Guidelines for developing your lesson journal

What is expected in a journal written for an academic assignment?

In teaching practice today, teachers may ask their students to write journals to encourage them to reflect on an aspect or several aspects of their learning. In journals like these, writing can be fairly free and is designed to keep students thinking about the learning they are doing, rather than necessarily focussing on writing conventions and correctness. It has the effect of encouraging reflection.

The intention behind your Lesson Planning Journal (Section 2 of Assignment 2) shares some, but not all of these characteristics. You need to observe the conventions of academic writing when you present the journal, although use of the first person is not only permitted, but encouraged. Other than this, there is plenty of scope for personal response within the guidelines set out below.

In your Lesson Planning Journal, you should document these things:

1. How you went about planning your lesson

• Beliefs underlying your planning. A statement about your view of planning.
• Needs of stakeholders
• Where your lesson idea came from
• Influential reading, experience and knowledge
• Contextual constraints and facilitating factors
• Justify and explain the planning choices you have made

2. What justification there is for the choices you made in your planning?

• How the lesson fits into the rest of the course
• The content (language covered, skills learned or practised, awareness raised…) and why this is appropriate
• The choice of resources and activities
• Balance and sequence of activities
• Teacher and student roles and manner
• Management of error, input and engagement
• The degree to which the plan caters for different proficiencies and learning styles
• Assessment links, achievement of goals and objectives
• Contingency plans
• Transferability or extension

This is your chance to demonstrate topic understandings and wider readings. Make sure you use citation effectively.