Good teachers should have a "tool belt" of various instructional/educational techniques to engage, use, modify, and adapt to the needs and desires of their students. Students appreciate a teacher who tries creatively to accomodate the different learning styles, learning rates, and multiple intelligences in any classroom in any school. On this page, you will find specific instructional techniques that I tried to incorporate into my lesson plans.
Here are a list of specific methods which are central to effective teaching:
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Introductory activities at the beginning of each lesson served many purposes. I could review the previous's day's lesson or hook the students into the new material I was presenting for that day. In my lesson plans, my introductory activities are labeled "warm up" activities. Sometimes the warm up activities are individual tasks, partner tasks, or whole class activities that enable students to settle down and focus their mind for the economics lesson. By getting everyone to start thinking "economically" with a simple exercise, I am able to get every student on the same page or a common ground before starting the main activity of the day.
In my three week economics lesson plans, you will find that each activity begins with a warm up. In most cases, I will usually give out a worksheet at the beginning of the class that outlines the class agenda, including the warm up which students may begin to work on as soon as they enter class. For example, the warm up may involve asking students to look up definitions and to answer questions that will link the concepts to something they are familiar with or are interested in [see Lesson5: Factors of Production: Warm Up Activity]. Otherwise, I will put the class agenda on the board and students will begin an activity with my instructions. For example, I used a film clip from Jerry Maguire to introduce a lesson on opportunity costs and a role play to introduce a lesson on different economic systems.
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Great lesson plans are organized to allow for smooth transitioning between the different parts of the lesson. Transitioning allows students to understand the logic and flow of the content and process which they are learning, eliminating general confusion or chaos and limiting classroom management problems. When I planned my lesson plans, I thought about how I would transition from one topic to the next or from one activity to the next and to make sure that the organization of my lesson reflected my objectives in a rational and connected way. My lesson plans included several transition points as I tried to have a good pace of different activities in the classroom. I thought about what materials I would need to prepare, how to set up the classroom environment, and how to set up groups or structure student movement around the classroom in advance.
For example in Lesson 1: Introduction to the Definition of Economics, I first gave an individual warm up [basic definitions, relevant & interesting questions to stimulate students' interest in economics] that would set up the main activity in which students would be working in groups to further deconstruct the definition of economics. I signaled the transition into this next activity by designating group numbers/locations and passing out materials. Once students were finished with their groupwork, I would then transition the small group activity into a large group activity by having students return to their original seats. Once students are settled, each group would present and share a piece of their definition of economics with the rest of the class which I would conclude by summarizing, discussing and connecting each piece of the definition. Finally after a short discussion of the definition, I would pass out a worksheet with reflection questions so that students would have an opportunity to reflect on the lesson. This lesson plan demonstrates smooth transitioning as (1) each part of the lesson flows into the next one naturally and/or there are logical connections between each part (2) I have prepared and given clear directions to students so that students are aware of these transitions and aware of what is expected of them for each step-there is no downtime and therefore students stay focused throughout lesson (3) by breaking up the activity into clear, manageable steps or segments, students enjoy the varying routine and pace of the classwork (4) as the teacher I know exactly where the lesson is going next at each point... and I am prepared (e.g. I thought about how many people I want in a group, what materials I need, how much time students need for each part) (5) classroom time is used efficiently.
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Closing activities (or concluding a lesson) are also a key component of every lesson plan, even though it is often rushed or left out. Closing activities allow for students and teachers to make sure that the educational objectives have been met and emphasized, that we pull everything and everyone together before moving on, and that there is an opportunity to reflect on what has been learned. Without a closing activity, lessons seem incomplete or do not make as much sense to both students and teachers. In my curriculum, I hoped that students would have an opportunity at the end of every lesson to share, look back, and reflect on what they have learned whether through a presentation/discussion, a final comment/thought in a round-robin, a self-assessment, or a short journal summary.
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Discussion enables students to communicate, listen to, share, build upon, and exchange ideas, thoughts, opinions, and feelings with each other to further understand the content knowledge and to enrich their learning process. Furthermore, students develop their critical thinking skills, listening skills, questioning skills, as well as speaking abilities. Living in a multicultural and pluralistic society, we need to teach students to consider and respect each other's perspectives as a community of learners within the classroom. I hope that by fostering thoughtful, respectful and meaningful discussion in the classroom we will equip students to engage in such discussions outside the classroom and forthe future.
In my economics classes, discussion was planned for most, if not all, lessons. In some cases, our classroom was a comfortable environment to accomodate informal discussions coming from the lesson and initiated by the students. In general, there were several parts of the curriculum when I thought students really needed to have a forum to express their thoughts and exchange perspectives. Sometimes I wanted students to debrief or reflect on an activity so that students could share their thoughts about what was important, what was challenging/interesting, and what they learned. Through such a discussion, students can affirm their own learning experiences or learn new things from their classmates. Sometimes I wanted students to talk to each other and stimulate each other to come up with questions, thoughts, or answers to the material we were covering. In Lesson 10: the role of profits, I remember students had an exciting discussion about "how much profit is 'too much profit'" where the answer was not in the textbook but rather found in the resulting discussion of students' own life experiences and/or beliefs/values. In Lesson11c, when students read "If the World Were a Village", students were engaged in a discussion that enabled them to connect economic principles learned in class to real world issues. I hope by getting students to talk, rather than just absorb a lecture, about what we read, students would help each other gain insight into the author's message and its implications for our future global economy.
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Role plays are similar to simulations except students are given character roles and a specific hypothetical or realistic situation in which to act out or improvise their roles. In most cases students actively play their roles in order to see and understand the perspectives of those roles. Role playing can be very useful helping students to learn to communicate with one another, cooperate and resolve differences, or to make decisions.
In economics, students had an opportunity to role-play in a couple of lessons.
Lesson 6: Rational Choice involved positive statements, normative statements, and rational choice. Students could role play two characters who had differences in fact and opinion and in the end students had to decide what was the rational choice given the situation.
Lesson 11 : Economic Decisions in other systems involved a main activity in which some students had to take on the role of prisoners and other students had to take on the role of prison administrators. Depending on their given roles, students had to work with their groups to come up with either market solutions or command solutions within the Andersonville prison.
In addition, in each lesson plan in my curriculum, I tried to get students to think about the economic principles and practices in the role of the individual, the role of a business, and the role of the government. In each lesson, I wanted students to think about who benefited from a policy/practice/theory and who was worse off. In role-playing, students learn to see decisions, situations, and environments from different perspectives and broaden their own perspectives. Some additional role plays that could have been included at certain points in my curriculum were role plays between an employer and employee, a consumer and a business owner, and persons of different class, gender, and race.
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Debates, similar to discussions, allow for a forum in which opinions and thoughts can be exchanged. Through debates, students learn to state strong opinions, to have evidence and support to back them up, to be confident and articulate, to ask questions, to criticize, to make a logical argument, to respond to questions, and to receive feedback. In my economics classes, debates would be used to see both sides of an issue, the pro or the con of a solution, or specifically the trade-offs and opportunity costs. Though I would have liked to have included formal debates into my economics classes on current economic issues [e.g. How should low income housing be distributed? Is affirmative action fair? etc], I was only able to have an informal debate about the war in Iraq [March 2003] in the lesson on rational choice. In this lesson, students had an informal debate after discussing the positive and normative statements for and against the war in Iraq. The debate centered on what the rational choice would be for the US regarding the situation in Iraq. The debate was successful as students took both sides of the issue, vocalized points for each side and gave evidence supporting their position. Through this debate, many students became more informed of the situation in Iraq and either strengthened or changed their views on the impending war.
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Simulations enable students to participate in interactive activities that replicate or create similar real life scenarios or environments. Simulations are usually whole class activities that create imaginary physical, social, economic, or political situations, but enables students to experience learning in a very realistic and tangible way through their participation. Simulations alllow students to see possible outcomes and consequences given the conditions and interactions within a situation and/or environment.
In economics, simulations are a great way to get students to participate in real-world scenarios of the economy or the marketplace.
In Lesson 3: Unlimited Wants & Limited Resources, students had an opportunity to plan their wedding budget. First, they worked individually planning for their own wedding and then they worked with a partner ("the in-law") to plan for their children's wedding. Through this activity, students realistically had to work through the issues people face in the real world with unlimited wants and limited resources and the difficulties of making economic decisions and choices.
Lesson 9: Basic Economic Questions (Part B & Part C) enabled students to experience the challenges of being an entrepreneur. Students worked within small groups to create a business/product that would benefit the Parkway students. Students would answer the three basic economic questions on a brochure to present to the Parkway Foundation (hypothetical venture-capitalists). Their group presentations were the main simulation as they received questioning and feedback similar to how many businesses are funded or rejected in our market economy.
I would have liked to have done more simulations in my class, including a demand/supply simulation that shows how prices are set, a stock market simulation, and a simulation on how economic resources/wealth are divided unequally among the world's people.
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Demonstrations are important in modeling or showing students visually how to do something or how something works. By breaking down the steps and guiding students through an initial or basic example, students understand the content or process more readily than through a description or diagram in the textbook or through a lecture. Demonstrations are helpful because students are more likely to remember these visual images or instructions and thus are able to grasp the theory or process in action.
One way I incorporated the use of demonstrations in class was through graphing demonstrations. In order to teach students how to graph a production possibilities frontier or a demand or supply curve, I would draw the graph on the board, label accordingly, and think out the process in which I would plot points and explain what the resulting curve represents. With more time and preparation, I would have used a powerpoint presentation to make the demonstration more engaging and exciting as students could see several presentations and representations of graphs as well as the process of graphing with the click of a button.
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Cooperative group work was seemingly one of my main educational objectives in curriculum. Cooperative group work is an instructional technique in which students work with one another on a task which could involve problem-solving, discussion, a project, role-playing, or any activity. Cooperative group work fosters good interpersonal relationships among students and provides a means for active participation for all students. As students work with each other, they learn about cooperation, leadership, responsibility, and teamwork. They can help each other to learn and to complete activities in a more exciting and more challenging way.
Some highlights of cooperative group work in my class include the Parkway Foundation project, the Goods/Services Collage, and the Comparative Systems Internet Search.
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10. bloom's taxonomy: higher level of analysis
When did students attempt a higher level of analysis during my student teaching?
Analysis (e.g. break it
down!)-break down material into component parts.
Synthesis (e.g. make something new)-put parts together to form a new whole.
Evaluation (e.g. determine)-judge the value of material.
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In some cases, short lectures or mini-lessons are necessary to present or explain information. Short lectures would usually involve going over definitions or concepts in detail [see lesson 11 | lesson 11b]. I would give metaphors/analogies, anecdotes, or real world examples to further explain, support, or clarify understanding of the content material. At this time, I would also answer questions students had about the material. At other times, I would teach more practical lessons such as how to make a table and graph [see lesson 7]. For the most part, I usually combined my short lectures with worksheets with diagrams/webs/concept maps for students to take notes on or with visual aids on the worksheet/board/flip chart.
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see computers & technology...
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