Lesson Planning

[StudentMum92]

I'm doing an education degree. I need to do a 20min microteach to my peers. I've decided to teach how to make slime. The kind that's a solid when pressure is applied but liquid otherwise. How do I put this in a lesson plan? What could be the extension or 'further learning'?

Thanks!

Do your own work

Also if you cant think of a lesson around it nor an extension of it, its probably a bad idea in the first place

Here you go OP, let me do your assignment for you....oh hang on....

Thanks for your helpful comment. It's difficult writing a lesson plan for adults.

Oo, these people are mean! Extension or 'further learning' could be either something they could do with the slime, like an experiment to test its sliminess (!) or something else they could make in a similar way to the slime i.e. using the same processes. I can't help further as I know nothing about how to make slime...

Well what are your learning outcomes? What is the actual learning objective of the activity? What activity will your learners do? How will you know if your learners have achieved what you wanted them to? i.e. What will they reflect on or do to demonstrate their learning. What AiFL will you use?

Don't change your lesson planning process because they're adults! Same principles apply.

No offence but designing a lesson plan is the backbone of education. So i think you're fucked.

Further learning could be how if you change the properties of slime it won't work and why?

What is it you are trying to teach? What is the one, main thing, you want them to learn in this lesson? It's not how to make slime, is it? Is is something about solids and liquids? What exactly?

I think if you can identify that, in one sentence, and it needs to be linked to the National Curriculum, it;ll be easier.

You might also want to post in "Staffroom", where you may get more helpful responses, and in the evening, when you are likely to get more teachers responding.

I'm assuming you are putting in your lesson- how and why the properties work together?

And ... another way to think about extension is to think of scaffolding. How are you going to ensure that everyone in your class learns this? What sort of scaffolding do you need to provide to ensure everyone does? (Pretend your adults are children!) Some will need more, some will need less. What sort of questions are going to arise in the minds of children after they've learnt this? How can you facilitate them using this new concept and applying it to other (related) areas?

Is your lesson based on children but you are delivering for adults? Or will your lesson be for adults and delivering for adults?
You say you are doing a degree but don't say which age range you are teaching- primary, secondary, post 16+ or adult education.

You could teach that to adults the same way as 14yos.
So plan as if 14yos and go from there.

Step back a bit. Why do you think it is a good idea to teach them this, what will they learn from it? What other materials have the same properties and how can this be used in other areas of life?

It's difficult because I'd usually link learning outcomes with the curriculum of the age group but obviously as adults there is no curriculum. If it was adults pretending to be school age, that would be straightforward. But it isn't. We're planning for adults and delivering to adults.

Same rules apply, though. What do you want them to learn? Why is that a good use of their time (an question usually answered with reference to the NC)?

Sharing best practice is drummed into every teacher. Which is basically nick the best ideas. Thats the backbone of teaching.

Why are you teaching adults how to make slime? Other than so they can teach kids themselves.

Non-Newtonian solid, practical applications and uses of in the wider world, other materials that behave in the same way. Get into the chemistry of it. Look at some YouTube video links for ideas.
Your fellow students, how much science do they have? Look for the oooh factor, even for adults.

Further practice might be encouraging them to design a new kimd e.g. by adding colours or glitter.

If it's just a creative exercise you don't need to link it to a curriculum but it still shows you can offer extra possibilities.

Oh but yes - good point - figure out why you'd be teaching it, even if it's a made up or shaky reason. Then link your extra stuff to the why. That's key for teaching ime.

You might get a better response posting in The Staff room section of the Education section

If it was adults pretending to be school age, that would be straightforward. But it isn't. We're planning for adults and delivering to adults.

Why don't you teach something useful that is linked to your PGCE then? Something that actually has a learning outcome.

That way you get the useful practice of lesson planning and you don't waste their time by making them sit through a totally useless 20 mins of making slime.

your fundamental question should be WHY am I teaching this?
WHAT will they learn?

Sounds as if you started with slime and can't work out why anyone would need to learn it. If that is really the cas,e then slime is a rubbish lesson.

If you are talking about cornflour slime, where it changes state according to pressure, then your learning outcomes would be around understanding that the state of an object is dependent on pressure. extensions could be what else is state dependent upon? eg temp.

(if you are doing the cornflour slime, try looking up the slime on a speaker experiment, it is great, need a portable cd player though.