When I look at the Molloy
lesson plan, the first I think of is its very detailed but also a little bit
excessive. I remember when I started at Molloy, I had classmates who told me to
be prepared regarding the Molloy Lesson plan. After doing my first lesson plan
last Spring in my first semester here I quickly found out how right they were.
I was originally overwhelmed when I first saw it. I never knew a lesson plan
had to require so much detail, I ended up attending the zoom workshop that
semester that showed us how to use and write up a lesson plan using the Molloy
template. The workshop definitely helped me in regard to creating and
developing my lessons in the Molloy template however I still feel stressed and
a bit overwhelmed every time I am required to do one. Generally, now, I break
it up and work on it over the course of a few days, to limit my stress and
truly be able to construct a solid lesson plan. I also have taken some relief
when talking to my colleagues in Cold Spring Harbor who assured me in my career,
I'll never have to use a template so detailed as the Molloy one to develop
lesson plans. A few of them have told me that if they had to create lesson
plans using the Molloy template, they would never been able to get anything
else done, as they would be spending all of their time developing lesson plans
around the Molloy template. Knowing that I won't have to use this template once
my graduate program is finished has eased my stress quite a bit.
An issue I have always seemed to have so far working on lesson plans
is I seem to have a habit of doing a bit of overload in my lesson plans.
I remember in my first semester
working with Dr. G, she kindly told me “Jay, you seem to have excellent skill
in developing very good unit plans”. She was a big help in showing me ways on
how to break down, and not overload to develop a standard lesson and not a
unit. However, I still have seemed to add a bit too much into my lesson plans
and seem to add too many activities and ideas into my lesson plans that end up
having them exceed a standard 40 minute lesson. In my opinion I think a major
reason why I seem to do this is because of the way I was taught in high school.
When I attended Kings Park, we had block scheduling which meant we had our
classes every other day for 80 minutes. So instead of having 8 periods a day
that were 40 minutes each, we only had 4 periods a day at 80 minutes each. I
was used to longer lessons as I only saw my teachers every other day. I think
being taught like that has influenced how I construct lesson plans as I seem to
be developing plans that expand beyond 40 minutes.
When looking at the Molloy lesson plan, the one part that I have always had issue in doing
correctly has been the instructional objective. For some reason I never seem to
do it correctly. I always seem to give an overview of what will happen in the
lesson rather than what the lesson is trying to accomplish and how it will be
done. Every time, I have submitted a lesson plan at Molloy I have always
had to correct the instructional objective. I’m hoping, I will be able to be
shown this semester how to do it properly so it is no longer an issue for me
going forward into my student teaching next semester.
Hi Jay, thank you for your post! Having completed several Molloy Lesson Plans, I agree that they can be a very long and tedious process. These lesson plans really take into account almost everything, consisting of standards, procedures, adaptations, and so many other elements that may be overlooked otherwise. As you said, the Molloy Lesson Plan is not an accurate depiction of what we should expect when developing and submitting lesson plans for our actual classrooms. However, even though we will never have to create a lesson plan to this extreme, I still value the Molloy Lesson Plan and what it has taught me. It has made me realize what teachers should consider when creating an effective lesson that meets the needs of all our learners. Making a Molloy Lesson Plan is not always the easiest task, but I am glad that Molloy's format is so structured, since it shows me exactly what I should include and what I may need to work on. For these reasons, I believe the Molloy Lesson Plan has prepared me for the future -- not in ways of what to write, but rather what to think.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to you, I also have had an issue with putting too many procedures into my lesson plans. Although I have gotten a little better, I still feel like this is an area where I can improve. I think my problem stems from wanting to show my professors that I have many ideas for how to tackle a topic. I want to show them that I can create a dynamic lesson that can engage all my students. However, after writing my procedures and going back to write the durations, I realize that some of my activities may take a longer period of time to execute effectively. With that being said, when I eventually start teaching full-time, I feel like I will no longer have this issue, since I will be creating lesson plans for my students daily and not only one Molloy Lesson Plan for my professor to critique. Looking at your side of this area of improvement, I find it interesting that you had 80-minute class periods. (This is certainly different from the typical high school schedule, and I wonder whether this would be preferred to mutliple 40-minute periods in a day.) I definitely think this is the reason why your lesson plans are longer than the usual 40 minutes. Through practice and your experiences during pre-student teaching, I am sure you will be able to create lesson plans within 40 minutes. Once again, thank you for sharing your thoughts on the Molloy Lesson Plan, and I look forward to actually teaching our own MLP's in the coming weeks.