Reflection on the lesson

The lesson was interesting as we had the opportunity to comment on three lesson plans on textiles and clothing which were prepared by other teachers. After having one round of discussion about the lesson plans, I found out that we could become so critical about other's work that even a tiny mistake could be amplified greatly, especially when we were given the chance to criticize it. Well, it is always easier said than done. Thus, we have to constantly remind ourselves that we should not repeat similar mistakes when we do our lesson plans in future as we should have learnt from others’ mistakes.

I learnt that we should always link the topic taught in the previous lesson to the current topic before we start the lesson since it is easier and more effective for students to comprehend and remember when we engage their prior knowledge. Isolation of topics taught would cause the students not to take the lesson seriously since they do not understand the significance of learning the lesson and connect it to their prior knowledge. In addition, I also learnt that we should summarize the topic at different timings such that the students would not be “lost” and we could also assess their understandings from time to time in order to enhance their learning process.

Sometimes we forget that the real world context might not be relevant or appropriate as we are teaching teenagers who are not mature enough to understand the examples well and see it from our perspective. This would definitely lead to unnecessary misunderstandings that would affect the teaching and learning process.

Moreover, I also realized it is important to keep improving on the lesson plans before submitting it to the cooperating teachers and supervisors. Basic grammatical and spelling errors should not be reflected in the lesson plans as it shows that the teacher does not put in adequate effort and concern in her work, especially when Microsoft Word has the ability of performing spell check which eases the vetting.

Last but not least, it is always better to make the students anticipate the next lesson by telling them in advance. It is also important to make the topic sounds exciting in order to arouse their interest in learning and also make them look forward to coming to school.