Justein Henry

Ed. Psych.

10/27/09

Lesson Plan Analysis #1:

An Egyptian Economist

http://www.dia.org/education/egypt-teachers/socstud/vian/activity.htm

Lesson plans are as numerous as they are diverse. With today’s technology and the availability of the internet, finding a lesson plan is as simple as a click away. It is nearly effortless for almost anybody to post or even fabricate information on a website. There are entire sites specifically devoted to lesson plans and some are even categorized by subjects. However, with the internet’s shamelessly easy accessibility, it is imperative that teachers are especially cautious of using the lesson plans that they find on-line. Just as teachers are expected to be critical consumers of information, it is also important for them to be critical and analytical consumers of lesson plans taken from various web pages.

When looking for a lesson plan on the internet, I focused on finding one via a .org site because they have more credibility than a .com. I also wanted to find a lesson plan that I would want to use within my own classroom, but focusing on a different subject than one I might teach. An “Egyptian Market Day” is the title of the lesson plan I am using, and it is geared towards early elementary education students.

This lesson plan states that approximately two weeks prior to the Egyptian Market Day the teacher should begin teaching materials about the concepts that will be demonstrated on that day. This type of teaching allows students to learn deductively. The students are taught and then given a chance to show what they know through examples, or in this case, through participating successfully in the Market Day. This type of teaching is especially useful when teaching more complicated ideas such as fair trade, bartering, supply and demand, and methods of buying and selling. It is the easiest way for the students to take the information that they learn and put it into practice. The information given to them at first might be slightly above their zone of proximal development (ZPD). However, the purpose of working on these concepts for approximately two weeks is so that the teacher has enough time to make sure that every student reaches a common level of understanding. I would argue that in order for the students to be better prepared for that day, the teacher should arrange for some demonstrations or small group activities prior to the event. This would help the students understand and value the process of learning the concepts that they will be expected to use.

The first activity in this lesson plan is an example of elaborative rehearsal. Through being taught about the economic system, supply and demand, and trading the students are given important information that they may or may not be able to connect with the outside world. The “Egyptian Market Day” gives them a chance to use their skills and use the given information and concepts. The students are applying it to real world concepts in order to gain knowledge. This is an example of elaborative rehearsal because the students are doing more with the information than simply repeating it in order to memorize it. The students are attaching associations through verbal and visual devices. For the brain, the more unusual the better and in this case an Egyptian market is something unfamiliar to the students. It would be advantageous for the teachers to give a test on this material after the Market Day was completed so that the students would have time to process the material and to have practiced it in a real world setting.

Elabortive rehearsal can also be seen in this lesson plan as the students are making connections between Ancient Egyptian society and Egyptian society today. Similarly, it is important for the students to connect Ancient Egyptian society to the society in which they live. When the students make these connections their schemes go through adaptation, which means that they are adjusting in response the environment and the new information they are being given. As the brain assimilates the information, the student will have cognitively reorganized the information that they have and it will be easily accessible to recall because such personal and unusual connections have been made.

Trading objects also brings into play a vital, social aspect of learning emphasized by Piaget and Vygotsky. Both Vygotsky and Piaget believed that learning and cognitive development are both made possible through social interactions, interaction, and active learning. Not only are the students working together within groups in their own class but they are also afforded the opportunity to work with a separate class. The interaction comes in to play when the traders exchange dialogue with the sellers about their product. According to the lesson plan, this dialogue should be focused on students telling other students why their product is important to have. According to the objectives of this lesson plan, the students should be able to figure out what the other group’s value and cater to that in order to trade successfully. The other groups are modeling what they want when deciding what they want to trade and what they need. It is then the job of the other groups to watch and to learn. Vygotsky believed that learning came through the internalization of signs, which in this case is the use of language. In order for the students to get other students to trade it is important that they know how to persuade and use their linguistic skills to the best of their ability.

The lesson plan set-up requires there to be a few students per blanket, which ties in the idea that in real life and in a real bizarre people are in extremely close contact with one another. Working in close contact with one another, cooperative learning begins to take place. The students who are in the same group help the others in the same group learn about what should be happening and what is taking place in the process. The student’s ZPD is also being challenged while working in groups because the groups within the class have very mixed levels within them. Along with working in close contact with others, working in such close proximity helps the students to understand supply and demand as well as competition, which are a few of the noted course objectives.

The students are given materials in order to make objects to trade. The lesson plan suggests that theater type performances are useful to Egyptian society. Teachers have the option to allow performances to be used during the trading process as well. The trading of performances helps give the students an appreciation of the arts, and understand how valuable they were in the Egyptian times as well as in today’s society. Performances also allow students to be creative while learning about a different culture and society. Through the creativity and hands on efforts, it is easier for the students to learn and understand what the Egyptian culture valued. It also allows for the students to create associations through visual and audio performances. All of this relates to the constructivist idea that a student should be allowed to bring their individual strengths and talents into a lesson.

The construction of the objects the students make to barter is an important process of learning as well. As Piaget and Vygotsky thought, hands-on equals minds-on. As the students are constructing their products, they are learning about value and cost. I think an interesting idea to incorporate into this lesson plan would be to give the students a certain amount of faux money and have them “buy” their own supplies to make their products. If this were incorporated, the idea of value would be more evident to the students; although, that idea may be a little too much for early elementary education students. Setting up prior to the time of the event also gives the students some control over how they want their event to look. It would also be important to have the students come up with ideas for the music, food, and decorations based on what they were learning about the Egyptian culture.

Since the lesson plan is directed towards early elementary education it is important to understand how the students are cognitively developing at that point. Understanding how a student is developing cognitively is important in designing a lesson plan and setting goals and objectives. During the transition a child experiences from preoperational to operational, Piaget explains that conservation is beginning to take place. When conservation begins to occur, a child’s ability to understand conservation increases. In the case of the lesson plan, conservation of resources is being learned. As are attempting to figure out what others have that they might need, they keep the things that they have that are important.

Chunking is something that the brain uses in order to make sense out of information and to keep it organized. While this lesson plan can be used to demonstrate a number of important concepts and life skills, it is specifically trying to teach economics and diversity. As the teacher begins to teach the important concepts prior to the Egyptian Market Day, the students will be getting a variety of information from within those topics. A critique I have of this lesson plan, however, is that it is not specific about what information should be taught prior to the day of the event. Also, this lesson plan does not show how the connections should be made between the different concepts that it desires to teach. I would suggest that the teacher set aside a time to have a discussion with the students about how everything fits together. This way they can help each other learn. I might also suggest that the teacher attempt to find a movie that they would enjoy that ties all of these concepts together in some way. A final suggestion would be the teacher organizing a trip for the students to a market so that way they could see how it works first-hand.

Something I feel should have been touched on in the lesson plan that was not was teaching ideas and also reinforcement methods prior to the day of the event. Egyptian Market Day is fairly easy to understand and simple to carry out, however, the teachings needed to get the students to the point of understanding the concepts or that day is the most important part of the entire unit. The Market Day is simply a culmination of that unit. Aside from this, the lesson plan does give goals and resources, but a comprehensive schedule would be incredibly beneficial for the teachers carrying this out.

Overall, this lesson plan was, in my opinion, very feasible for an early elementary education class. Besides the fact that it would be an enjoyable and memorable experience for the students, it would also teach them important concepts related to economics and diversity. The Egyptian Market Day would also allow the students to take charge of their learning and put it into practice in a practical manner. Although the lesson plan could be bettered and modified in a few ways, the main idea behind it was excellent. I would highly recommend this lesson plan.