A Learning Experience in My Multimedia Lesson Plan

I have once used the ASSURE lesson plan format from another education class. So I was already familiar with the features of this layout. However, I had a difficult time assembling and putting together my ideas during the creation process of my multimedia cereal lesson plan because I was unsure and undecided as to which content area I could incorporate it with. Stating our objectives individually in class provided a better understanding about the requirements in making my multimedia lesson plan. Furthermore, setting up meetings with some of my classmates was such a great help in generating well-improved thoughts for this project. As a produce, I entitled my lesson as, “Be smart, Eat well” and tied it along with language arts.

Creating a lesson plan demands a lot of effort and time to ensure that all students’ needs are accommodated. Kubilinskiene, Svetlana and Dagiene, Valentina (2010) state that, “A lesson plan is an auxiliary teacher’s work for preparing, organizing, and conducting a lesson” (p. 217). Hence, a well-developed lesson plan will enable a teacher to deliver his or her lesson to students in a smoother manner. If I were to create a similar lesson plan to the same group of students, I would include more rules during their cooperative learning groups. Students being placed in a group together will involve more participation if they are assigned with specific duty and responsibility. Since there are mostly four students in a group, members will decide as to who will be the note taker, the Infogram editor, the computer handler, and the researcher. To reassure that the student with mild autism and the English Language Learner are progressing, they will be assigned to work with the researcher because this will enable them to practice their speaking and communication skills. Instead of using PowerPoint in the end, I would rather use Emaze presentation tool because it has better looking and more enticing templates students could use for their presentation. Because there are lesser tabs for editing in Emaze, students will be able to easily navigate it and use their time wisely in enhancing their final piece.

I would use the same materials for creating a similar lesson plan to the same group of students because the different technological devices used will broaden their ability to utilize these tools not only for games and entertainment, but for academic purposes as well. The activities will be applied similarly because they allow students to practice their speaking, listening, and writing skills. Their speaking and listening skills are tested in brainstorming about the information or data inputted in their presentation. Their writing skill is practiced during the note taking process and word choice formation during their presentation.

Based on the lesson plan I made, I could tie this to a health class by asking students to write down their most favorite fruit juice brand. Students will still be in cooperative learning groups. Each student will bring his or her most favorite fruit juice in class. They will write down their salt, fat, and sugar content individually. However, for this lesson, they will be assigned with a different duty and responsibility. For instance, the student who was the computer handler in the previous lesson will become the Infogram editor. This allows the students to be explorers because they get to have a new task. Furthermore, communication, interaction, and learning are enhanced because they get advises from the student who has had their current position. As Taqi, Hanan A. and Al-Nouh, Nowreyah A. (2014) suggest, “cooperative learning result in better achievement than individualistic learning” (p. 53). 

The information gathered from the evaluation is used to assess each student’s mastery of the lesson’s objectives. Once I have all the graded evaluation forms of the students, I will then take notes about the areas students had difficulty in meeting with. For example, one group’s bar graph is not organized. For future instruction, I will show and explain further to students the proper way of using the Infogram application. Another way is to print out handouts with graphics and notes on how to operate Infogram correctly. The evaluation is tied to my lesson objectives by setting them as my criteria in judging the students’ competency in using these tools effectively and efficiently. Students can earn 25 points if their bar graph consists of the salt, fat, and sugar content of the cereal being advertised compared to the other cereals. Students can acquire a maximum of 20 points if their healthiest cereal advertisement contains 5-10 slides. 

An important element of teaching that was not mandatory included in the ASSURE lesson plan is the insertion of the Common Core standards. I would include these standards to guarantee students that the teacher is aware, knowledgeable of, and following the standards required in teaching. Furthermore, I would incorporate an anticipatory set in my lesson to get the students started. This is a good way to get students involved and easily relate the activity to the upcoming lesson.

Perhaps, an article about the cereal misconceptions will better educate and make good decision making in the students food choices. Another resource that would further enhance the lesson is to teach students to incorporate voiceover and music using garage band in their presentation because this will permit them to use another technological tool. In case they do not finish their work on time, students will be taught to create a Gmail account for each group. This application allows them to save their unfinished work in draft or make a drive so they can make revision without meeting up personally.

To make the lesson plan more challenging, I will have each group create a bar graph using a spreadsheet instead of just updating a pre-made bar graph in Infogram. Another way is to have each group include the mean and median of the three cereals in their presentation to find out the average salt, fat, and sugar content that their body absorbs every time they eat these cereals. Lastly, students will be asked to create a persuasive quote for consumers to buy their cereal by creating a banner using Microsoft Word.

Creating a multimedia lesson plan is a great way to practice the teacher’s skills in keeping track with the advancing technology. This was a challenging task in the beginning, but turned out to be a great learning experience because I, as an aspiring teacher, have to really think through and formulate activities students could relate to in order to keep them enthusiastic and interested in the lesson. The students can easily access this type of lesson plan as long as they are given the URL account, which is a good way to save papers.

References

Kubilinskiene, S. & Dagiene, V. (2010). Technology-based lesson plans: Preparation and description. Informatics in Education, 9(2), 217-228.

Taqi, H.A. & Al-Nouh, N.A. (2014). Effect of group work on EFL students’ attitudes and learning in higher education. Journal of Education and Learning, 3(2), 52-65.