I think that I'm finding the keys to lesson planning, little by little. The hard part seems to be picking out the important information and how to relate it to info the students already know. This is and of itself presents several problems.
First of all, deciding what is important is extremely difficult. The stated curriculum is comprehensive to put it lightly. There is more than one topic to cover per lesson. I've figured out that AT MOST, I can adequately cover one topic per lesson. Plus, most teachers don't even finish all their lessons. So putting aside the part of me that wants to follow all the rules, I pare down the curriculum to what I think is really important to know. This means, what information does the student need to understand in order to understand more complex subjects, and which concepts are useful to know for the sake of knowing.
Then, the second challenge begins. I have to figure out what the student already knows and built on it. I cannot assume that material which should have been given before, truly has been given and processed by the students. This is true in any educational system. But this is usually remedied by a brief review. Not here. I have to reteach subjects on a regular basis. Moreover, subjects I've covered earlier in the year require several minutes of review. When it comes to actually processing the day's material, there is only a little time left to do so.
So I go with one of two philosophies for most lessons. One is the pyramid scheme, where I start out by referring to a large amount of given information, pare it down and explain most of it, then pare that down and give exercises on most of the explained information, finally giving some activity to emphasize the single topic I consider to be most important.
The other philosophy is sequential. I start with a manageable amount of information, based mainly on common knowledge. Piece by piece, I explore each part of it, giving the students opportunities to internalize the material, without paring anything down. Unlike the pyramid theory, activities aren't for solidifying one single idea, but for thinking outside the information given so that the concepts can be utilized later.
The pyramid scheme works great for compact, straightforward concepts. In Biology, there are many of these. But often, you are not faced with a question of right vs wrong, but better vs worse. And so guiding the students through the material, letting them pass judgment on the quality of the material, is very important.
Of course, my lesson planning has also been aided by my improving Portuguese. Being able to walk into a room without having planned exactly what to say - or sometimes not even having any idea - and pulling off a good lesson based upon what the students are up for and my resources at the moment, is a great asset. Six months ago, I was not only incapable of doing this, but I couldn't imagine being so underprepared.
I feel like I've come a long, long way in these few months.
Peace
John
