Teaching in schools happens in the form of lessons. Lessons are based on goals of the class and objectives that the learners are expected to meet by the end of a lesson. Once the teacher sets the goals and objectives, s/he must devise a lesson plan for teaching those objectives. This chapter provides guidelines for developing lesson plans and includes sample lesson plans for each subject area.

Goals are usually broad concepts, such as "students should know the geography of their country." Objectives are more specific. They reflect the new pieces of information or skills that you are actually teaching. There may be several objectives and lessons under a single goal. For example, an objective for the above goal might state: "At the end of this lesson the students should be able to name all of the major cities in their country." Teachers can use objectives to organize their classes and lessons, and to determine whether a student has actually learned information. Students can be tested on their knowledge of objectives.

A lesson plan is a guide for the teacher. It is a teaching schedule that is organized according to objectives. It is important that your objectives are very clear, so it will be easier for you to check that the students have learned what you intended them to learn. Thoroughly planned lessons will help to ensure continuity and progress in learning. The teacher should start every lesson with a very short period of questioning the students in order to find out what they know about a new subject or how much they remember from a previous lesson. Remember to check by asking questions to individuals, without allowing one student's answer to stand for the whole class. After a few minutes of questioning, the teacher should start the teaching portion of the lesson, by telling students new information or showing them how to do a new skill.

7.1 Making a lesson plan Every lesson should be planned before the teacher begins teaching. It is always a good idea to write down the plan before going into the class. There are several basic parts to a lesson plan, although there can be many ways of writing it out. The table below presents the basic parts of lesson planning and provides practical suggestions for developing a comprehensive lesson plan.

7.2 Assessment: What it is, Why it is done, How it is done

What is assessment? Teaching is a process of change. Measuring the amount of change is called "assessment," and it is an essential part of teaching and learning process. Assessment seeks to evaluate both the newly acquired knowledge of the learner, and also the effectiveness of the teaching. Assessment is critical to how students view their educational experience and achievement; to schools as guides for improvement; and to nation because they measure educational accomplishment. Continuous assessment is the most popular and effective policy used around the world today.

Continuous assessment means that the students' work is done and marked throughout the term and the marks are carefully recorded. These marks are then accumulated and averaged to account for a percentage or total of the final grade. Assessment instruments vary; the most often used include the following:

• Test (written or oral): instrument created by the teacher to observe or classify students. Tests usually measure: (1) the amount the student knows; (2) the quality of the student's knowledge; (3) if the student has learned what was taught; and/or (4) whether the student knows enough to justify promotion to the next level.
• Diagnostic test: given to find out what the student knows before any teaching takes place. · Examination: Usually this is a serious type of test which is used to select or certify.
• Other assessment techniques: formal and informal observation of students, group projects, student homework, creative writing, project presentations, performances, etc.

Assessment of students should be open to the student and the student's parents or guardians. Often the marks are kept confidential to other students and persons, however. The teacher may devise his or her own system of testing, and a regular program is recommended (i.e., once a week or once every three weeks, etc.). However, a teacher should be careful not to spend all the time testing!

Why do we assess?

• To measure the progress of the learners You always hope that everything you have taught will have been learned. However, only a proportion has been learned, and not every member of the class has learned the same things. Your test results will show you what has or has not been learned, and which individuals have learned what.
• To find out how deeply the learners know the material In some cases, just being able to repeat information (i.e., writing capital letters) is sufficient. However, in other cases, you want to know that the learners can apply the knowledge (i.e., using capital letters properly in an essay).
• To find out how many and which students learned the material This will allow you to identify who needs extra help, and exactly what kind of help is needed. · To motivate the students Tests can force students to be serious, or students can regard them as a pleasant exercise. Either way, the students should desire to perform well.
• To show the teacher what to teach next Tests show the teacher what the students already know, and therefore they can amend their schedule to teach a certain part again, or to move on to the next segment.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of the teacher Tests should show the teacher where he or she has not been clear or where he or she was particularly successful.

Instructions First, instructions should be very clear to the student, and should be placed at the very start of the test. For example:

Please fill in each answer blank. You will not lose marks for misspelled words. r You will lose marks for mistakes in grammar, spelling, or punctuation, or if the marker cannot read your answer.

There are several types of tests and assessment tools. A few will be explained here.

Objective questions. An objective question is one to which there is only one answer. Following are four possible formats for objective questions:

Circle the correct answer: [It's/its/it's/Its] a long way to Cape Town.

Multiple-choice questions. This is a common type of objective test, and can be used to test most types of knowledge (except essay writing). For example:

Delhi is the capital of ... a) India b) Spain c) Malawi d) China

Try to vary the placement of the correct answer, For example, try to avoid having the correct answer always be choice a) or choice d).

Subjective questions. A subjective question requires that the marker use his or her own judgment as to the correctness of the answer. Essays, summaries, and explanations are all subjective tests. In theory, subjective tests should be as reliable as objective tests, however, we recognize that many different teachers could mark the same essay answer differently. Therefore, it is important to "objectify" the marking as much as possible. One way to do this is to divide the question up into sections and allocate marks to each section. It is a good idea to tell the student how marks are being allocated. For example:

Describe your best friend (20 marks, total). Say how you met (3), what you like about each other (5), what you do together (5), and mention anything else which is interesting (7).

PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS Essays can be exhausting and time-consuming to mark. A teacher may want to create a system in which, although all students would write an essay each week, the teacher read the whole essay on a rotating basis. The students know that the teacher is going to read his or her entire essay some weeks, but the students will not know when exactly the teacher will read his or her essay. This allows for maximum student writing, without the teacher overworking.

After the test! It is best to return to the student a fully-marked paper. However, if that is not possible, the student should be given back the test with a final mark. When returning papers, you should go over them, explaining why the correct answers are correct, and noting commonly made mistakes. It is also good to praise students with correct answers, being careful to praise as many students as possible, even those who are weaker.

How to mark tests All assessment should be evaluated and given a mark. Tests can be marked and tabulated in several ways.

Numbers. The most clear way of marking is to give the questions number values, and students can acquire points by answering questions correctly. At the end of the year (or set of lessons) the students with the most points have done very well, and the students with the fewest points may need to repeat lessons or may need extra help. An example of how to mark essay tests follows:

In this manner, the teacher has set up a point system, where the students' goal is to get all 20 points.

Symbols. Another way to assess is to give one of three different symbols, such as a happy face (for excellent/good work).

Letters. Letter grades are also effective, particularly in essay writing, group work, or general classroom management. Here are two examples given of how a teacher might give letter grades for general school activities, using an A - NC scale where:

NC = not acceptable, the work must be repeated

Attendance, lateness (each teacher should decide on appropriate number of absences) Student misses school...

Working with others Student is a leader, supports others, or helps others...

Goals and objectives The purpose of the lesson is help children recognize clean water and dirty water and know how to get clean water.

Teaching method and activities

1. Spend some time discussing water with the class:Where does water come from? What do we use it for?What will happen if we have no water at all?

2. Then lead the class into the next stage

:Is water the same wherever we find it? Can water do us harm? Where would we find the best water? What water should we avoid?Can we always see what water is good/bad?

3. Present the following facts to the class:

• Water can have bacteria, worms, and other living organisms in it which are too small to see.
• We can get diseases by drinking water which has been affected by animals.
• Children can be very badly affected by dirty water (diarrhea, worms, etc.)
• Boiling water reduces most of the danger.
• Importance of collecting water from clean sources.

4. Ask children to think/discuss the following question:If everyone knows that water should be boiled, why don't they do it?

5. Children may give you the following questions:People don't believe they will get diseases from the water. I cannot tell my mother to boil the water. I know we cannot get/afford enough firewood to boil water. Etc.

ROLE-PLAY

6. Break the class into groups. Each group will prepare a small role-play to act out the situation discussed in Question #5. Ask the children to suggests HOW to convince their mother, community members to change their behavior.

Time 30-40 minutes

Materials No specific materials needed.

From: The Spark handbook: A guide for teacher in Zambia's community schools. Zambia: UNICEF.

Teaching method and activities Have students put their hand in the box and attempt to describe to the other students what it is that he or she is feeling. This is a great place for the use of adjectives and to tie it to your language component. Also a great place to use words like fuzzy, smooth, jagged, etc.

You might also ask your older students to go out into the school yard and find a leaf or a rock or a seed that matches what he or she felt and bring it in to compare to the one in the box. This leads to classifying and more use of words like rough, hairy, smooth, etc.

An extension of this lesson would be for the students to each make their own touch n feel box. Encourage them to come up with difficult things to identify. Have students make a list of describing words used to identify the object in the box.

Caution must be used as to the objects used in the box. Nothing that could be dangerous to fellow students is to be used. This is a great place to introduce awareness for the environment. Also never allow any student to put a live animal in a box.

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER: This is a very good experience for the student who has not done very much classification.

Time 30-40 minutes

Materials

The list could go on and on by using your imagination and available materials.

From: gopher://ericir.syr.edu:70/00/Lesson/Subject/Science/cecsci.153

Goals and objectives The objectives of this lesson are:

• to identify different types of emergencies;
• to set different safety rules for emergency situations.

1.Encourage children to name or describe as many different kinds of emergencies as they can (such as a flood, an earthquake, a tornado, a hurricane, or an explosion, etc.) Record their ideas on the chalkboard or a large piece of newsprint.

2.Pick one of the suggestions, for example, explosion. Write its description at the center of a circle. Then ask children to picture themselves coming to school on a day like that. Write children's responses outside the circle (or draw them), then connect them to the circle with straight lines.

3.Divide the class into several teams, each of which is responsible for thinking of common-sense rules for one type of emergencies. Be sure children understand that their common-sense rules should include safety rules.

4. Have teams brainstorm for a set period of time. Then, on poster card or chalkboard, record (or have a student-volunteer record) the common-sense rules for each type of emergency.

5. Encourage team members to make drawings of safety rules for their posters. Or they might draw themselves in an emergency situation. Add the drawings to the poster.

TEACHING OPTIONS Involve family members in developing safety rules for different kinds of emergencies. Divide a paper into quarters and list each set of rules under a descriptive title. Leave space for parents or other family members to add their suggestions if possible.

Refer to the posters as each kind of emergency occurs. Encourage children to re-evaluate the rules and amend them if necessary.

Should children become alarmed after hearing predictions of emergencies (such as blizzards, hurricanes, earthquakes, landmines, etc.), remind them of their safety rules and stress that there are ways of protecting ourselves in some kinds of emergencies.

Time 30-40 minutes

Materials Chalkboard and chalk

Purpose The revolution of the earth around the sun is a phenomenon that is hard for students to deal with concretely. The following lesson will help students to more fully understand our planet's relationship to the sun.

Students will observe the following about shadows:

2. The angle of the suns rays to the earth changes from day to day, week to week.

Teaching method and activities On the school grounds find a shadow cast by a fence post, tree, or any other object. Have students observe the length and position of the shadow. Students may then make predictions about any changes that occur in the length and direction of the shadow throughout the day.

Allow students to observe the shadow throughout the day. Students should then make predictions about the shadow's length and angle of the ray to the earth if it is measured at the same time every day. Students should then measure the shadow each day and graph the results. (12:00noon is an ideal time)

At the end of each week find the average length of the shadow and angle of the suns rays to the earth. Students will see a change in the shadow's length and the angle of the sun's rays.

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER: Students should conclude from their data that the position of the earth to the sun changes with the seasons. Hence in spring the shadow will show that the angle between the rays and earth has grown bigger and the sun is more directly overhead thus producing warmer temperatures.

Time 30-40 minutes

Materials No special materials needed.

From: gopher://ericir.syr.edu:70/00/Lesson/Subject/Science/cecsci.154