1 Critical discussion of the lesson plans Critical discussion of the lesson plans Introduction This report will contain a critical as well as a contextual analysis of the lesson plans for 7thgrade students at _______ School. All the lessons have been developed in compliance with the Australian curriculum framework for standard 7th. The lesson plans have been constructed on Ancient Egyptian civilization, where I have focussed on the units – Social structure of Egyptian civilization, Egyptian pharaohs, and religious beliefs of the `Egyptians. Lesson plan sequence The lesson plans have been developed sequentially, starting from reasons pertaining to the growth of Egyptian civilization, beside Nile followed by the society of the Egyptian society, the place that the Egyptian Pharaohs hold in the Egyptian society. The lesson plan contains learning objectives that helps to provide an idea of the topic that will be covered in the sessions. While developing the lesson, I have ensured that the teaching strategies being followed are more based on enquiry. An inquiry based learning assists the students to understand that history is not only a collection of facts but a set of arguments that has been constructed rigorously. An inquiry based learning is necessary for children to find evidences and in certain cases contradictory evidences (Duran & Dökme, 2016). Apart from using some straight closed ended questions, some open ended questions has also been used for getting an over view of the children’s perception and creativity. Such as providing them with the scope to estimate about possible reasons for the down fall of the civilization. Throughout the teaching session, the students have been provided with the scope of using ICT to explore their historical knowledge.
2 Critical discussion of the lesson plans Using ICT in classrooms helps the students, discerning about what they read and what they see. It also allows the students to have a look at the fresh evidences (Lazar, 2015). Throughout the entire lesson, plan there is a huge scope of carrying out question and answering sessions. Question and answering sessions are important assessment techniques that teachers use, while carrying on with the class, without even completing the chapter. Again, it has been stated that asking questions motivates the curiosity of the students regarding a particular topic and at the same time helps teachers to assess the student’s understanding of the materials (Eshach, Dor- Ziderman & Yefroimsky, 2014). The entire teaching and learning experience of this chapter is based on visual cues. According to Mathew andAlidmat, (2013), visual teaching and learning increases the retention of the students by about 29- 40 %. It enables the students to see and visualize the concepts clearly. For example, the picture of a pharaoh will help the students to understand about their attires and their dressing habits. Similarly, picture of a pyramid will give an idea about the colossal structure of the pyramids. Visual learning has been found to enhance the hand-eye mid coordination of children and will help them to recall the facts and learning. The lesson plan has been constructed in such a way, that all the contents are finished within the stipulated time. This lesson plan will definitely help the students to explore themselves further about this civilizationand learn about them.
3 Critical discussion of the lesson plans References Duran, M., & Dökme, İ. (2016). The effect of the inquiry-based learning approach on student’s critical-thinkingskills.EurasiaJournalofMathematics,Science&Technology Education, 12(12), 2887-2908. Eshach, H., Dor-Ziderman, Y., & Yefroimsky, Y. (2014). Question asking in the science classroom:Teacherattitudesandpractices.JournalofScienceEducationand Technology, 23(1), 67-81. Lazar, S. (2015). The importance of educational technology in teaching. International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education, 3(1). Mathew, N. G., & Alidmat, A. O. H. (2013). A Study on the Usefulness of Audio-Visual Aids in EFL Classroom: Implications for Effective Instruction. International Journal of Higher Education, 2(2), 86-92.