“…what exactly do we mean by a good plan for learning, in light f goals….what must any plan be to be a good plan? Our simplest answer: it must be engaging and effective”
A good lesson plan has always been a major worrying for teachers who want their students as active as possible in the teaching learning process. Even before reading UbD, one as a teacher knows that engaging and effective are the key concepts whenever you plan your lessons, although I tend to think about the words “fun” and “meaningful”. However, all teachers agree that a successful lesson plan has to include some fun and effective activities so that the lesson itself fulfils a real purpose.
So, that is why I thought it was worthwhile to stop and read closely the WHERETO elements in an instructional plan. As part of a recap, WHERETO stands for:
W: students understand where the unit is headed
H: hook students and hold their attention
E: equip them with all that is necessary to meet the goals
R: reflect, rethink and revise
E: evaluate as in self-assess
T: tailor students to appreciate individual talents
O: be organized to optimize deep understanding
Now, the requirement that caught my attention the most was the one referring to students understanding where the unit is headed and why. Usually, when you teach a lesson to students, you never stop and think about giving explanations to students in terms of why are they learning and why it is meaningful for them. I have to confess that as a teacher, I got so used to teaching what is in the book in an automatically way, hoping that students will learn the most in such a short period of time that important details as providing students with the rationale of their learning is completely overlooked. As a teacher I tend to maximize the teaching time or raw content teaching time since the amount of hours I get are not as many as I would like to. And probably that is why students approach tasks so unenthusiastically: because they feel that they are supposed to learn English just because.
Perhaps forgetting the constrains regarding time and providing students with purposeful work where the goals to be achieved are known by the students makes a lot more sense. Personally, I have always felt that school students do not see a real purpose about learning English, at least where I teach since I am asked to cover a certain amount of contents throughout a year. So, sometimes I wonder whether is it truly that important to fulfill an amount instead of achieving quality of learning? Is it possible to balance the lack of time we always have when dealing with contents and the requirements of your institution and those little details, such the WHERETO elements that will probably make your students a lot better learners –but take some time to add them to the lesson daily dynamic?
Right now, as the year comes to an end I am having that dilemma….what should I do next year? Trying to find a balance or just fulfilling the requirements of the institution as fast as I can, overlooking such important elements that make teachers best designers?
