e-learning shihui

I think that the theories used in this lesson plan are cognitivism and interactionism.

Cognitivism

The use of cognitivism can be seen in main activity 1 where the teacher explicitly points out the rules for pupils to follow, for e.g. ‘before a full stop or exclamation mark, syllables have a fall tone, and before a comma or question mark, syllables have a rise tone’.

Cognitivism also emphasizes that learners must participate actively in order to learn. In this lesson plan, pupils are often given the chance to participate in the learning process, they are given opportunities to do pair work and also to do individual work in which they would grade their own recording using a checklist.

Interactionism

There is also an element of interactionism because pupils are often paired up and then given a task, and lastly pupils have to feedback to each other. Since pupils have to interact with each other in order in learn and gain knowledge, specifically knowledge about the way they read and how and where they can improve, it is most probable that interactionism is considered and included in the construction of this lesson plan.

Strengths:

There is ample practice for pupils to learn, or hopefully, master the type of tone to use when they are trying to express a particular intention.

The activities chosen are suitable and likely to help pupils achieve the learning/lesson objectives.

The teacher provides a model for good reading, as well as average and bad reading. This scaffolds pupils well before they are to do an individual recording and grade themselves.

The lesson is a student-centred one. According to Towndrow (2007), student-centred learning ‘reduces disruption and discipline problems’ and ‘raises motivation levels’. This would save the teacher a lot of trouble as behavior management can be time-consuming.

Weaknesses:

The lesson seems to be time-consuming. Conversation script in appendix 2 seems to be very long. Perhaps a shorter conversation script can be used either by modifying the current one or by replacing it with a new one.