Paige Mekola

Elizabeth Beese
Case 3 Children in Spain

Case 3- The Sub

Case three was a little difficult to work with in the sense that there were some correct
aspects about it, and several hidden incorrect factors as well. Right away, I noticed that the
objectives were completely scattered. It stated, Students will understand the following: 1) How
children in Spain live compared to the USA, 2) How to work together in-group activities. First
and foremost, the word understand is in the category of verbs that must be avoided while
constructing a lesson plan; it makes the goal unclear for what should be expected of the students.
Instead of saying understand, a different verb can take its place, such as, Students should
describe, identify, measure, explain, translate, compare, construct, define, compose, or adjust the
following. This makes the objective a bit more coherent for the students and teacher, too. Next,
the objectives themselves seemed a bit far-fetched; for example, there is not really a measurable
aspect to either. They also lack certain ingredients that make up an objective, such as
performance, conditions, and criteria. Its imperative that the objectives are comprehensible in
order to achieve a successful class lesson.
Now on to the material and procedural portions of the lesson plan. There were several
flaws that I felt were not suitable to keep in this plan for a sub to teach to third-fifth graders. The
materials do not seem specific enough to obtain. Are they provided in this particular school? Do
such books and online sources exist? There is no example site or reference sheet for the sub to
work with. Although the procedures in this lesson plan do incorporate these materials, they are in
ways that do not seem too efficient for the students sake. The procedures themselves are a tad
sloppy for the first couple of steps, but they are potentially acceptable for the designated lesson.
However, towards the middle of the lesson, the students get split into groups of six. They are
assigned a different portion to research, each group using different sources of the materials. This
could be okay, but I would not go about things in this fashion, so that each student has an equal
opportunity to obtain the proper information. For example, a student using a legitimate book
source that covers the exact subject matter may have a jump start in their research compared to a
student who may be getting their information from Wikipedia. The next area that does not seem
suitable whatsoever for this lesson plan is the entire concept of the panel discussion. First of all,
only certain students who are deemed experts on the material go up to participate in the panel
while the rest sit, silently grading them in the crowd. How does this provide a chance for every
student to have a better understanding of the lesson? The evaluation is based off of students
observations of other students; this method is immeasurable because it is not an accurate way of
discovering if the students took anything from the lesson. I believe that this lesson plan could be
tidied up a bit by perhaps finding an alternate activity for the students to all collectively
participate in whether than so much division of the classroom. A clear objective that is shared
with the class will also assist in making the lesson plan for successful.

Paige Mekola
Elizabeth Beese
Case 3 Children in Spain