Reflection - on Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan - a detailed list of plans which will be covered during the allocated time given

From today's discussion on lesson plans during Dr Mok's class, these are what I have learnt from the mistakes of some lesson plans and some useful pointers to take home with.

(1) Linkage: It is very important for teachers to link the concepts students learnt during theory or practical lessons as it helps them to remember information better. Every lessons will be meaningful to them rather than just them knowing what are the 5 food groups in a healthy diet pyramid or learning just how to cook a one-dish meal. Instead, we should link the concepts of a one-dish meal of having the 5 nutrients which is present in the healthy diet pyramid that is essential for one's health.

(2) Recapitulation: There must be a connection between the re-cap of previous week lessons to what the new information we are going to teach them. Or else, there is no point of us recapitulating as students will not learn anything.

(3) Summary: There can be a few summaries in the lesson plans as this might help students remember better of what had been taught to them during the lessons.

(4) Closure: We, as teachers must arouse students' excitement of what they are going to do for the next lesson so that they will look forward to the nest lesson. It is also a time to remind them of what they need to prepare and bring for nest lessons.

(5) Practical: At the end of every practical lessons, there must be either a short written sensory evaluation or a verbal sensory evaluation. This to ensure that students can bring home learning points of how and why we must evaluate the food (which link back to the theory concepts of sensory evaluation learnt) and ways of improving the presentation of the food cooked.

(6) Being ambitious: As teachers, we must keep in mind that we cannot be too ambitious to want to squeeze too many topics to be covered in the lesson. We must be mindful of what the students can absorb at the end of the lesson or the lesson plans may backfire.

(7) Every plans, activities or questions must link back to the general objectives and specific instructional objectives of each lesson plans.

(8) Every single lesson plans is not the 'bible' to all types of classes/students, we must be able to change and adapt it accordingly to the nature of the student's abilities and pace of learning.

With all these points in mind, I hope I am not only able to come up with good lesson plans but more importantly able to have the students retaining as much of what is being taught to them.