UNIT B7: SESSION STRUCTURE
Sessions usually have three parts:
1. INTRODUCTION
2. MIDDLE OR BODY – called this because it is the main part of the session.
3. CONCLUSION
ACTIVITY B7.1: INTRODUCTIONS
Below are some aims of sessions of about 45 minutes. Choose one of these sessions, or your tutor may allocate one to you.
Write down briefly how you would introduce the session, that is what you would do or say in the first few minutes of the lesson, or what you would ask the students to do or say.
Aims
1. To help students to be able to design a dress to fit a 12 year old girl in a Solomon Islands village.
2. To help students to appreciate the need to have proper toilets in a village.
3. To help students to understand the causes of diabetes.
4. To teach students to be able to make a food safe.
5. To help students to be able to diagnose the faults in an outboard motor which will not start.
6. To teach students to be able to transplant rice.
Read summary sheet B13, Introductions.
ACTIVITY B7.2: YOUR INTRODUCTION
1. After reading the ideas on introductions, look at the introduction you planned for activity B7.1 and decide how you could improve or change it to make it better.
2. Plan introductions for the sessions you started to plan in activity B6.3.
PREPARATION OF CONTENT AND SKILLS
Before you can plan any part of the session you must make sure you know the content of the session; the knowledge, understanding, skills or attitudes you want to teach. Remember that in most RTC sessions we want students do learn how to do something, not just to learn about a topic, so skills will usually be the most important part of the content
Below are some of the sources you may use to decide on the content of your sessions.
Knowledge and understanding
One way to choose the knowledge and understanding to include in a session is to brainstorm the topic. Think about the topic and write down all the ideas as you think of them. You can record these in a list or in a branching diagram like the one below.
Skills
The best way to list the skills is to use a skills analysis like you used in activity B3.3.
Using outside sources
Some of the content of a session may come from your own notes, text books or other sources. Remember these must be adapted to the needs of your students. It is not good to teach RTC students exactly what you were taught at College, in secondary school or elsewhere, or to copy exactly what the text book says.
Your own knowledge and skill
The more familiar you are with a topic or skill the better you will teach it. This means you must practice a skill before teaching it. You must make sure you can explain notes in your own words in Pijin, not just read or copy from a book.
SELECTION OF CONTENT AND SKILLS
You will have a limited time. Select the content you think you can teach in the time available. If you are teaching a skill you must give the students time to practice it.
In selecting, always remember the aims of RTCs: to teach skills, knowledge, understanding and attitudes which students will find useful after they leave. Always ask what use the students might make of what you teach them. If no use comes to mind, you may have chosen a topic or skill that is not worth teaching.
ACTIVITY B7.3: PREPARATION OF CONTENT
For each of the topics you chose in activity B6.3 list the content you would include in the session.
This may be done by
a list
a skills analysis
a branching diagram
or a combination of these.
ACTIVITY B7.4: CHOICE OF CONTENT
A useful way of looking at the content – topic and skills – of a session, is to use
this topic / skills target shown on the diagram.
On the inside of the target is what the students MUST know or be able to do. Without this they will not understand the topic or be able to do the skill.
The middle ring is what the students SHOULD know or be able to do – useful but not essential knowledge or skills.
The outside ring is what the students COULD know or be able to do. Knowledge or skills which might be introduced as extras, or to create interest if you have time.
Look at the content you decided on for activity B7.3. For each topic or skill write down what the students
must know or be able to do;
should know or able to do;
could know or be able to do.
2. Put the content in the best order for teaching / learning.
3. Divide the content into steps or sections, each likely to take about 10 to 15 minutes of teaching / learning at the most.
4. How did you decide on the order?
Read summary sheet B14, Sequencing.
ACTIVITY B7.5: AN EXAMPLE OF SEQUENCING
1. Read the following topics and activities which might be used for teaching a practical session on sowing Chinese cabbage seeds in a nursery. Write out the list, putting the topics and activities in a sensible order for teaching. The session combines practical activity with the ‘theory’ or reasons for doing the activity. Decide which should come first: practice or theory, or should the two be combined?
2. There are 5 kinds of activities here:
Explanation (theory): E
Demonstration: D
Practical activities P
Questioning Q
Note taking N
On your list, use the letters to indicate what kind of activity each one is.
- Students mix soil for seed box. (1)
- Students water seeds and cover box. (2)
- Show how to mix soil for seed box. (3)
- Explain why we raise seeds in a nursery: (4)
o Seedlings very small
o Protect from heat and rain
o Control weeds
- Show a seedling. (5)
- Notes or handout to summarise topic. (6)
- Students fill the seed box with mixed soil. (7)
- Ask what might be the difficulty in growing seedlings. Why use a nursery? (8)
- Explain the mixture of soil suitable for a seed box. (9)
- Show how to make rows and plant seeds. (10)
- Students make rows and plant seeds. (11)
Read Summary sheet B15, Example of sequencing
ACTIVITY B7.6: FINDING OUT FOR THEMSELVES
Another important method of teaching is to encourage students to find out things for themselves, through observation or experiment, rather than telling them. The following is one example, based on a session which might be used in agriculture.
Imagine a session in which you want to explain the causes of soil erosion, or why soil gets washed away by rain. The basic concepts to be taught are:
1. Soil contains particles of rock and the remains of dead plants and animals, called humus.
2. The humus binds the particles of the soil together.
3. Heavy rain can dissolve away some of this humus. This is called leaching.
4. If this happens the soil particles are no longer bound together so they are easily washed away. This is called erosion.
Many teachers would teach this kind of topic by using notes and diagrams on the blackboard. However, it might be understood better if students go out and look at soil and try and find out as much as possible for themselves first.
Suggest a sequence for the following topics and activities. To guide you, read the ideas on sequencing in Summary sheet B14, number 3. Indicate which parts of the session would be taught outside and inside the classroom.
- Explain leaching: humus and other soluble matter is dissolved and runs out of the soil. (1)
- Explain: soil is bound together by humus. (2)
- All students collect soil samples outside. (3)
- Explain: soil is made up of small particles. (4)
- Explain: if rain hits soil without humus it will be washed away. (5)
- Students examine their soil samples and decide what is in them.(6)
- Explain: humus is the remains of dead plant and animal matter. (7)
- Students look for black colour in the soil - this may be humus. (8)
- Explain: rain water causes leaching and loss of humus. (9)
- Students look again at soil erosion: can we explain how soil is being washed away? (10)
- Students examine soil sample – are the particles bound together? (11)
- Students look at an example of soil erosion. (12)
- Notes to summarise the topic. (13)
Read summary sheet B16, Finding out for themselves.
ACTIVITY B7.7: PRACTICING A SEQUENCE
1. Carry out the above session for yourselves. One of the agriculture students should try to teach it to the group, or to a group of St. Dominic’s students while you watch. Did the sequence work? Did students find things out for themselves? Do you think this helped them to learn better?
2. A common topic taught through blackboard notes and diagrams is the digestive system of a chicken. Students can also learn this in a practical way by discovery for themselves. Can you suggest how they could do it?
3. Suggest one other topic which could be learnt through discovery. Plan a session to teach this.
METHODS OF TEACHING: MAINTAINING INTEREST AND ATTENTION
After deciding the order of presentation, you need to decide what teaching methods you will use for each part of the session - how are you going to teach it?
In unit B5 we looked at many ways of teaching. Choose from these, but remember:
- Some topics may naturally require certain methods e.g. demonstration, practicals, discussion.
- Try to choose as many methods as possible that actively involve the students.
- RTC teaching should involve the maximum amount of practical work.
- The best sessions keep students interested by being divided into short sections each using a different method.
- It is good to summarise each section of the session as you finish it, as this makes the session easier to follow.
- Methods where the students are largely passive such as lecturing, watching a demonstration, copying notes or even being questioned should not go on for
more than 10 to 15 minutes.
Many students have a short attention span. Their minds wander, and they start thinking of what they are going to do that evening! As we saw in Summary sheet A7, students’ attention decreases rapidly after the beginning of the lesson and only picks up slightly again at the end.
Many sessions have a graph of attention looking like this.
How can we change the graph?
-
An interesting introduction may motivate the students so their attention starts at a higher level.
- An activity to involve the students after 5 or 10 minutes will wake them up again.
- Doing something surprising or interesting may raise attention again
- More varied activities may help to keep attention at a high level.
- Summarising the session after each section may also increase attention.
- A final summary may raise attention at the end, so the final graph may look lie this.
ACTIVITY B7.8: CHOOSING TEACHING METHODS
ACTIVITY B7.9: CONCLUSIONS