Critical Analysis of Linked Lesson Plans Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Critical Analysis of Linked Lesson Plans - Essay Example This criterion pertains to the match between the lesson’s objectives and the activities included in the plan or what would actually transpire during the lesson. Veal and Anderson (2011, p. 97) argued that this evaluation framework is appropriate method of evaluation because it can be tailored specifically for the plan and could enable an examiner to tie it with the specific events of the class. In addition, it will also contextualize the lesson plan and the entailing activities within the teacher’s teaching capability, style and value systems. Hence, the main question of efficacy would be answered with the extent by which the activities and actual lessons are aligned with what the teacher want to accomplish. In addition, this can further be supported by an adherence to system and structure. Session 1: Dancing the Elephant This lesson plan is designed for Physical Education class. The objective is for the students to learn basic dance movements. This was complicated by a dditional aims such as the opportunity to choose and apply skills and actions in sequence and in combinations. The teacher also wanted to integrate some social elements by having students observe and copy others, becoming aware about concepts of rhythm, movement and expression in the process. For these purposes, the teacher designed an activity that will revolve around the elephants. Using the animal, primarily through the song L’Elephant, it was expected that the students will be able to depict dance stances through imagination and personal experience. The activities provided by the lesson plan can be structurally divided into three parts or stages. The first is the use of the L’Elephant music. Secondly, there was the explanation of the elephants, how they move and how such movements could be mimed into dances and graceful movements with the aid of sound and imagination. Finally, there is the learning of a dance sequence created based on the previous activities. These lesson elements would collectively call a high degree of skill from the teachers because they involve not just close and strong participation from students but also the strength of their imagination. If one is to assess whether these activities are aligned with the objectives, the answer will be positive. However, to implement the activities in such a way that it achieves the intended aims may be difficult. The use of L’Elephant song is not enough. Asking the students to be imaginative based on this music is problematic. There are students who do not know about it and the music itself is not very expressive of the concept of elephants that this activity calls for. This is like asking for creativity among the students within a vacuum. What the teacher could do was to edit L’Elephant and use it as a score for videos or slideshow of elephants at play. According to Lavin and Lavin (2008, p. 7), creativity will not flourish in this kind of situation because there needs to be a firm foundation for the skills in order for creativity to flourish, otherwise, the students could abandon the promising creative approach. One can just consider the student’s reaction from an objective point of view: He would listen to L’Elephant. Besides the title, the music does not tell much about the animal. When he is told to imagine the animal, he would probably think about the slow moving ones at the zoo or those gentle characters in literature such as Horton by Dr. Seuss and Hathi in the Jungle Book. Imagining