Adequacy of Lessons: Considering Attributes of Designing Curriculum

It is important for teachers and future teachers to understand how important aligning curriculum, teaching resources, materials, goals, and teaching strategies are to curriculum development. Below I will assess a lesson in which a teacher uses many attributes of curricular design to deliver a pan-balance lesson to a group of fifth grade students.

The purpose of the pan-balance lesson was made clear by the teacher. The purpose of this lessons was to prepare students for pre-algebra. She repeated directions to students several different times. She also explained to her students what they were trying to do and why. The teacher explained to her students that they were using the pan-balance to learner to replace objects with variables and work simple algebraic expressions.

The teacher use prior knowledge in this lesson and background experience. The students have used the pan-balance scale before to weight objects and compare weights. The students are also familiar with the objects that the teacher places in the scale(paper clips, compasses, pens, and trapezoid blocks). Students in this mathematics class also have background knowledge of order of operations and word problems.

The teacher uses direct instruction, indirect instruction, cooperative learning, and inquiry in this lesson. The teacher uses direct instruction when she is leading the group in examples and lecture. Students participate in in-direct instruction when they are working in their journals. The teacher uses cooperative learning as a major part of this lesson. She has students working in groups and participating in group discussions throughout the lesson. The teacher encourage student inquiry. Students has questions and strive to meet the challenges set by the teacher.

In the pan- balance equations from the videos the teacher's lesson is acceptable for several different learning styles. She has visual examples with a real pan balance and objects that are familiar to students. The students' work books also consist drawn pictures that go along with the word problems in the work books. This is helpful to visual learners. The teacher also involves students in class discussion about the pan-balance. This is helpful for students who are Auditory learners. She also get them involved in solving the pan-balance equation. She dose this by having them remove and add items to the pan-balance. Students are also given the chance to work one-on-one or in a small group. The teacher then walks around helping students that need it. This examples are helpful to kinesthetic and tactile learners. If the teacher only handed out workbooks with examples and directions several students would struggle because they may need to hear or actually do examples to be able to completely comprehend them.

This lesson provides many different chances for assessment of understanding. The teacher is able to asses students throughout this lesson in several different ways. This lesson allows the teacher to asses students understand through group discussions. This lesson gives the teacher a chance to walk around and look over each students shoulder to see if they are comprehending the information or if they may be struggling and need assistance. The teacher can also use the students' journals to assess them .

The teacher may find it helpful to show students how these techniques may be applied to real life. She may also find that some students would prefer to work alone rather than in groups. I have found that there are a few students that are very shy and to not like talking in front of other or working with others. I have also found that when students work in groups that there is usually one or two students that let all of the other students do the work, while they just copy down the information.

The teacher has made sure that students are aware of what is expected of them. She also builds on their background knowledge and prior experience. The teacher use many different teaching methods to make her lesson on pan- balances interesting. The teacher uses many different teaching techniques in this lesson. This allows for students of different learning styles to better understand the lesson. The teacher also uses many teachings to assess her students.