On Building a Lesson Plan

Written for EDR 210 (Trends in Reading Instruction), 2nd Sem SY 2017-2018 under Professor Maria Hazelle Preclaro.

My first thought upon completing the workshop for LINKS Lesson Plans was “It feels good to be back in the classroom”. The experience further validated my desire to be in a classroom both as a student and a teacher. It has been a long time since I have had to look this closely at a piece of literature and find materials that complement it. I now remember how much I enjoyed it. I learned so much on this assignment, not only about Japan and the atom bomb or teaching in general but I learned about myself as well.

Building this lesson plan for A Thousand Paper Cranes brought to my attention how poorly I used to plan my lessons when I was actually teaching. I think I had the basics of working across the curriculum because the program in which I used to teach (Montessori) really preferred that we found connections between the subjects and used literary pieces throughout the curriculum. I also feel like I had an idea of Gradual Psychological Unfolding (GPU) but lacked the actual finesse to pull it off. This experience of building lesson plans in class has really cleared up a lot for me. The way the lesson plan was arranged and the flow of it really helped my organize my thoughts and not get carried away or overwhelmed. I think the experience will help me be more structured in the future.

I found the experience of the LINKS LP completely different from the 4PA LP. I think mostly because of the target audience and the circumstances of working in a group as opposed to working as an individual. I am really more inclined to teach older kids and I find that it is not as easy to relate to younger children and that directing a discussion (such as one must do in a GPU) is more difficult with young children as they have so many other questions and are prone to move in different directions. I feel that it is easy for me to think the way older kids do and relate to them more than the younger children. That being said, it was an interesting and enriching challenge to put myself into the frame of mind and perspective of the children. It made me more conscious about finding enjoyable and age appropriate activities for them. I don’t think we were that successful in making age appropriate activities for the children. They seemed either a bit too difficult or a bit too easy for the average grade 1 child. It really helps if you are familiar with the children to plan activities for them. The children in the LINKS LP lesson plan were theoretical so it was easier to have a direction and actually stick to it in the workshop. In regards to working in a group and as an individual, I have always worked better on my own but I have seen the merits of working with peers as they have different opinions that you can work on together.

The LP workshop itself is proof that despite meticulous planning, the actual application of a plan will change depending on the circumstances in the classroom. Each student will have a different reading and one should not impose a singular interpretation. I also discovered that sometimes one does not recognize the nuances of a question until it has been stated out loud. I think I have to work on my formulation of questions to avoid telling or yes or no answers but at least I have become aware of it and can work on it now.