Pr007 Work Product

Angel Winslow

Date: May 25, 2020

PR007: Developmentally Appropriate Practice for Preschoolers

Work Product (Part 1)

Part I: Observe and Critique a Language Development Lesson

A. Meet with the Teacher (no required length)

I met a teacher who was teaching Greenville Day care center with 9 children ages 4 and 5. The room within which the lesson was being conducted was spaced one by one meter apart. The teacher presented the lesson plan, schemes of work among other teaching documents. He informed the children about my presence before we went on with the lesson.

B. Critique the Lesson Plan (1-2 pgs)

An examination into the lesson plan showed the following. The lesson was on English language: Vocabulary, listening and speaking: colors and body parts.

The teacher aimed to meet the language development standards and goals found in the Mississippi state demands below:

L. 1.5a Sorting words into categories (colors, body parts)

L. 1.5 b Defining words by category and by one or more main feature (red is a color of blood; a hand is a part that helps one to eat and hold).

L.1.5 c Making life connections between words and their use.

From the lesson plan, the teacher indicated that the strategies and approaches he used to promote language development include: reading to the students, playing cd’s to them on the parts of the body and colors, and making them sing. Besides, there was presenting pictures that they look at and name in line with the colors and the parts of the body and encouraging them to engage in singing games that target the underlined vocabulary. Furthermore, the was enhancing speak and act process alongside using word cards

Among the activities the teacher had planned for language development activity or lesson are singing and dramatization of colors as well as parts of the body, looking at the teacher’s charts, repeating statements that the teacher gives. The students successfully look at a color chart and identify colors, but because of unindicated time, managing these activities was problematic.

A lesson plan must give a road map of what the children will learn and the way the learning will be effective during lesson time. According to Mikova (2018) a lesson plan must address objectives for the students learning, learning and teaching activities, and well as approaches of checking the students understanding. It is therefore good that the lesson plan I observed had all these elements and specified the concrete issues targeted, the form of instruction and learning tasks to be involved in the lesson. The objectives specified the topic, what the children were expected to learn, to understand or do as well as take away from the lesson. Nonetheless, the teacher forgot about the allocation of time for each part of the lesson. Besides, the lesson plan had more activities that engaged the teacher than the learner. Moreover, the lesson seemed rather burdened because of covering two matters. Colors and parts of the body. It should have covered either colors alone or parts of the body.

Fink (2005) recommends that a creative introduction should serve in introducing the lesson because it stimulates the interest of the children and encourages them to think. Therefore, the usage of songs, demonstration, picture, were a suitable approach to teaching. It could have also been possible for the teacher to have creative corners as they are quite essential in helping the children to use and speak about the parts of the body and colors (Kearsley, 2003). The selection of resources should promote children into this area.

In terms of differentiated instruction to meet individual needs, there was minimal efforts on that. Possibly the teacher assumed that all children were equal and forgot to consider aspects such as large fonts, provision of additional time, grouping of children and allowing discussions.

The informal assessment of children in the lesson came about through flashcards with pictures. The children had to mention the name of the part of the body or color based on what they held. Besides, they also had to form a simple sentence after listening to what the teacher said. There is a time they had to demonstrate parts of their body in speak and act situations. This was an exciting approach for such children and it helped many of them recall or rather capture the content of the lesson. However, informal tasks asking them to show colors within the class could also be quite essential because they could be allowing children to explore their abilities. Considering zone of proximal development by Vygotsky (Labtech, 2018)

C. Critique the Lesson Implementation (1pg)

The students were moderately engaged in the lesson for they could be seen raising their hands, writing what the teacher write, and speaking or asking questions when asked. One student was however bored after the first 15 minutes and tended to be in a dreamland. The teacher had to keep pointing her name before she retracted to class. When the teacher checked her book she had not also written everything. It happened that the learner had a special need that makes her restless and unless engaged in activities that attract her she cannot be part of such a lesson.

Another kept looking at others and responding after others had already done so. It seemed she was a slow learner who needed more time to comprehend what the teacher was teaching, yet the teacher had not paid attention to such a situation.

Majority of the learners correctly picked the singing, formation of own sentences, connection of pictures with learned vocabulary as well as looking at the charts. However, there are 2 learners who tended to be sluggish and unwilling to join in the looking at the charts, formation of sentences and singing. These students instead wanted to copy the pictures or to pick the charts. It could be thus suitable for the teacher to have also included tasks where the learners draw pictures of the body parts as well as use crayons to make their own colors.

Since the informal assessment required the learners to use cards in using body part and color vocabulary, demonstrate body parts, sing, and use them in a sentence, the teacher made these major classroom approaches as well as activities for learning.

D. Evaluate the Results of the lesson (2-3 paragraphs)

The integration of strategies such as listening to what the teacher said about colors or parts of the body and letting them say related or similar sentences eased the usage of words by the learners. However in the beginning some could not mention other parts of the body, instead they kept saying the same sentence the teacher had said. The teacher had to have more children given the right sentences before going back to the children who had issues.

Besides the use of pictures, attracted the attention of the learners. Some were so much interested in being the first to state the part of the body and color. Somehow, this could have led to poor classroom management, if it was not for the prompt realization of the teacher and pointing out on the rules. It thus seemed the teacher should have stated the ruled in the beginning of the lesson. As for action, singing strategy, almost all children were excited apart from one who was fixed to drawing (Tomlinson, et al., 2003). Besides, some children pointed wrong parts of the body. It is suitable that the teacher considers to have the children practice the sing adequately even with the help of parents before coming to use it in class.

Considering the children made it to sing and show the correct parts of the body as well as colors and establish the right pictures, the lesson objectives were achieved. However, there were still gaps for those children who pointed wrong parts or colors. Those who also missed on writing information and following up on the lesson did not attain the expected objectives of the lesson.