Response to TPA Lesson Plan Format

·  General reactions/responses to TPA lesson plan

I have to admit I am nervous about the TPA lesson plans. This is the first education class I have been in, and looking at this overwhelms me slightly. My hope is that once we go over it in class, I’ll feel more comfortable. My guess is that it will take practice to feel comfortable. It looks like everything is straightforward, but I hear students complaining about how difficult this is all if the time. I am excited to just jump in and give it a shot.

·  What in here seems valuable and worthwhile?

There are a lot of sections I like, but I think for me, the Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks to Support Student Learning is going to be valuable. I think it would be easy to get caught up in a “really cool lesson” but not think about whether or not your students are actually going to gain anything from it. In high school, I had a teacher that had us recreate the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He told us about the assassination for the reenactment, but he never really explained that is what led to WWI or what happened before or after. I went home, and my dad told me all of that. Sure it was fun (actually it was kind of weird) in the moment, but I really didn’t learn much by doing that. I like how the Instructional strategies makes you think about how your students are going to benefit from your lesson, and what they are going to take away from it.

·  What questions and concerns do you have about the TPA lesson plan?

I worked on my mini lesson to get a feel of the lesson format. I wasn’t totally sure how to answer the assessment portion since my lesson is more of an introduction to the book. My assessment would be to see where students are at with their basic understanding of the text, author, themes, and Native American culture. Do we have to have an assessment that involves students doing a quiz or something to show their knowledge at the end of each class? Or can it be them turning in their handouts or notes?

·  Why might this be a useful exercise for beginning teachers?

I know for me, I want a base to be able to see how my lessons are structured, what worked, what didn’t, etc. And then have something to look at and revaluate and change my lessons based on what did or didn’t turn out. It helps me really look at how my class/lesson is going to look on my end and have a good point of reference. Plus, I want to know I am following CCSS and making sure my students are getting lots of good learning opportunities.

·  What is problematic about this lesson plan format?

It is the most time consuming thing I have ever done. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Ok, I am sure with practice it will come more naturally and take less time.