EIT TASK 3 revised

 

 

 

 

 

 

EIT TASK 3

Name

Course: EIT TASK 3

 

EIT TASK 3

When preparing teaching lessons, it is very important for teachers to understand and align the curriculum in a way that is easy for students to follow. All the teaching materials, learning resources and strategies are supposed to be accepted academically. In each lesson prepared, there must be certain goals intended to be achieved and evaluation must be done to assess the progressiveness of the process (Tosh, 2006). The lesson to be discussed will be history for a high school student. At the end of this lesson the students will be expected to;

• Understand and appreciate the American history.
• Be able to recall dates when certain historical events took place.
• Understand and be able to use computer based information in the learning of history.
• Be able to remember photographic images of historical monuments and sites.

At the end of every class students will partake in discussions of what they had learned in and Continuous Assessment Tests will be issued periodically, which will account for 30% of the final marks. At the end of the term, there will be an exam covering all that was learned and this will account for 60% of the marks. The remaining 10% will come from assignments.

Preparing a lesson for history might be broad since it has a lot of information covered and therefore, requires some resources where lesson information and materials can be extracted. Below are some resources, which can be used to get information for this lesson.

Resource 1:  History Books

Resource 2: Visual Aids (power point presentations)

Resource 3: Academic Websites

1. 1.      History books.

This type of resource includes published material of the teaching guide for middle school.  It contains text and graphics that give a basic description of history.

Hakim, J. (2002). The First Americans Prehistory-1600: Teaching Guide for Middle School & High School Classes bk. 1 (History of US). Oxford University Press.

 

History books should be used to teach the literature review of history. They have many advantages that encourage their use as teaching resources for teachers. They are designed in a manner that is suitable for educating high school students. In terms of the accuracy of U.S. history, the books are more informative. Information of American prehistory is logical and well organized which enables students understands the occurrences more and in details. Objectives are clearly defined, and this enables the actualization of learning objectives. Other information, such as that from ice age helps to achieve the necessary objectives. This helps in emphasizing relevant and important issues, since information on this resource is clearly organized, students are able. Furthermore, examples from different periods are meaningful and helpful since they are realistic. The questions in these history books are presented in a manner that is logical and they are clear. This makes them easy to answer.

Apart from that, important points are emphasized i.e. one, establishing the value of studying history, and two, European voyagers and their exploration into America, and the early efforts of the Spanish and French in colonization. In addition to that, points are detailed and clear. The books are a good resource since they ensure they provide adequate information on the subject. The books have no restrictions since; instructional material is free of gender, race, religion, or ethnic bias. Media elements fairly represent constituents of career fields in terms of race and gender. They are clearly evaluated for better understanding. History books offer a lot of information and literature in the history field and they are essential in the lesson teaching.

1. 2.      Visual Aids (power point presentations)

Power points offer a chronological system of learning. It makes use of text and images in its portrayal of history. This PowerPoint gives a brief description of World War 1. The individuals involved and the crisis leading up to it.

Reference.

The causes of World War 1 by A. Finemess    < www.SchoolHistory.co.uk>

Power point presentations can be used to portray Historical Ages. They have many features that encourage their use as a teaching resource. Some art collected to be presented may not contain information that is current in relation to American history. Information reflected may not be complete. They can be used to depict American Ice age history since the collected information comes from reliable sources. Visual content of Historical periods moves learners beyond the basics and encourages higher levels of thinking. This encourages students to evaluate them so as to view the art. Power points enable consistency of titles and information layout with regard to American history, due to their structure and organization. This resource accommodates unique learning styles and various ability levels which will attract more attention from students. Since most historical arts are not age specific, this resource is suitable for the age and grade level.

The procedure involved in this resource insures a number of interactions in each lesson making learning easier. This ensures all students participate in the learning activity. A power point presentation lesson motivates learners to continue to learn, thus mastering concepts.

In power point presentations, text is clear and easily readable. It is also easy to comprehend. Furthermore, course lessons are attractive to look at.

1. 3.      Academic websites.

Academic websites are resources that are found online. They offer learning materials, guidelines for the course work and objectives of the study.

Reference:

Historical Podcasts. (2010). Historical Podcasts – A Collection: A Collection of History Podcasts

Retrieved on 14^th, April, 2011 from <<http://sites.google.com/site/historicalpodcasts/home>>

Academic websites can be used to teach cultural diversity. They also have different factors that encourage their use as teaching resources. Some websites have graphical collections of history Podcasts which make lessons easier to learn. Historical layout is clear, and learners can find whatever they need since they are rationally presented. History Podcasts are easy to navigate through to find necessary features and interested parties can easily find them. Clear and clean fonts are used consistently, presenting all the information clearly.

Academic websites can offer some form of efficiency, since no unnecessary information is included in the History Podcast website and sufficient numbers of examples and practice items are included in the lessons. The lessons in these podcasts help students learn the material due to easy exploration.

 

As earlier explained, the grading level for this lesson is intended for students in high school. The subject area is history with the following learning objectives;

• To evaluate the relevance and importance of resources used and their appropriateness in helping the students’ understanding capabilities.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of using computer based information as teaching materials.
• Selecting cultural and linguistic materials necessary for learning processes.
• The student is expected to possess knowledge of American history.
• The student is expected to name some important dates in history, for example, the American civil war.
• The student is expected to list countries that were involved in the two world wars.
• A student is expected to do two assessment tests to evaluate his or her level of content mastery.
• The student is expected to explain factors in the past that have led to present events.
• The student is expected to paint a picture of how the past has shaped the future.

 

Guidelines are very important in teaching. Guideline should basically include timelines of teaching, goals to be attained and how to deal with challenges. Timelines have to be drawn up by the teacher and students, the different aspects of the history lesson should be allocated time in which they are to be completed so as to cover the whole lesson by the end of a term. The goals include both of the teacher and students. The teacher should be able to know what they hope to achieve in their students by the end of the lesson and students as well should be aware of the objectives and areas of study of the lesson. Challenges will also have to be planned for in advance, for instance students and teachers may decide that in the event a lesson is missed, time outside the normal school time should be allocated to recover it. With such guidelines in place the progress and success of the lesson is guaranteed.

It is important for teachers to use the following aspects in their evaluation of resources to use in teaching.

Design- in this case the information is in a logical manner and is quite enough for study. The books can be evaluated in such a manner. The way the book is arranged, the amount of content in the books and clarity in describing the objectives and outcomes that this resource contains can be used as an evaluation tool.

Procedures – this refers to the method used while using such a resource to teach. In the case of visual aids student participation is important. Instructions given are quite simple and the number of students who participate is an indication of the success or failure of the resource.

Clarity – in the case of visual aids, the texts should be easy to read and also to understand and the images should be clear enough to be comprehended. In the case of pod casts the information that is contained in them is quite accurate and clear.

Efficiency – in the case of academic websites the amount contained in them is just enough with clear and brief answers to questions. There is no unnecessary information, the lessons help the students in their studies and finally there are many examples for practice.

History is a very broad subject (Tosh, 2006). Resources chosen in this lesson are books, visual arts, and academic websites. The reason for choosing the book “The First Americans Prehistory-1600” is because it has adequate information and has a wide range of coverage of juvenile history of the United States (Lemon, 1995). The book also contains some graphic images that may alleviate some of the boredom experienced by the students. The visual art was chosen so as to offer students with a clear picture of history. The PowerPoint presentation provides lots of information with lots of illustrations that can be available to learners through the specified visual images. This means that the teacher is understands the mindset of the learners. Learners need to know how the historical events are represented. Through these visual aids the students are able to paint a clear picture of what the past was like and this is greatly helpful in moments where the student needs to recall some information about a certain time in history. Lastly, academic websites are chosen due to their diverse availability. The Historical Podcasts website is important because it hold information which is globally accessible hence displaying easy historical and cultural interactions. The website is a source of information that is both in the form of facts or opinions. The students can be able to participate in discussions with other students or experts in the field. This may help them better grasp what they learn in class. A student is also able to post questions to fellow students or experts in case they are not able to understand. Such forums will benefit a student to a point that they are able to enjoy the class lectures and any assignments handed to them.

All areas used to evaluate this lesson are very important. For example, the “The First Americans Prehistory-1600” book is very rich in information regarding literature reviews and American ice age history. The book introduces all aspects clearly and explains it in depth to the readers’ understanding. Visual arts are best sources of historical ages as they show what and how things were at a particular time (Lowenthal, 2000) it provides pictures to the learners and gives them the actual look of the environment as changes took place during early ages. The use of both text and images in visual aid is helpful. The text from the PowerPoint presentation may referenced from other sources or the whole presentation would be published and as such could be used to cite cases or as a reference. Visual aids further provide a relief from the normal lectures that mainly consist of the teacher dictating or lecturing. In addition, academic websites are areas where information about different cultures can easily be retrieved. It gives different but detailed historical views from different writers hence providing better learning materials for the students and teachers. Academic resources are also a point where works that are not published can be found. Unpublished works that are not found in books provide information that is equally important. For example, one may write the history of their community and not have that work published. The books at this point would be useless; a quick research on the internet academic sites would prove fruitful.

It is very important to choose culturally appropriate and linguistically sensitive materials because lessons prepared may address specific people.

In the issue of culture, educators are expected to be aware of the cultural differences of his or her students. Strategies and policies have to put in place to ensure that the curriculum that is used acknowledges and respects the cultures and beliefs of all students. Statistics show that the number of children, who are different from the “normal”, will continue to increase and as such measures have to be put in place to handle them. Some of these children are not good in terms of academics because the system did not acknowledge them and were thus left out.

In terms of linguistics, the way a teacher will communicate with the students will bear some effect on the student’s performance. In order for the students to understand better, they require sensitive materials like the book “The First Americans Prehistory-1600” which they are able to connect with their in their daily lives. According to the lesson structure, the visual art used was important because if students are exposed to more visual information, it will enhance their research capabilities and thus will be adversely informed. On the other hand websites provide different access to several opinions on one topic. This enables students to rate, appreciate and enjoy history. Therefore, all materials and information got from these resources are believed to be equally important as they offer different perspectives of the assayed subject.

All the three mentioned resources have their own contribution in form of enhancing student learning. History books should be encouraged more since, a lot of effort was put in when writing them which enhance their authenticity. However, many students do not find it appeasing to read books and they prefer other sources. To prevent the prejudice associated with such, teachers should involve the use of other resources. The power point presentation as much as they offer colorful text or pictures, they are time consuming when creating them and they do not allow the passing of a lot of information without reducing their font size. They should only be applied in classrooms that do not have many students. Academic websites are the newest addition to the learning system and they offer a lot of information that can be updated and also access of information is faster compared to other resources. The use of academic websites may be reduced due to the fact that, not everyone also prefers computers. All the three resources rely on each other and they should be used interchangeably where possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Hakim, J. (2002). The First Americans Prehistory-1600: Teaching Guide for Middle School &

High School Classes bk. 1 (History of US). Oxford University Press

Historical Podcasts. (2010). Historical Podcasts – A Collection: A Collection of History Podcasts

retrieved on 14^th, April, 2011 from <http://sites.google.com/site/historicalpodcasts/home>

Lemon, M.C. (1995).The discipline of history and the history of thought. New York: Routledge Press.

Lowenthal, D. (2000). Dilemmas and delights of learning history: Knowing teaching and learning history, national and international perspectives. New York: New York University Press.

Tosh, J. (2006). The pursuit of history. London: Pearson Education Limited.