Sunday, February 23, 2014

NTeQ: Designing an Integrated Lesson



If one was to talk with 10 teachers, more than likely there would be 10 different responses to how to plan an effective integrated lesson.  My way of integrating a lesson might not be the most effective, but it is one I have thought of and tried to plan for classes I have had to substitute teach for long term assignments.  I would make a list of the common core requirements for the appropriate grade level.  After making a list of the appropriate common core requirements, I would create the lesson plan for the students.  As I am planning the lesson, I would then look to see where it would be most appropriate and useful to the students to use technology.  To make the lesson more interesting to the students, I would relate the work to the trends for the age group being taught.  I have noticed the students are more apt to pay attention if they can relate the things they enjoy to the lessons being taught.
The objectives are needed in order to inform the students what is expected of them for a particular lesson, a particular unit or for the year.  The objectives are a way of alerting students, teachers and parents of where the students should be throughout the school term.  For me, the objectives keep me focus on teaching strategies.  Sometimes, what I am teaching leads me to other things, and I need a reminder in order not to go too far off course with the students.  I have to remind myself the students are only able to take in so much and not to overload them because they began to shut down.  The main thing is to keep the students engaged in the lessons.  Once their focus is lost, it is hard to get them to refocus.
Getting the students to engage in information processing is possibly one of the hardest things to do.  We must teach a variety of students and have all of them actively engaging in the lesson.  One way of doing this is to find things the majority of the students will be interested in outside of the classroom and using those as an example to teach the lesson.  For the students not interested in the same thing, the teacher should recognize the difference or what might interest those students and talk with them individually while the class is doing classwork or group work.  This will allow the students to get the individual attention needed to keep them actively engaged in the lesson and allow the teacher to make a connection where one did not exist.
I do not feel a different lesson plan is a necessity when having students use computers.  Rather than creating a whole different lesson plan, the teacher should be aware of a way to incorporate computer usage into the current lesson plan.  Technology should not be the whole lesson but a part of the lesson to enhance what is being taught.
In my opinion, the computer functions given by the state should be something to enhance the objectives.  The computer functions should not take the place of the instructional portion of the subject.  If the computer functions are taking the place of the instructional portion of the subject, then, there is not enough emphasis being put on learning.
It is possible to use the computer for every objective or lesson, but the question is whether it will be wise.  Once technology is inserted into the lesson, the students tend to focus more on the technological portion and not the actual lesson being taught.  Teaching students is important.  The technological portion of teaching is easy for the students to comprehend, so, I don’t feel it is as important to focus on technology.  If one was to put a computer or technological device in front of a student, it would take them possibly 10 minutes to figure out how to make it work, what are the advantages of the device and how to use the device for the particular subject being taught.  I feel students are capable of learning the technological portion with little or no instruction.

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