Lesson Plan Using Six components of Instructional Design

I have designed and prepared a lesson plan for the class 5 students as I teach in Class 5. I don’t teach in the class 8, so I have prepared the lesson plan for class 5 students. I have also covered the 6 major components of instructional design in my lesson plan which is given below­-

Daily Lesson Plan

Name of school: Bright Future E. B. School              Date: 21st March, 2023                       Grade:5 No. of students :19                                         Name of the teacher: Prakash Chaudhary Subject: Science                                               Time: 40 minutes Topic: Parts of Plant/ Flowering and Non-flowering plants.                                    Period: Third

 

1. Learning objectives: 

After the lesson students will be able to (describe, tell, explain, do, create, write, draw, compare etc)

• Describe the different types of flowering and non-flowering plants.
• Identify the leaves of different flowering and non-flowering plants.
• Explain the parts of the flower (androecium and gynoecium).

 

2. Needs assessment-

Before starting the lesson, I would make sure to determine the current level of knowledge and skills of the learners. I would ask them different questions related to the topic to know about their understanding of the lesson subject matter.    

3. Instructional strategies and Teaching learning activities:

Introduction:

I will start my class by telling the students about the general introduction about the today’s class and their classroom activities.

Group division (how, what will each of the group do? how does the teacher rotate/manage groups)

I will divide the students into 2 groups and make them have a short discussion. Then, they will go to the playground/ garden and search different leaves of the flowering and non-flowering plants. Today’s class will be divided into two presentations. At first, they will present about the non-flowering and flowering plants’ leaves and after that, they will present about the parts (androecium and gynoecium) of the flower.

 

Group 1-  Non-flowering plants’ leaves and Androecium.

 

Group 2-  Flowering plants’ leaves and Gynoecium.

 

I will manage the group by helping them if they have any problem or queries.

Main part/ teaching steps: what activities, what does the teacher do? What do students do? (Concept time and practice time)

The students will collect the leaves of different plants, flowering and non-flowering plants, and identify which group the leaves belong to. The teacher will facilitate the student to search different leaves.                                                                                                     

Soft Skills- I will assign them to search leaves of various plants and trees and give them some time for discussions with their peer which will help them in their communication skills. 

Conclusions: 

I will ask each group to present their views and tasks assigned to them. I will appreciate their efforts and active participation. I will motivate them to do their best. I will also praise them for the active participation on the classroom and thanking them.

Teaching materials:

Course book,  leaves and flowers of different plants.

4. Assessment and Evaluation

I will tell them to present at least 3-4 points about the topics assigned to them. I will instruct the other groups to listen carefully and observe whether the students participate actively in the discussion properly or not. I will evaluate the students' understanding of the lesson by assessing their participation in class discussions.

Homework

I will assign them to search more about the leaves of different plants and prepare at least 2 pages collection of those leaves naming them. I will also assign them to draw the pictures of androecium and gynoecium in their notebook.

    

5. Technology integration: 

Students can conduct explore and find more resources using technology.

The lesson can be enhanced with videos or online materials to give more audio or visual support.

6. Feedback and revision:

I will conclude the lesson by summarizing the main points of the lesson and ask them if they have any problem or queries related to the chapter. I will also encourage the students to continue their exploration and continue their learning. I will ask for feedback from the students whether they understood the chapter well or not, what might be done to increase the attention of theirs or make the classroom teaching more fruitful and enjoyable.

 

 

My experience of using Zoom as Online Teaching-Learning Tool

 

Okay, Now!!! I will talk about my experience of using Zoom as teaching-learning practices. I and my students hadn’t used Zoom before. Even during the Covid-19 pandemic times, my school didn’t use any online classes, so, it was our first time experience of using Zoom for our online classes. One of the major reasons behind not using online classes during the pandemic times was the lack of internet facilities and smart phones to the students. I and my students had no idea of using Zoom as it was a completely new thing for us. I have heard about it but never used it before.

After getting this assignment of creating an online learning community by using Zoom and engaging the members in various learning activities, I and my students watched some YouTube videos on how to use Zoom for online classes as , already mentioned, we, both were unknown about it. After watching some videos on YouTube and trying it on our mobiles, we, somehow, managed to know some basic functions of Zoom. To conduct any online class on the Zoom, the host must schedule a meeting and provide a Meeting Id and pass code or send an invitation to the participants through e-mails. The participants can directly join the online class without any Sign-up or sign-in, just by simply clicking on ‘Join a Meeting’ from the first home page.

I teach in a primary school, so I conducted my online classes to grade 5 students. All the students were so eager and interested in having online classes. They have never been on any online classes, so they were over excited and also confused about it. I encouraged them to join online classes and hopefully, they joined the classes. Some students were so excited that they even reached my home to know how to use the Zoom and how to join a meeting. There are altogether 19 students in Class 5 but 13 of them joined the online class in the first day. We conducted the online classes for four days and stopped it due the holiday of Tihar and Chhath festival. The students were so happy with the online classes that they were demanding regular online classes. I was also enjoying giving them the online classes but the 40 minutes time limit was ruining our enjoyment. Due to the 40 minutes time limit, the classes were interrupted and I was unable to conduct my full classes. The online class was from 7 pm to 7:40 pm.

In the first class, 13 participants joined the class and we talked about the problems and difficulties faced by the students while joining the class. The students were fast learners as, they easily joined the class. We talked about ourselves and even watched few minutes of YouTube videos. We even recorded our online class. at the first class, the students even didn't know how to mute and unmute the audio. 

Likewise, in the second class, 9 students attended the class as 2 students were absent due to the birthday party. We read our lesson and I asked some questions to the students and they answered me. We again watched some YouTube videos and concluded our class. The class was noisier while teaching the students and I had to mute all the students. One interesting thing was that when I used to start the recording, the students remained silent and disciplined. I assigned them to draw the pictures of different types of clouds as their home works. They even chatted with their friends in the chat box.

In the third and fourth classes, we continued our lessons and watched some YouTube videos related to the lessons. The students were happy as they were experiencing a new type of learning-teaching methods. I and the students discussed on various topics such as water cycle, different seasons, morning, noon and evening time etc. The students were so obedient that they showed me the assignment given to them the day before through their camera. I assigned them to draw pictures, make presentations and resent in the next class. The average number of participants throughout the online class was nine. In this way, we conducted and attended the first ever online classes. Overall, it was a great experience teaching my students for the first time Using Zoom.      

 

Online Learning Community and Zoom

 

Online Learning Community and Zoom

Online Learning Community (OLC), also known as virtual learning communities or networked learning communities, are one of the forms of learning which happens on the internet. As the name suggests, it is a virtual community for learning and learners which is solely based on the internet and technology. It is mainly based on ICT and on the internet. It can be also explained as the bunch of people with common interests who come jointly online to collaboratively learn together. It is a virtual type of learning whose members use internet technologies to interact and co-operate.

According to Schwier (2001), Online Learning community is “A bonded group of learners who interact with each other in a virtual learning environment and share their perspectives and during this process constructs knowledge.”

History of Online Learning Community

Online Learning Community has a long history. Since the 1950s, slide projectors and television-based classes have been in use. In 1959, Daniel Alpert and Don Bitzer created PLATO, a home for the first internet-based community created for learning purposes. The first ever completely online courses were offered in 1984 by the University of Toronto.

The Open University in Britain was one of the first universities in the world to begin online distance learning, in the early 1990s. Currently, the Indira Gandhi National Open University in India is the largest university in the world with around 4 million students enrolled, most of whom currently receive education via online methods.

Online Learning Community Platforms

Some of the online learning platforms are listed below-

1)      Skillshare

2)     Google Classroom

3)     Udemy

4)     edX

5)     Coursera

6)     Thinkific

7)     MS-Teams

8)     Zoom (can be also used for business meetings and conferencing)

Importance of Online learning community

ü Helps to connect like-minded people.

ü Enables shared learning.

ü Facilitates distance learning.

ü Helps to achieve shared goal.

ü Helps to know different cultures and practices around the world.

Zoom

Zoom is cloud-based video conferencing platform that offers audio and video meetings for up to 100 participants with HD audio and video. It is also a online learning tools which allows the users to connect online for meetings, webinars, live chat and online classes through computer or mobile app using internet. In the free version, meetings have a 40-minute limit. Paid versions can host up to 1000 participants for an unlimited time. Zoom offers four distinct pricing tiers for the business subscriptions.

Zoom is founded by Eric Yuan in April 2011 and by September 2012; its first beta version was released. Zoom 1.0 became available to the public in January 2013. In March 2020, Zoom got downloaded 2.13 million times in one day. Till this date, zoom averages 300 million daily active users in meeting. All this happened in less than 2 years time.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, all the educational institutions were closed. The use and popularity of Zoom increased rapidly during the Covid-19 crisis. During the Covid-19 pandemic time, to address the global efforts and in support of primary and secondary education, zoom lifted the 40 minutes time limit but this program is now concluded on June 30, 2022.

Photo Credit- Pixabay

 

Reference

https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/online-learning-communities/21000

https://adamasuniversity.ac.in/a-brief-history-of-online-education/

https://news.elearninginside.com/microsoft-teams-vs-zoom-in-online-learning-a-side-by-side-comparison/

https://dispatch.m.io/eric-yuan-zoom/

https://resources.owllabs.com/blog/zoom

https://explore.zoom.us/en/lp/minute-meeting-education/

https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/work/zoom-user-statistics/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Group Presentation of Class 5 Students

In the video given below, the students of class 5 are having group presentation, The group were given some topics to present in the Science class.

The link of the YouTube video is:-  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w26mIH01kHQ

MS Teams for Teaching and Learning

                                   

        The use of e-learning platforms such as MS Teams, Zoom, Moodle, Google Classroom, Udemy etc. increased rapidly after the Covid-19 pandemic. When the covid-19 pandemic happened, all the educational institutions were closed, so, the students were unable to attend their classes, various e-learning and online learning platforms emerged. 

        According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), over 800 million learners from around the world have been affected during Covid-19 pandemic, 1 in 5 learners cannot attend school, 1 in 4 cannot attend higher education classes, and over 102 countries have ordered nationwide school closures while 11 have implemented localized school closure. This gave a huge boost to the e-learning platforms to boost up.

So, here, we will talk about MS-Teams as a means for teaching and learning. We will start from a start with a brief introduction of MS Teams.

        Microsoft Teams (MS Teams) is a learning-business communication platform developed by Microsoft, as part of the Microsoft 365 family. Throughout and after the Covid19 pandemic, Teams and other e-learning platforms gained much interest as many meetings and educational classes moved to a virtual environment. MS Teams is also a means of open and distance learning tools. ‘As of January 25, 2022, MS Teams has about 250 million monthly users.’ [1]

‘MS Teams rolled out in 2017 as part of the Microsoft Office 365 suite of work tools, which is very commonly used in higher education. Initially, Teams was mostly about distributed collaboration on shared projects. However, of late, it has been brought into play for teaching and learning, given the sudden shift to online learning in the initial Covid-19 pandemic.’ [2]

        MS-Teams has contributed greatly to the teaching and learning processes. It, somehow, replaced the traditional way of teaching-learning practices in recent times. Even in Nepal, Teams is being used for teaching-learning practices in the major university, Nepal Open University, for online and distance learning. Teams have helped both the teachers as well as the students for educational purposes. The class template for a Teams includes various base resources: posts, files, class notebooks, assignments, grades and wiki. The Assignments tab enables the creation of assignments and quizzes.

        MS-Teams have gotten particularly important features for teaching and learning. One of the major features of Teams is Chats. Teams allow its users to communicate through chats and also allow the users to format text and ask questions to the tutor. Another important feature of MS Teams is Teams which allow admins and teachers to set up specific teams for classes to join through a specific link or invitations sent by the admins or the teachers.

        Breakout rooms is also one of the major features of MS Teams which allow users to split a meeting into small groups. Users can activate this feature during or before a meeting. There are also some other key features of MS Teams which include channels, Group conversations, Telephone replacements, Meetings. 

        So, to conclude, I think that MS Teams has greatly contributed in the teaching-learning process. MS Teams has helped the students of higher level (bachelors, masters) to complete their courses and degrees in the form of open and distance learning. For a country like Nepal, it's so challenging to open universities in each part of the country, so MS Teams is helping the teachers to reach the students.

 

    References

1.)Tejaswi, Mini (July 28, 2021). "Microsoft Teams has nearly 250 million monthly active users: Nadella". The Hindu. Mini Tejaswi. Retrieved December 2, 2021.

2.)Hai-Jew,S, (2020). Evaluating "MS-Teams" for Teaching and Learning, [C2C Digital Magazine], p.7

 

Brief History of Learning Theories

                                BRIEF HISTORY OF LEARNING THEORIES            

                                  The humans are learning since they have evolved, so the learning process is always happening. Learning is a continuous and dynamic process. Learning is "a process that leads to change, which occurs as a result of experience and increases the potential for improved performance and future learning." (Ambrose et al, 2010, p.3).  Learning theory describes how a learner receive, process and retain knowledge during learning.

                Now, we will have a look at the different theories developed at the different stages. The first theories which existed before the Fifties was BEHAVIOURISM. This systematic approach assumes that all behaviors are reflexes produced by a response to certain stimuli in the environment. It focuses mainly one particular view which is : a change in the external behavior of a particular achieved through through using reinforcement and repetition. In behaviourism theory, the desired behaviour is rewarded where as the undesired one is punished. This approach focuses mainly on rote learning.

                        In the sixties, a new approach emerged which is known as COGNITIVISM. Cognitivism refers to the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience and the senses. It is the psychology of learning which emphasizes on how we think and how we gain knowledge. It is about how we learn, how we solve problems and how we memorize new knowledge.

                                Now, we will talk about the third theory which emerged in the late sixties by the name of CONSTRUCTIVISM, with the assumption that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding. The guiding principles of Constructivism are : knowledge is constructed, not transmitted, prior knowledge impacts the learning process and building new knowledge requires efforts and meaningful activities. It is about constructing our own knowledge which can differ from one person to another, even if the learning context is the same.

                                Now, we will focus on the most most praised and recent learning theory which goes by the name of SOCIO-CONSTRUCTIVISM. In this theory, we must mention Jean Piaget, a swiss psychologist , who rejected the idea that learning was the passive assimilation of given knowledge. Instead, Piaget proposed that learning is a dynamic process in which learners actively construct knowledge by creating and testing their own own theories with the ones of other actors. Thus, socio-constructivism extends the learning theory of constructivism by integrating the active role of learning interactions. Since, the end of the last century, the learning model of socio-constructivism is considered the dominant theory to understand the learning process, emphasizing the importance of contextualization and social interactions.

                                  

                       References:-

   Ambrose, S.A. et.al. (2010). How Learning Works Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass                       

 Photo courtesy- CanStockPhoto.com