Jones, Jones, and Vermette (2011) study show these pitfalls novice teachers encounter (Hansen, Buczynski, & Puckett, 2015):
1) Unclear learning objectives: The teacher focuses on the subject they are teaching instead of the learning objectives.
2) No assessment of understanding: The material is taught but the instructor never assesses the students understanding of the learning objectives. 
3) Failure to administer multiple forms of assessments: Multiple forms of assessment allows the instructor to learn about each students individual needs and learning styles.

“To overcome this pitfall, consider interspersing throughout the lesson plan Wiggins and McTighe’s (2011) deconstruction of understanding into six facets: explain,interpret, apply, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge (Hansen, Buczynski, & Puckett, 2015)“.
4) Assessments don’t match the material of the lesson: For this pitfall, the instructor provides assessments but they don’t match the lesson or the learning objectives that were taught.
5) Lesson plan missing an engaging start: Just like a story a good lesson plan must have an engaging start to peak the students attention. “Failure to start the lessoneffectively leads to classroom-management issues, confusion, and off-task behaviors (Hansen, Buczynski, & Puckett, 2015“.
6) Students are passive recipients of knowledge: Students learn the best when they can control the lesson and learn in the process. 

When analyzing the beginning of Valerie’s lesson plan, I noticed she doesn’t have a hook at all. She starts out with teacher directed instruction and having the students find definitions of terms. I understand the students need to understand the terms that will be used for that lesson and she is concerned about ensuring the students achieve the objective but I feel this can be done in a different way. She could implement an activity that outlines the terms she wants them to know, or she could have a completed lab activity and explain the steps and what is happening instead of having them do definitions all day. What I would do with her lesson plan is make Monday’s research day and provide a sheet that the students can fill in to learn about the material. Then, have a class discussion on Tuesday about the material and to talk about the activity that they will be working on Wednesday and Thursday. Then, that leaves Friday for the students to present their model and for a class discussion on the finished product.

Hansen, C., Buczynski, S., & Puckett, K. (2015). Curriculum and Instruction for the 21st Century. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUEDU381.15.1/sections/title

 

 

Ronald Taylor Jr

 

The six pitfalls of a novice educator are unclear learning objective which is teachers not focused on teaching the students rather on the content of the lesson. Assessment of understanding not administered is when the teacher doesn’t know how to manage or cover content this is a teacher who may have the education but lacks the know how. Failure to collect multiple formative assessments during lessons is when the teacher doesn’t have all the information needed for a student to learn the plan. Assessment fails to match the learning objective is when the assessment of learning is wrong and the teacher is teaching the wrong instructional objective. Lesson plan lacks an engaging start, now you can have the perfect set up and if you have nothing fun or entertaining to do to engage the people it means nothing. The last pitfall is students are passive recipients of knowledge which is when teachers only use one form of teaching like lectures and the student although may learn from the lecture may aslo find it very boring.

Valerie isn’t allowing the work that she is borrowing to become her own. She is using other teachers creative ideas but doesn’t make the hers. I think that she should try to at least once do something that represents what she enjoys about being a teacher. The three areas of instruction that she is trying to do would work but she has to make it her own.