Mentor Feedback

Lesson No.

Lesson Topic

Period

Date

Autotrophs and Photosynthesis

20/04/2015

PSTs Professional Learning Goals for this lesson

1. Further consolidating students names.
2. Effectively explaining and communicating key content to students.
3. Effective time management.

Things That Worked

Things To Improve

Another really well planned lesson, you clearly thought out the content and
divided it into manageable parts, engaging students with some YouTube clips
was also a great idea and a good break item between lots of content.

Continue to refine the amount of work students are given; sometimes we have to
do big lessons like this one - particularly in VCE, but we must ensure the rest of
the week is a consolidation of this (You have already planned to do this).

You managed the time well in this lesson and covered the items you had
planned.

Dealing with students who are not mentally prepared for class Today we had a
couple of boys who were half asleep in this lesson nothing we did in the lesson
would change this but we need to keep an eye on them for the rest of the week
and make sure they are up to date on content (same for the absent students).

Using movement and explaining concepts in detail.

OVERALL Key Feedback for this Lesson:

1. Following up with absent/mentally absent students in later lessons is important.
2. Big content lessons should be followed up with consolidation lessons.

Hannah Cole Monash University

2015 Lesson Plan Yr 11 Biology

PST Lesson Reflection

PLGs for this Lesson

Reflections on Development

1. Further consolidating
students names.

I made more of an effort this lesson to deliberately use students names so that I can learn them. And I felt like this helped. Will be
interesting to see how I go next lesson. Its a pity Ive had to keep this as a goal for so many lessons it definitely wouldve been
more ideal to have learned names earlier. However, its also a good learning point realising that it doesnt come naturally, but
effort needs to be applied. I think its also important just to have it as a goal. Although a small thing, it shows interest in the students.

2. Effectively explaining
and communicating key
content to students.

Overall I think this went really well. There was a lot of content in this lesson and we spent about 50-60 minutes going through it on
a PowerPoint. This type of lesson can be a massive drag as it means that the teacher does a lot of talking and the students do a lot
of listening. Really this is harking back to traditional education models where teachers are centralised in the education process.
However, I think lessons like this are (unfortunately) still necessary as our education system is still driven by exam results (and at
the end of the day, students want/need to memorise information only for short-term use which will get them over the assessment
line). I tried to break up the lesson with a bit of light-hearted fun some relevant YouTube clips about photosynthesis. The students
seem to like them. Throughout the PowerPoint section of the lesson I made a real conscious effort to make sure I was physically not
too removed from the students (so I didnt hide behind the teachers bench). I think the PowerPoint was logical and well-structured
and gave enough but not too much depth. I also tried to ensure the words were limited to only what was necessary to understand
the concept rather than making it too wordy.

3. Effective time
management.

Time-management went well. I didnt end up finishing the PowerPoint but the last few slides werent as important really, plus they
got a hard-copy of the slides to refer back to. Overall we got through almost everything in the lesson plan. The one thing that we
didnt get to do, which was partially time-management and partially forgetting about it, was to ask the students to tell me their one
weak area. I got them to pick one out so they could go and study up on it in their own time but I forgot to ask them what their area
was. My idea was to then let any common weaknesses guide the next lessons content.

Key Mentor Feedback

1. Following up with
absent/mentally absent
students in later lessons
is important.

Plans for Development

The three boys who were present for this lesson were only present in body not in mind! For some reason they all coincided to
have a really bad learning day. I had to ask one of them (a few times) to take his headphones out, and to ask another to put his
laptop away because he was using it for unrelated things. This variance between students was tough because I had to cater for the
girls who were concentrating and comprehending the content as well as the boys, who were disengaged and had no idea what
we were learning. I had a good chat with Sally about this after class. Her suggestion is good, that the boys all need to be followed
up in the next few lessons to make sure they dont completely lose their connection to the content. In particular, I can encourage
them to come to lunchtime Biology help, to do extra study on their own, and I can make time to sit with them during the next few
classes so that they can have some in-class support too.
Hannah Cole Monash University
2015 Lesson Plan Yr 11 Biology

2. Big content lessons

should be followed up
with consolidation
lessons.

This is a great suggestion from Sally. I will plan for tomorrows lesson to really require the students to make sense of the content we
have covered in todays class. Text-book questions dont make for an interesting lesson either (just as the main parts of todays
lesson werent very student-centred) but Im sure the questions will help the students makes links between concepts and
understand the topic more thoroughly. And really, even though the pedagogies employed are pretty poor, the overall learning
outcomes of this style of consolidation lesson are important.

v Other Reflections, Questions, Feelings

I think starting the lesson with asking the students to create a concept map was a really good way to begin the topic. It enabled me to see what their prior knowledge
entailed and also enabled them to see their prior knowledge too. Perhaps it would be good to get the students to finish the topic by drawing an updated concept
map. Im sure therell be some great differences between them! And that always gives a sense of achievement because the student can see how much they have
added to their understanding.

Hannah Cole Monash University

2015 Lesson Plan Yr 11 Biology