In this reflection I will talk about how teachers
should work in the why and how of a lesson when planning, and making things
understandable for students is a bridge that could help; this taking into
account my lesson plan and its implementation and the one of my classmates. A
teacher should understand the deep meaning of the topic they are presenting and
how students can they use it in their lives (the why), and use all of the tools
they deem necessary to make this topic and its meaning understandable for the
students (the how); the tools include multimedia, activities, acting, among
many others.
Sometimes the teacher get distracted on how to
implement a lesson plan and forget why they are carrying out that plan, or
concentrates on the why but neglects the how; this is why it is very important
to achieve a balance between the why and the how. In my lesson plan I used many
of the tools learned in the Bilingual Education class, and took into account
the SIOP model features and many of the activities proposed for each SIOP item
(the how). The plan was based on the comprehensible input topic we saw in the
class, where I wanted, through different activities, to make abstract and
controversial, but very important concepts, clear for them (the why). Also, the
students would learn to make founded decisions based on understanding instead
of judging; to achieve this they would carry out different activities following
a sequence that would lead them there. I wanted to show them their progress,
letting them know they can understand and have opinions about many topics, with
the necessary tools.
From the why to the how there is a huge gap, we could
see it as a cliff and as we saw in this class there are ways to build bridges
that help us get from one side to the other, as the bridges we help them build by
planning for their language needs. The bridges from the why to the how can be
built by using the different SIOP features in the planning; the content and
language objectives, and the comprehensible input item, are examples of bridges
that if you use correctly will help us connect the why and how of your lesson. In
my lesson, I had difficulties between the why and the how that were worked
throughout the lesson, where the comprehensible input was the bridge that I
used to achieve the connection. Another very important thing is the planning of
time, which in my case was something that made difficult that connection. However,
with practice and the use of all the tools learned we can be able to carry out
lessons that have the mentioned balance.
Watching the lessons of my classmates and taking into
account mine, we can see very different methods and styles of teaching; each of
them can be successful if they balance the why and how using what we learned in
the Bilingual Education class, particularly on the SIOP model. These SIOP tools
that we use we can also teach them to our students along with self-knowledge
for them to use in their daily lives; for example, by teaching them to connect
concepts with their background experiences, or if they learn about the
importance of practice and application. I learned a lot from this Bilingual
Education class, and with continued practice I will be able to apply it to my
teaching career.
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