objective(s):
- The student will:
- identify the parts of a plant
- write out the parts of the plant
- label the parts of the plant
- Black Board
- Worksheets
- Flowering plant (optional)
- Create a coloring page worksheet of a plant with blanks pointing to the various parts. Make copies.
- Put worksheets on their desk while the students sit quietly at the carpet.
- Consequences – “If you talk while I am talking, you will have to change your color. If it’s on red, you will have to call home and no recess.“
- Rewards – “If you can tell me one thing that we learned today you can get a sticker” and “If I see that your whole table is working, you get a sticker for your table.“
- Ask children if they can name a least one part of a plant.
- Students sit quietly on the carpet while the teacher puts their worksheets on their desk.
- The teacher tells students to please remain quiet during the lesson and remind them of the consequences and rewards.
- Explain to the students what the class will be doing today and show them an example with the answers filled in.
- Then hide the answers and have students label the plant. Whoever gets them right answer gets a sticker.
- Then tell students that they will be doing the same thing on their worksheet and to color very nicely after they have finished labeling the parts of their plant.
- Walk around and help the students and show the best ones that you see.
- Have students point out the parts of a plant on the teacher’s paper.
- (Optional)Have students point out the parts of a plant on a real plant.
REFERENCES:
- Chamot, A. U., & O'Malley, J. M. (1994). The CALLA handbook: Implementing the cognitive academic language learning approach. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
- Kramsch, C. J. The order of discourse in language teaching. In B. F. Freed (Ed.), Foreign language acquisition and the classroom (pp. 191-204). Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath.
- Lee, J. F., & VanPatten, B. (1995). Making communicative language teaching happen. San Francisco: McGraw-Hill.
- Lewis, M., & Hill, J. (1992). Practical techniques for language teaching. Language Teaching Publications.
