Three Types of Lessons Reflections

     Today, in the virtual class we discussed the three types of lessons which included: direct, inquiry, and cooperative learning lessons. Direct is a similar type of lesson to explicit. the inquiry lesson is about getting the students to critical think with problems given to them by the teacher. Last, the cooperative lesson is incorporating their social skills and group work. 

     The first type of lesson, the direct lesson plan, which is straight forward instruction. The direct lesson plan was a type of lesson plan that i had trouble with to begin. To talk in the lesson plan as a single teacher was difficult. It is new trying to learn how to just lecture the students, because I always felt that the elementary age group was too young to just lecture. My direct lesson plan was a journey learning how to teach explicitly. It was a new learning experience. When it came to teaching a direct lesson plan, it was actually surprisingly easier than other lessons. Just lecturing second graders turned out to be very easy for me. I really loved teaching the direct lesson plan in the end. I also think that the students retained a lot more of the information from the direct lesson than any other of the two lessons we did. 

     The second type of lesson is the inquiry lesson. this type of lesson was very difficult to follow. Overall the inquiry lesson was the hardest. I find that the critical thinking part of the lesson was very difficult to get the younger students to grasp. Also, I think that the students need a sufficient amount of time to be able to complete this type of lesson. The inquiry lesson is a long and developmental type of lesson, so to only give student maybe twenty minutes to work on the task is not fair. I also personally think that it is not only unfair, but almost impossible to do in twenty minutes. The students, who have little to no ability to think critically are now being asked to develop that skill in twenty minute intervals. The point I am trying to make is that for students to develop a strong sense of critical thinking, the students need time and good prompts. The ability to work with group members is one that the students will need for the next lesson, cooperative learning. 

     The last, and final type of lesson that I am going to mention is cooperative learning. The cooperative learning seemed to be less effort to put in the lesson and more within our actual materials. For instance, when putting together the lesson I just had to write down my ides, but when preparing it took a few hours just to plan out the materials and putting the materials altogether. Cooperative learning lessons are a little tricky when it comes to the 5-PIGS which are: positive independence, individual accountability, group processing, social skills, and face-to-face interaction. It is important to make sure that these 5 PIGS are included in the cooperative lesson because this is what you will be evaluating yourself on when finished with the lesson plan. Also, these are the most important skills that the students must pick up.

      Overall, I think it is important to know these types of lessons, especially cooperative learning and inquiry because these are the student centered lessons. This is also what edTPA focuses on: student centered learning. I think that the virtual meeting for class today was beneficial because it helped all of my colleagues and I elaborate on the different types of lessons. I am excited for Group 2 to start teaching on Thursday!