Pre-school Teacher Assessment
A pre-school teacher has behind their back a very critical task in that they need to bring up young children right from a state of ignorance in terms of education to literacy. It is their relentless deeds that bring an individual to who they become in the future because it is through the pre-school teachers that they learn the very first and basic knowledge. However, to achieve this, there should be a system that is followed in order to provide a well and engaging lesson to the learner so as to build the interest. The system involves planning. Planning here includes the creation of lesson plans and schemes of work, among others. This paper, however, takes into consideration the appropriate preparation and the use of a lesson plan.
The current research conducted on pre-school teacher on language development standards and goals, the responses obtained suggests that in order to achieve the goals in the language development in pre-school teaching a teacher who in this case is the respondent has to engage the learners very well to ensure that they are active and they develop interest on language learning. The goal in language development standards is to ensure that a young student gets the basic in terms of language learning and phonetics. The strategies employed by the pre-school teachers in order to promote language development include the incorporation of visual, audio and kinesthetic approaches to attract the learner’s attention. These strategies involve identifying learner’s characteristics and the type of activities they can thrive best, and then they are motivated in those identified areas. Also, teachers can improve the language development of the learner by looking at the learner’s readiness in the language development process.
Concerning the lesson development, a pre-school teacher uses the review approach of the previous lesson taught to the learner. The review sums up all the activities that were carried out by the teacher and the learner prior to learning the new concept. The new concept and the previous lesson should be connected so that the learner will be in a position to link the relationship between the new concept and the previous knowledge. For instance, when teaching a student how to read, the prior knowledge on sound mastery is vital because the process involves the connection between sounds to come up with a new word which should be read by the learner. This information about the lesson development was obtained from a detailed description by the pre-school teacher on a lesson development process as there was no written lesson plan. With these descriptions on hand, we then organized for an actual assessment on the teacher regarding the lesson plan on how the process is executed in a classroom situation. The plan was a success as the pre-school teacher strictly adhered to the lesson plan as described after the assessment was conducted.
The assessment conducted on the pre-school teacher indeed was impressive though it is always common to have some areas where some improvements should be done. The lesson presented by the teacher met the expectations as it described the introduction of a new concept how to bring up the learner attention through linking the previous concept and the current concept. The pre-school teacher never addressed on how to engage a student in linking the two concepts since this is crucial. The learning process is targeted to the learner and thus a learner should be engaged so that the process meets its goals of shaping a student to become knowledgeable and eventually become successful with the kind of knowledge they have been imparted with. The pre-school teacher approach was quite effective since the approaches described in the lesson plan can automatically engage the learner. This is because prior to new knowledge there is a questioning session in which a learner is actively participating and hence being engaged. The information used by the teacher was also appropriate as it used the lesson plan layout which includes all the guidelines that a teacher should use when preparing for a lesson. The language development guidelines as written in the lesson plan document does not include how to handle a learner with special needs however, the approach is the same but it only depends on the type of impairment. For instance a learner who is deaf can be engaged by employing the visual and kinesthetic approaches to attract their attention. Differentiating learner’s interest involves one to one assessment of the learner’s ability which can be simplified by groping the learners into small groups which is an excellent approach. Language learning can be informally accessed by the teacher through observation and question asking and the challenged students can easily be identified of which this approach also was given credit.
The lesson development as implemented by the teacher was good. It adhered to the information laid in the lesson plan. Furthermore the teacher was time conscious in terms of introduction of the concept the real concept development and finally the conclusion. The actual process was very engaging and indeed engaging to the learner. The level of engagement of the lesson was evidenced by the activeness of students in responding to the questions and instructions given by the teacher. The level in which the children responded was indeed promising. For instance when they were responding to sound pronunciation and reading they portrayed a high level of engagement which in turn is a positive portray concerning language development in children. Adjusting the lesson based on the informal assessment was a bit challenging since it involves observation and questioning approaches. It is hard to define the potential learner and a challenged learner because at the course of a lesson all the learners are very and engaged and very responsive so it requires teachers to be more vigilant especially during the lesson introduction session.
The success of the strategies used in the language development was based on visual, audio and kinesthetic approaches. These approaches are believed to attract the learner’s attention and keep the learner well engaged throughout the lesson. This idea was recognized and applauded because it through this approach that the learner masters the sounds and phonetics.
The learning objectives of the learner were clearly evidenced they were achieved through the learner’s response to the teachers instructions and assessments conducted by the teacher through questioning and tasks given to individual student. The learner responses showed a clear articulation of the concepts as instructed by the teacher in with no doubt it was approved since it implemented the information on the lesson plan.
Handling literacy standard is surrounded by emergent issues that require target and goal setting that focuses on the phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension writing. The strategies used by the teacher in literacy development are the use of visual, audio and visual approaches. Learners may be given some pictures and what they represent to help them in literacy development. Concerning the lesson on phonemic awareness the teacher was able to introduce the new concept by reviewing on the letters on alphabet and the vowel letters and later connecting the alphabet letters and vowel letters to form a phoneme. We then organized to meet for a real observation and assessment. The teacher’s lesson plan was effective because it contained all the guidelines which are indicated in the lesson plan as earlier discussed. The source of the literacy development was also approved because all were obtained from the syllabus as required. Also differentiating individual needs was appropriately conducted through questioning and observation.
During the observation, the level of engagement displayed by the learners was excellent based on the teachers approach. The introduction of phonemic awareness begun by reviewing the letters of alphabet and the vowel letters reminding the learner all the sounds produced by the letters of alphabet and the vowel letters. The main discussion was to connect the letters to make phonemes. From the observation the children actively responded because of being engaged in the lesson based on the teacher’s instructions and questioning approaches. The method of adjustment from the previous knowledge was appropriate due to observations and questions made because it was inclusive of all the learners.
The objectives of the lesson were significantly achieved as most of the students were able to connect the alphabet and the vowel letters and manipulate them to come up with a phoneme and phonics.
After the observation here in is a lesson plan I came up with which is intended to be used in teaching a group of pre-school teaching on fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and.in this lesson the objective of the learner is to become fluent, identify the vocabulary and to be conversant with comprehension and writing. The assessment data are based on the lesson plan lay out. In the introduction the lesson on phonemes and phonics a renewed, furthermore the reading ability of the student. Coming to the main concept of fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and writing as a teacher write down some familiar words on a whiteboard and ask the learner to read. If the learner is able to read then embark on fluency by reminding the learners the sound and the phonemes and phonics through questioning. Engage the learners in reading the familiar words until they are fluent. Concerning vocabulary, the learner can identify the vocabulary once they are conversant with the familiar words and are in position to read without straining. New words are therefore introduced and the learner is given the meaning of the new words for instance by using the pictures to represent what the word means. In relation to comprehension a teacher can write some sentences containing familiar words and some vocabulary and instructing the learner to read the words in a sentence and deeply engaging the learner. Finally about writing let the learner that the words in the sentences comprise of the alphabet and vowel letters combined together. Remind the learner to write various vowel and alphabetical letters then later instruct them to link the letters to come up with the word and finally ask them to join words to form sentences. For the learners with special needs for instance the deaf the approach is the same but the audial approach is not employed.
After I used the lesson plan, I noticed that some areas needed to be adjusted in order to attract more the learner’s attention. This included giving the learner an opportunity to read the vocabulary by themselves which makes them fast and more engaged. I evaluated my lesson plan by completing the reflection lesson of the lesson plan and some of the approaches were effective even though some needed to be adjusted in general view the lesson plan was excellent.
References
Cullen, R. (2001). The use of lesson transcripts for developing teachers’ classroom language. System, 29(1), 27-43.
Harste, J. C. (1984). Language stories & literacy lessons. Heinemann Educational Books Inc., 70 Court St., Portsmouth, NH 03801.