Sometimes, teachers have problems in the planning task because they have not clear what the goals are and what they really want students to do. I think here first of all it is important to know exactly what the needs of the learners are and how they would react in front of any situation or activity given for the teacher.
For example, the Chilean program to teach English gives to teachers all the necessary contents students should know at certain age or level. Besides, this program gives ideas to develop a class. So, the only task for the teacher is to plan the class by creating activities, games, etc to cover the contents. However, it is in this step of teaching where a significant number of teachers have problems with. It is difficult when teachers can not deal with big contents and the performance of the tasks, and here comes the difficulty to assess the contents in students.
On the other hand teachers have some problems in the teaching of certain contents. For example, it is common to have a large content which demands a lot of time developing it. But, sometimes it is not completely explained by the teacher because of the lack of time that she/he has. Therefore Grant Wiggins, author of the book “Understanding by Design”, states that “there is too much content and not enough time, especially if the identified knowledge and skills contained in the standards are viewed as discrete and disconnected”.
Discipline, is another important issue that teachers have to deal with. Sometimes, when the contents are not enough clear to students, it could be a huge discipline problem because learners could lose the attention on what the teacher is saying and they start doing different things which could affect the discipline in the classroom.
As a conclusion, planning for teachers is a tough task because of the different factors that it implies. So, it is really important that teachers should have clear ideas to plan their classes in order to have enough time to develop a lesson and also to not loose the control of a class.
Bibliography:
. Wiggins, Grant and McTighe, Jay. “Understanding by Design”, chapter 3 “Gaining Clarify on Our Goals”. 2005
I really see the importance of having clear the goals and the purpose of the lesson before planning it. That the way of doing a successful class. Good!!!
ResponderEliminarI totally agree with you when you say that discipline may be a huge problem for teachers. As we all know, the success of a lesson in terms of students attention only depends on how well the teache planned it. If it is attracting enough and the timing is well controled, the teacher wouldn't have mayor discipline problems.
ResponderEliminarI agree with you and Cristina about the discipline problems, I really think that discipline can be control if students are well informed about the objectives of the class combined with interesting activities that have to be related with the lessons
ResponderEliminarJavi: I totally agree with you in your statement about the only task they have to do, what is to plan. However, I don't think that the purpose of the lesson is just to "cover contents" actually, i think that the purpose is understanding the contents.
ResponderEliminarEste comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
ResponderEliminarWell, about the discipline what should we say??
ResponderEliminarIt is difficult sometimes to have good discipline in classes. But the things that teachers should be aware more on how to deal with this issue by preparing better lessons. If teachers prepare better ones in which they are capable of catching students' attention, discipline would be not a problem anymore.
A common mistake is when teachers have too much content and not enough time. It is a recurrent error on teachers' performances but it is not a real problem of time, the point is that teachers have not planned their lessons correctly to be focused in an specific topic during a determine period of time.
ResponderEliminarI totally agree with you when you say that we must focus on the real purposes of doing assessment in terms of recognizing what the learners’ needs are, but with the purpose of improving it.
ResponderEliminarHablas acá sobre la responsabilidad de los profesores de saber de las necesidades de sus estudiantes en cuanto a la preparación de lecciones y planificación en general. Creo que esto es esencial. Si las consideramos, podemos identificar bien las áreas dentro de los estandares donde tenemos que centrarnos más, y dejar atrás las ideas principales de que tal vez ya sepan. Hacer facilita planificación con más eficiencia.
ResponderEliminar