The evidence provided are screenshots of a lesson plan, which is a science lesson about objects and its materials. The lesson was an introductory lesson to chemical sciences. As a preservice teacher, it was important to base my planning on official curriculum, which is the Australian Curriculum. The learning area chosen is Science, with the strand ‘Science Understanding’ and the sub-strand ‘Chemical Sciences’ (ACARA 2018). My supervising teacher and I agreed that exploring objects and materials was a good place to start chemical sciences, and the screenshots of the running schedule show how the content has been organised into a teaching and learning sequence from the beginning to the end of the lesson.

The teaching sequence in this lesson was inspired by Lev Vygotsky’s theory that prior knowledge of the learner is an important starting point to scaffold their knowledge, as they work with more knowledgeable others until they can work more independently themselves (Ewing et al. 2019, p. 77-78). The introduction involved a lot of questioning strategies in order to find out what already students know, and to develop their emerging ideas as they make observations and think about the provocations and questions. The development section of the lesson gradually introduced different types materials, such as plastic, paper, glass, metal, etc. Students were also given the opportunity to think about the composition of materials and its purposes with partners. The consolidation and practice section of the lesson involved examining the glass jam jar with a metal lid, together as a class on the white board. Afterwards, students were tasked to individually choose an object from the box and to examine its composition of materials and its purposes/characteristics by drawing on their book and labelling them. As an educator, it is important to plan the sequences of lessons effectively in order to support children and build their confidence as learners.

References:

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) 2018, F-10 Curriculum: Science – Year 2, ACARA, viewed 26 October 2020, <https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/science/>

Ewing, R, Kervin, L, Glass, C, Gobby, B, Le Cornu, R & Groundwater-Smith, S 2019, Teaching: Dilemmas, challenges and opportunities, 6th edn, Cengage Learning Australia, South Melbourne, Australia.