The following is a review of three teaching skills, namely lesson opening, direct instruction and questioning, demonstrated in two microteaching sessions. The first session explained the two important figures related to unemployment and its sources to a group of four adults, who had obtained a bachelor degree or above. The second lesson discussed the importance of money as a medium of exchange to fourteen grade six students. Feedbacks from my fellow classmates were coded as 1 to 4; the first two responded to the first session and the rest were for the second session.
For lesson opening, McCauley, Davison and Byrne (2015, p. 309) stressed that the introduction should aim at selling the lesson with various strategies and engaging the students …show more content…
315). As I did not expect the students to have the same level of interest and prior knowledge in the subject, it was necessary for me to connect the concepts to their daily life during the introduction. The use of news article about unemployment rate in the first lesson was stimulating because it was highly possible that the students had been a part of the labour force and experienced unemployment. In the second lesson, a twenty-dollar banknote was used because money is something that the children are using every day. After stimulating students’ sensory memory and helping them assign meaning to the props, I could ask questions based on these hooks and proceed to the discussion of the content and concepts (Woolfolk & Margetts, 2013, pp. 253-254; McCauley, Davison & Byrne, 2015, pp. 315-316). Feedback 2 justified this since it made the topic relevant to the students’ daily life, while Feedback 3 suggested that the interesting start was able to capture attention.
For direct instruction, Killen (2013, p. 150) recommended the use of examples to make complex concepts easier to understand. In both microteaching sessions, I created scenarios to explain concepts such as cyclical unemployment and double coincidence of wants. Feedback 3 said day-to-day situation made nice examples. Nevertheless, Killen (2013, p. 150) further suggested the purpose of the examples should always …show more content…
137) emphasized the importance of clarity and defining new words and jargons are imperative. Both Feedback 1 and 2 said the new terminologies covered in the first lesson such as employed and unemployed were well defined. However, Feedback 2 pointed out that writing the key words on the whiteboard could make the explanation more effective. Therefore, in the second lesson, I used the blackboard when talking about the new terms, for example, medium of exchange and methods of payment, to help the students memorize them. The terms were explained well though the topic was said to be hard as reported by Feedback 4. I will keep using the same strategy whenever there are key words and concepts requiring
For lesson opening, McCauley, Davison and Byrne (2015, p. 309) stressed that the introduction should aim at selling the lesson with various strategies and engaging the students …show more content…
315). As I did not expect the students to have the same level of interest and prior knowledge in the subject, it was necessary for me to connect the concepts to their daily life during the introduction. The use of news article about unemployment rate in the first lesson was stimulating because it was highly possible that the students had been a part of the labour force and experienced unemployment. In the second lesson, a twenty-dollar banknote was used because money is something that the children are using every day. After stimulating students’ sensory memory and helping them assign meaning to the props, I could ask questions based on these hooks and proceed to the discussion of the content and concepts (Woolfolk & Margetts, 2013, pp. 253-254; McCauley, Davison & Byrne, 2015, pp. 315-316). Feedback 2 justified this since it made the topic relevant to the students’ daily life, while Feedback 3 suggested that the interesting start was able to capture attention.
For direct instruction, Killen (2013, p. 150) recommended the use of examples to make complex concepts easier to understand. In both microteaching sessions, I created scenarios to explain concepts such as cyclical unemployment and double coincidence of wants. Feedback 3 said day-to-day situation made nice examples. Nevertheless, Killen (2013, p. 150) further suggested the purpose of the examples should always …show more content…
137) emphasized the importance of clarity and defining new words and jargons are imperative. Both Feedback 1 and 2 said the new terminologies covered in the first lesson such as employed and unemployed were well defined. However, Feedback 2 pointed out that writing the key words on the whiteboard could make the explanation more effective. Therefore, in the second lesson, I used the blackboard when talking about the new terms, for example, medium of exchange and methods of payment, to help the students memorize them. The terms were explained well though the topic was said to be hard as reported by Feedback 4. I will keep using the same strategy whenever there are key words and concepts requiring